Disc Brakes

I think they do, they're on the public MOT check website too.

My commute has a 200ft descent with a 2nd gear bend at the bottom. I lose no significant speed on the descent, regardless of what speed I start at the top. ICBA to arrive at the top at 20 so as not to brake at the bottom.

Andy

Our local council vehicle maintenance depot used to do this and I used it regularly - despite it only being open during work hours on weekdays. Then the council put the maintenance out to tender and suddenly the new company started doing repairs on cars as well, which rather defeated the object of going there.

SteveW

Is that somewhere else you hardly ever go?

Depends on what you mean by 'then'. Try comparing the brakes on an old Jaguar with drum brakes against a modern one in a panic stop from top speed.

I had a pad on my Renault 20 wear down to the backing, which made for a gentle run home. There was a monitoring wire which fed an indicator, but because it was on the easiest side to run the wire, it was also on the side of the caliper which wore least. :-(

Chris

but how can the tester read up what was said before if some do not appear on the next MOT??? ....

I suppose not, I have only driven about 1.6 million miles on motorways. Th way you keep contradicting what i say I can only assume you can't drive and are an foot on accelerator foot on brake idiot.

There's a list of MOT results and advisories going back around 5 years on the history page. Which is separate from the confirmation page which merely confirms whether the vehicle has a current MOT and is taxed.

michael adams

...

NY presented the following explanation :

Mine failed last week, after I had done a pre-MOT and fixed all doubtful items. Between my setting off and arrival at the test centre it snapped a two year old rear coil spring. A clean break, no rust creating a weak spot. I changed it the same day and the later retest / pass was free

I have been using the same test centre and same tester for 30+ years. He knows he will need to look hard to find anything I might have missed.

Wonder if it would vary according to LHD or RHD? More dust etc to the brake nearest the kerb?

But chances are one caliper was partially seized if one side wore down much sooner than the other. As you get plenty of warning on the side with the indicator.

It's rather obvious you don't do your own car servicing, so very likely have no real idea how long pads etc last.

BTW, I'd suggest you try the M25 in rush hour if you think you rarely need brakes on a motorway.

Sorry, I wasn't quite clear. Both wheels were monitored, but only one pad on each.

As it seemed to me at the time, the pad on which the cylinder pressed directly had worn least. I reasoned that, without anything having seized, the mass of caliper probably acted to leave the other pad slightly more in contact with the disk when released.

I only had the car for a couple of years from new, not a lot of miles, but the first set of pads also took the disks very close to the scrapping limit. I was not particularly pleased.

Chris

Er, are you saying that when brake pads have sensor wires, only some of the pads and some of the wheels have those sensors? That makes the very big assumption that the pad with the wire happens to be the pad that wears first.

Sliding callipers are the spawn of the devil.

Should be banned :-)

On that car it was certainly the case.

Chris

I drove on the M6 passed brum in rush hour, virtually everyday for decades, the m25 is nothing. If you need to use your brakes a lot on a motorway you really aren't driving well.

Once you realise that jumping from lane to lane isn't going to get you more than a couple of hundred yards gain, if any, you can relax and smooth out the traffic flow rather than contributing to the problem.

You should try it sometime you might make a better driver and save wear on everybody's brake pads.

I try very hard to slow down on a motorway by lifting off the power rather than by braking. But on a busy motorway that's not always possible. The car in front may not drive at a constant speed and may sometimes brake for no apparent reason. If you leave enough of a gap that you can adjust your speed purely on the accelerator without hitting the car ahead, someone will pull into it, so you will definitely have to brake until you have re-created a suitable gap ahead of you.

My wife drives *closer* to the car in front in busy traffic to prevent people pulling into the gap. I prefer to increase my gap to allow slowing down on the accelerator if the car ahead doesn't keep at a constant speed, and accept that people will sometimes pull into gaps that I wouldn't consider trying to fit into. Her way may get us there a bit sooner, but my way is far less stressful because you don't have to keep braking to adjust for every speed-change of the car ahead.

My last BMW had two sensors. One front pad, one rear. Pads do generally wear fairly evenly on the same axle, assuming everything is normal. And not many would change anything other than an axle set.

Of course you can get slightly different wear rates. But assuming the sensor gives a warning before the worst one wears down to nothing, no harm done since you'll be buying a set.