Front N/S brake grinding

[dougie212]

Well.. Disaster has struck......:( Wife was driving the car this morning and heard a clunking sound from the front n/s and the grinding noise is at its worst, with barely any resistance on the brakes now... Im guessing a pad has dropped out, as one of the retaining clips was on its way when I looked the other day....... Looks like I'll have to be getting it booked in to a garage now :( gutted

[Anton]

Wow, you don't hear of things like that often, and just like a bus two turn up at once!

Donkeychomp's brake misadventures

[dougie212]

:( :( right... garage have just quoted me £746.....

Apparently thats for new brake hose,caliper (a specialist part) pads and discs.............

Im at the end of my teather now. They've said that the caliper will have been ground down as the pad dropped out and the heat may have altered the make up of the caliper ... Is there a cheaper option or should I look to sell the darn thing?

[Ladaman]

Well I'd tell them fcuk right off!!

Can you get some pics of the offending brake up?

Worst case I can see is new discs and pads.

It might just be as Donkeychomps, and the disc is worn, plus the pads, so allowing a pad to fall out (piss poor design if that can actually happen).

[RickUK]

Of course a main dealer will charge you top dollar,check on Ebay and i am almost certain you will find all the new parts at a fraction of the price the garage would charge you,its a massive shock to the system when you get a quote like that but it can be done far far cheaper than that.

[dougie212]

gents... thank you for your words.. I must admit... it bought a tear to my eye.... the chap has said I'll need a new caliper as it will have grinder down when hitting the disc.. my wife only drove a mile once hearing the pad drop out at low speed. He said the caliper would be "out of balance"
They also said a new hose was needed as the hose would have been affected by the heat...
I will try and get some pictures of the brake.. the wheel is on at the moment.

[Darrell]

Lets assume it needs said parts
Had a quick look on brakesinternational
Hose £20
Caliper (recon) £50
Discs £21 each
Pads £20

I think someones taking the piss.. Forgetting the main stealers a regular local garage should be charging less than half that quote.

[dougie212]

well... a hose alone was £110... (I'm assuming they put labour on their part prices). A caliper was over £300 because apparently its special order...
Is the hose a massive problem to change? Only issue I have is I need it doing asap as my wife uses the car for her business.. I'm confident to get the pads and discs changed, caliper, i guess the hose unscrews from that... ? correct me if Im wrong.. Ive just never changed a hose....

[Anton]

What's wrong with the hose? Other than that robbing twit wanting to empty your wallet, I mean.

Unless your current hose is damaged, I really really can't see why he wants to replace it.

I seriously doubt it was damaged during the mile in which the pad was missing - it's bolted into the caliper body which is bolted to the suspension. The pad falling out can't cause any of these components to be damaged.

I'm therefore seriously doubting anything this guy says.

Maybe all the bits he says need replacing actually do need replacing. I haven't seen them. But it sounds like a complete con to me.

I suspect that you actually only need new pads and discs. Get a second opinion! You are definitely being conned.

[dougie212]

He said the heat transferred through the caliper could cause the hose to collapse. For piece of mind, I might change the caliper, but Im just going to do it myself... New pads and discs both sides for as much as they wanted for a set of pads.

Does a caliper from Brakes International come complete and ready to go?