Pre MOT check - bad news :-(

[sean f]

thanks,

what could "Damp brake backplate on rear brakes" be caused by?

Depends on what it is damp with!.

If it is brake fluid then the wheel cylinder is leaking (I assume this is a drum braked axle). Not a big job to change one and by changing the brake pipe you will be doing most of the work any way.

If it is EP90 gear oil then it is probable the oil seal in the back of the hub, again not a big job to change, and neads to be done as it often leaks onto the brake shoes, oil and brakes don't mix well!.

One thing to add to your list of bits from Paddocks is the Haynes manual if you don't already have one and give it a read before starting work.

Items like wheel bearings and brakes are safety critical and need to be done right, its not rocket science and common sence will see you through most of it along with items from the tech section. If you are not sure about bits its worth getting some one round just to have a look and confirm it is correct just for peace of mind if nothing else.

Not my part of the country but I expect there are people on here willing to stand around a confirm you are doing things right if you provide beer for them whilst they do it!.

[GBMUD]

You can have the MOT done upto a month before the old one expires, so if it fails you still have 4 weeks to get it sorted.

This system works well for me.

I once heard of a guy who had his car MOT'd every 6 months on the basis that if it were to fail on anything major/expensive he could still sell the car for a good price with 6 months MOT.

Chris

[LandyManLuke]

We charge £65 hour + vat for labour.

Crikey!!!! You've reminded me why i don't go near garages!

That ups my 'it's cheaper to buy the tools and do it myself' budget quite considerably!

[Aragorn]

pat_pending: those are the maximum charges and allowances by law, yes

however a decent garage will extend these quite a bit usually

My local garage/MOT centre charges £35 for the MOT itself, and will give a free retest if the car is returned within two weeks with the repairs completed. I've also had him tell me to take the car away and bring it back a third time as one of the faults wasnt quite gone and didnt charge anything extra either.

You need to find a good garage that charges reasonable money and doesnt try to rip you off, and build up a rapport with them.

The place thats quoted sam a grand for that work should be avoided at all costs imo. I wouldnt be taking the vehicle (or any future vehicle) back there for an MOT or any other work as they're clearly ripoff merchants who dont deserve your hard earned!

[sgnas]

The place thats quoted sam a grand for that work should be avoided at all costs imo. I wouldnt be taking the vehicle (or any future vehicle) back there for an MOT or any other work as they're clearly ripoff merchants who dont deserve your hard earned!

looking at the "recomended" list .

For a commercial garage:-

That's £200 quid of parts

and a full days labour.

Changing the discs and doing the radius arm bushes may not be difficult but it is time consuming and at a garage you pay per hour not how difficult it is (you will however get the lowest grade of monkey for this job).

I know how long it takes as I had to do both (and weld a new crossmember on) for the ticket this year, and still got it back to the test centre in the 10 WORKING days (god bless bank hols).

For the "parts" cost you'll probably need to add on a few new "tools" as well:

Circlip pliers (for getting the circlip off the splines)

24mm (I think!) deep socket (for the radius arm bolts)

matching ring spanner for above (size doesn't come with cheap sets)

30mm socket (for the radius arm nuts)

600mm breaker bar (for the above sockets!)

Hub spanner (for the hubs, d'uh)

etc

Overall, time consuming but very satisfying for a diy mechanic.

[freeagent]

I'd say do it yourself.

Rebuilding the rear hubs/ changing wheel cylinders isn't too bad.

You can do the radius arm bushes at home of you cut/ burn the old ones out then fit polybushes.

one word of caution... be wary of cheap parts, i wouldn't get bushes, seals or bearings from Paddocks unless i was certain they were not Britpart rubbish...

try your local Bearmach... or Almakes stockist.. much better than Britpart.

[FridgeFreezer]

Just priced up the parts, everything excluding the brake pipe is £156 from paddocks which is ok.

The brake pipe you can buy copper/nickel pipe by the metre from most auto factors, and fittings to go with. Then you need a flaring tool (£30 for a half decent kit).

Given that you're looking at an £800 bill at the garage, and haven't managed to spend £200 on parts yet, splashing out another £100 or so on a few good tools will make your life much easier, and also mean that next time you'll have an even easier and cheaper time of it. Money spent on tools is never wasted.

I prefer the white genuine parts book (£25-ish) to the Haynes manual as it has an exploded diagram of every single part, it also makes ordering the correct replacement parts much easier.

Agree you should avoid britpart stuff like the plague with added aids - always ask Paddocks for genuine or some decent brand. Seals, bearings, and critical engine bits like water pumps I only ever buy genuine as the cheap stuff nearly always fails in 5 minutes.

[Sam Coombes]

ok, i really missed driving the girl, so took her straight in for the MOT this morning.

I managed to change the rear shock, front discs and pads at the weekend.

I asked them to do the rear brake pipe first as i knew it may fail on this.

Anyway, £70 later and it's passed :-)

£50 for MOT, £20 for the brake pipe. Not bad I thought.

Only advisory given was "Nearside front upper steering pivot point has slight play - 2.2.B.1g) - any idea how I can fix this? The mechanic said I can adjust it.

Thanks!

[daveturnbull]

That'll be your top swivel pin. It should have a selection of shims of which you can remove some to make it a tighter fit. When you undo the bolts, make sure you have the hub supported on a jack as it will try to fall off the swivel and spill oil everywhere.

[Sam Coombes]

hmmm, ok - sure that would make sense if I see it - thanks Dave ;-)

[Eightpot]

Jack wheel up

take wheel off

on top of the hub behond the brake disk you'll see a lozenge/oval shape lump of iron held down with two bolts - one of the bolts should be retaining a brake pipe bracket.

remove the two bolts, and making sure the hub is supported, lift the lozenge shaped bit up and out. There should be a few thin metal shims packed under it - remove the thinnest, replace the rest and bolt everything back together.

If there is still movement when you rock the hub from 6-12 oclock then you need to take another shim out. If there are no more shims you need to do a bit more work.

You should really do it properly with a spring balance and set the pre-load correctly or the steering can be terrible - there's a thread in the tech archive somewhere which covers this process in detail with photos which will help - think it's under a thread on rebuilding swivels or replacing bearings, a quick search on setting preload should find it. Worth doing it properly as it's quite a quick job when you know what to do.