Brake Problem \ Rant

[samuri]

Ok. Today was MOT day. A MOT is like an annual inspection for your car to make sure its road worthy and that.

Travelled about 80miles to get to the garage. He then takes it away and 30mins later comes back and says it needed a Headlamp adjustment and the rear passenger side brake caliper is binding (sticking on a bit).

So up on the ramp it went and took the wheel off, where he proceded to hammer the f*** out of it. When that didnt work ( ) he checked to make sure it was sliding on the pins, which it was. He then took to the hammer again but this time with a can of grease. Then after about 30mins decieded it was ok and put the wheel back on. He said though it would probably do it again and i should think about getting a new caliper.

He then charged me £10 (say $10) for adjusting the headlamp, £40 for the MOT and then another £40 for labour (eg driving my car to the test center and banging the crap out of my calliper). With petrol and all cost me £90 ($90) for a damn piece of paper.

Ok rant over, Anyone know what could be up with the caliper? Tried adjusting the handbrake cable but made no difference.

 

[Hesus]

oi !! he took 90 pounds, man it is damn expensive

ok! there is a special caliper fix kit (with all parts you will need to fix it)! You just need to get it off ya car, then part it, clean it, and get it together, the putting it on a ya car, it should work then. Caliper is just a piece of metal

 

[samuri]

Do you know who makes this repair kit?

I went into my Honda dealer on the way home, but they dont do a repair kit for it, just sell the main caliper part and charge the earth for it.

 

[Hesus]

i really do not know how it is in the isles, but it is usually sold at a part dealer, who sell parts for all cars. you know, they sell almost everything.

here (in Latvia) you can get such an repair kit even for a `85 Audi 90.

 

[samuri]

Cool. I'll have a look in the phone book tomorrow and give a some places a ring. Its got to be cheaper than the £170 that Honda want for a new one!

 

[anfrey]

actually £90 is more than usd$90...

£90 = usd$153

 

[samuri]

This is true if you use the exchange rate.

I usually think of it though as relative to what you earn.

eg If someone in the US dong a certain job earns say $18000 a year, thats equale to £10500. But in fact the person doing the same job in the UK would be paid about the same but in GBP eg £18000.

And when i was in America last i brought some CDs which cost me about $15 each. The same CDs in the Uk cost about £15.

£1 = $1

Thats how i think about it. I just think its a more realistic comparison.

But i think its just me

 

[anfrey]

makes sense... but due to one not really knowing the cost of living of another area, the exchange rate prevails. but i see whre you're comin from. there's just great inequality in wages from country to country....

like... minimum wage here in chile is a little over usd$200/month. that's because the cost of living here in chile is extremely low, and cuz labour is cheap.

 

[Zak8022]

yea, as hesus said, there is a caliper repair kit you should be able to get at most auto places. its basically just new seals and s**t....as far as i know, it was a while ago that i helped a friend rebuild his accord caliper. shouldt be too costly or difficult.

 

[samuri]

Thats true. Id only use that approximation for the US. I havent really got that much experiance of other countries...yet.

They must be a kit advailable but the couple of places ive tried today dont do them. Theyd rather sell me the whole caliper

Got a few more to try after the weekend. Id prefer to keep the original caliper, rather than having a random one. Its a look thing

Looked into getting a second hand one but im afraid it'll do the same thing.

 

[Hesus]

if it is sold in US, it def. must be sold in UK

 

[99ExCoupe]

MOT's are just as much bullshit as Inspection Tests here