Rear Breaks Unbalanced

HoboDan

Hi, maybe someone mechanically minded can help with this. Put the car through the NCT yesterday fearing the worst but flew through everything apart from the rear breaks. It says the rear brakes are unbalanced by 50%, 30% is the allowable limit. Anyone know if this is a big or expensive job to fix??

mickdw

should not be too much. I would get the brakes checked each side to see that they are not siezed and all is well. Then depending on type of car, there will be a simple method of adjustment from side to side.
Often, mechanics will just tighten the handbrake cable so it seems like all is well but this has no affect on imbalance obviously

HoboDan

Thanks Mick, I got the breaks replaced aboout 6 weeks ago and also had to get rear wheel bearings replaced. Could it have been something the mechanic did? Also the underside of the engine is covered in oil according to the NCT guy, said it wasnt a problem but should get it cleaned? Any ideas how?

bladebrew

my car failed on the same thing,im not sure if it is the exact same problem that you have but it was caused by a leak from a cylinder in one of the rear brakes,i think it was around €100 to fix,
although when it was repaired and i brought it back to be retested it only passed by a few %, im not sure if this is normal

mickdw

HoboDan wrote: »

Thanks Mick, I got the breaks replaced aboout 6 weeks ago and also had to get rear wheel bearings replaced. Could it have been something the mechanic did? Also the underside of the engine is covered in oil according to the NCT guy, said it wasnt a problem but should get it cleaned? Any ideas how?

Could have been. Has your car rear disc brakes or drum brakes. Is it the handbrake that failed or the actual test of the rear brakes as applied by the foot pedal... Im assuming they do both. Some cars have rear disc brakes with a small brake shoe internally operating the handbrake completely independant of the foot applied brake. What type of car is it?

HoboDan

Mick, as far as I know it has drums at the back. Its a Daewoo Lanos 1999. The hand brake was fine passed no problem but its the rear axel brakes that are unbalanced

Hal1

Could it be incorrectly adjusted brake shoes? or the drum itself, is it badly scored on the inside? Maybe bring it back to the mechanic and get him to follow up on these things if your not comfortable doing so yourself.

the merchant

Hal1 wrote: »

Could it be incorrectly adjusted brake shoes? or the drum itself, is it badly scored on the inside? Maybe bring it back to the mechanic and get him to follow up on these things if your not comfortable doing so yourself.

+1 defo adjustment.