Taxi Driver Online

How much do you trust the garage ?
It is impossible for brake pads to fall out, there is'nt enough clearance between caliper and disc. Even if there was, both at the same time after over a year of working perfectly ?!?!?
If the pads were never there then the calipers would have scored the disc, or you would have noticed something not right straight away.

I think rather than doing the rear brakes the garage did the front, made some sort of error and are now trying to cover it up.

Any chance somebody fitted some counterfeit brake pads? There were some dodgy ones around a few years back.

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Series 111 metrocab, about 10 years ago.

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A slight correction the brakes have been in for about six months. I have wondered about as you say (some sort of error), the problem being is that they are not going to stick their hand up on that one.

I even wondered does someone hate me that much - but to remove both wheels outside my house and just remove the outside brake pad makes no sense. The hill that I live on would be steep enough to make a mess of me and the cab by just taking both pads out on the one side, both wheels and a pad from each make no sense.

If the garage had only put one on each side i.e a mistake, it would have showed up long before now. I can only think that the garage have cocked up somewhere along the line and are covering up i.e wrong set/mismatching set.....who knows.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Sorry guys I am not trying to bore you to death on this but it is a ridiculous situation.

One final thought.

What if the discs were only fitted on the cab, on the inside only, on both wheels.......NO outside disc at all on both front wheels!

1. Because both sides are the same......is it likely that there would be no pull to one side or the other as would happen if one of the pads were worn?

2. Would the outside of the caliper actually travel the extra distance to the disc side that is empty Or would it stop just before disc contact?

The only logic that I can come up with is that an apprentice/whoever has done the job and became distracted, consequently not actually fitting a "Set" to both wheels, only singular.

The inside pads that were fitted were showing excess wear for the mileage done, this to me indicates that more pressure than usual was being used to stop the cab (I am not generally a heavy brake user), also taking into account there was more distance to the actual brake bite than usual. If the caliper travels the total distance to the disc (without any part including the metal base,and would score it) then I am out of ideas. I am thinking that it will score it with the actual pad worn out because the metal base is still there...........without the metal base would the caliper not reach the disc?

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

have new front discs and pads fitted and have the garage check the calipers/pistons arent sticking (though any competent mechanic should notice any sticking), ask for a brake test on the rollers

all after your leak is found and fixed

i fitted just pads on my front but the wear lip on the disc still caused noise on heavy braking

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I rang the AA tech department and they reckon that they have known the outside brake pads (as to what thickness I do not know) to expel themselves from the holding clips.

The remaining inside pad was very badly worn for the mileage it had been in, so I surmise that the clunk that I heard, was the right hand brake pad/remainder of brake pad chucking itself out.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I've been repairing cars,trucks and vans for over forty years,I've never seen one pad fall out let alone two on the same vehicle.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.

I am listening to advice all round - just do not know what to believe.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Did the garage fit the brakes in the first place? If so, tell them that they obviously made a balls up somewhere and to get it put right.

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Grandad,

Seen this happen a couple of times on the tx1's where the pads have worn very thin and one of them falls out thus causing the caliper pistons to hit the disc.

a piston shouldnt retract far enough for a pad to fall out, so much for a good design....


ive had shoes FU but not pads, ever

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I have tried (I think) putting every possible scenario through my mind. Without actually knowing, and having proof, then you have to be careful in what you say. The one thing that passes through my mind time and time again....is that I heard a thud/clunk coming from the right hand drivers side of the cab, as I said previously very much like when a stone/whatever kicks up. It leaves me inclined to think that they were fitted but unsure as to whether they were fitted properly, but then I discount that as there was no scoring/burn marks/melting of the discs, in fact there was none of the usual warning signs i.e the brakes squealing/crunching when they start to break down.

The irony of the original brake change is that when I asked have you/they used a certain brand that I have used in the past, it was - oh no, the ones you have on here are quality

The inside pads (that is all that was left) were absolutely shot after just over 8000 miles. I cannot say for sure what I normally get in terms of mileage, but it is certainly a lot, lot more than that.

I inquired about bleeding the brakes when they did the back brake shoes + a cylinder replacement, apparently they use some sort of suction system that draws the fluid through. Tbh I feel that an apprentice has done the work and the brakes were not bled properly, which might explain on a scale of 12", normally the brake would bite after say 3", but on this occasion it was more like a 6" braking point before the bite kicked in. I am wondering as to whether the constant abnormal pressure (On braking) (I had to be pretty firm on that one) has caused excessive wear on the brake pads, also the pressure on the caliper seals caused them to leak, penultimately blowing the seals entirely causing total loss of braking power.

Nobody seems to know the answer.

To get the job sorted I needed two new calipers @ £85 a throw + pads + fluid etc! The boss was away on hols, so there was no one to refer to and they wanted to charge me for the job Now we all know that you do not get your car/cab back from a garage (cos they got the keys) (yes I have my spares), so it was time to tell them what I had lost in takings + I already had paid for the job to be done.....so I did not see as to why I should pay again!! Well that worked and the vehicle worked over the weekend (the brakes seem to be fine). Nevertheless it is frightening to think in this day and age as to why/how brakes can fail ( as Tommy Cooper) would say "Just like that".



I guess that it must have happened more than we think.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

so maybe changing them before metal hits metal would be a good idea?

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

If its possible (even remotely) for a brake disc to be expelled from the caliper assembly then this is a massive design flaw and on a vehicle supposedly specifically designed to carry fee paying passengers even more so.

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Selling Imperial tools for old cars.