Oh oh brake trouble

Dubh Geannain

I brought the gfs' car (02 VW Polo) in for its NCT yesterday and it failed on visual defects. On of the problems on the report was that the handbrake travelled excessively.

I fixed the other minor things myself and today brought the car to a mechanic who tightened up the hand-brake cable for me. So the car passes when I go back to the test centre. But...

On the way over to the re-test the actual brakes began to become alot less responsive. The car was taking alot longer of a distance to slow down and I was pushing the pedal much further than would usually have been the case. It gave me a fair fright tbh.

When I got to the centre, the smell when I got out of the car was dreadful. I still got it checked anyway (after the smell has dissipated somewhat) and like I said, it passed.

On the way back to work they worked fine again.

Any ideas? Should I just get the handbrake loosened again?

Dubh Geannain

Okay, I've loosened the handbrake cable again, now that it's passed anyway. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I noticed that the rim of the left back wheel was getting quite hot too after just doing a couple of miles.

The effect of tightening the cable in the first place must have meant that even with the hand-brake down it wasn't fully dis-engaged.

That explains the smell anyway. Still not sure why the foot brakes were effected the way they were. Cheers for the replies

ARGINITE

May be the brake fluid boiled, this can cause that effect.

-Chris-

If brake pads heat up excessively you'll get brake fade which gives a reduction in braking performance.

That's pretty sloppy work by your mechanic. I'd be having a word about that.
I'd also get them to check the pads themselves to make sure they haven't become negatively affected by overheating.

peasant

The sticking handbrake heated up your brakes which caused

a) the smell
b) your brake fluid to come to boiling point, releasing gas, which made your brake pedal travel further as air/gas can be compressed whereas cold brake fluid can't

Now get a nice big baseball bat and have a not so quiet word with your idiot mechanic to change the brake fluid free of charge and set up everything properly.

That man put your life at risk ...leave him in no doubt about that

Dubh Geannain

Good feic!! The guys a chancer. I'd been singing his praises earlier cos he didn't charge for the handbrake tightening.

I actually rang him from the test centre and told him about it. He told me to "pump them" and they'd be fine. The brake fluid isn't the only thing that's boiled now :mad:

I should have a few nasty words with him but I couldn't be arsed with a big dirty confrontation before Valentines (which happens to be the anniversary too).

I'll have a look at the brake fluid myself.