MOT advisory - Brake inbalance

[Jop]

A car i'm looking at buying has the following advisory on the most recent MOT:

Front brakes only just met the front brake imbalance requirements. It would appear that the braking system requires adjustment or repair

The seller reckons it just needs new discs / pads although I've taken this with a pinch of salt... The brakes feel fine at the moment but is this something that's likely to cost me a lot of money in the near future?

 

[NWhiteley]

It could be something simple like a pad stuck in the carrier, a caliper slide sticking, the friction materials could be worn, a flexy hose collapsing inside or it could be the caliper piston is beginging to seize.

First thing to do is to clean everything up and put copper grease on the moving parts, NOT on the pad friction surface though, and see if the piston moves out easily when lightly pressing the brake pedal and then goes back in slightly when the pedal is released.

 

[Jop]

OK, cheers. Not so easy to do though on a test drive!

I'm tempted to get the car anyway, drove better than any of the others I've looked at.

 

[Slimy]

Yup, what he said. It does sound like they just need a bit of attention. Replacement pads and discs doesn't normally fix a brake imbalance, however if the imbalance has been there for a while you might notice one side more worn than the other.

I tend to give my calipers a good scrub with a wire brush to get rid of all the crud that's built up (avoiding the piston and the seal), then copper grease on all edges and surfaces where the pads sit. While you're there, check the brake lines for any obvious signs of damage or wear.

 

[Slimy]

Ah, I'd not noticed that it isn't your car yet! If that is all that you're worried about, I reckon you should go for it. Even in the worst case it's not expensive to sort.

 

[Jop]

Even in the worst case it's not expensive to sort.

That's what I like to hear!

Now if only it wasn't Onvi Yellow (and 3 shades of)

 

[PlymLeon]

My old car had an advisory about the front brakes being slightly out of balance before. The tester told me to find a quiet road and slam the brakes on a couple times to sort it so it was probably just a bit sticky. A caliper on my leon is slightly sticky so i have gotta slam the brake pedal a few times every now and then when i stop to tighten the handbrake before i put it on

 

[Slimy]

My old car had an advisory about the front brakes being slightly out of balance before. The tester told me to find a quiet road and slam the brakes on a couple times to sort it so it was probably just a bit sticky. A caliper on my leon is slightly sticky so i have gotta slam the brake pedal a few times every now and then when i stop to tighten the handbrake before i put it on

Ah, the good old italian brake fix, strongly associated with the italian tuneup!

 

[ManOnTheMoor]

Mine just failed mot with this (didn't get time to check properly before but felt ok) figured caliper/sliders needed a clean and return for MOT. Cleaned passenger side, filed rough edges from disk, copper slipped sliders (though inner pad was 1/3 thickness of the outer pad. Upon pulling driver side apart inner pad was 1mm thick and about to fall apart, despite outer pad having loads left.

So on went new disks and pads, bled front and master cylinder with ezebleed and passed with flying colours.

I painted disk centres black so took a little longer to prep but fitting and bleeding took less than two hours including dodging the rain.

Moral of the story is not to believe pad thickness to be be same int the caliper (ATE) when doing a quick visual check as both outer pads on mine had at least 5mm left but inners wer shot

not expensive to do either

 

[Jop]

Not expensive = good

 

[UFO Yellow]

That's what I like to hear!

Now if only it wasn't Onvi Yellow (and 3 shades of)

My OVNI yellow's 5 tone yellow.

 

[Jop]

I've already been called up on the OVNI / ONVI thing already tonight! I won't do it again