Getting brakes balanced in cork or limerick?

franktheplank

My car has failed the NCT (and a retest) because of braking imbalances.

My local mechanic is great but he's a small operation and doesn't have the equipment to measure them accurately to adjust.

Anyone know where i can go in Cork or Limerick to get them set that won't cost a fortune.

Also, I was chatting to a guy in the NCT centre and he said that smaller hatchback cars are more prone to these failures, as they have less weight at the back, the rear brakes are far more sensitive to imbalance, this true?

It could be any number of things but any decent garage should be able to identify the fault and sort it, you don't need to equipment to measure braking force to know that something's wrong or that it's fixed

Car in the family failed the NCT on front brake imbalance and a frayed brake hose, the pads were well worn too, two new brake hoses, new pads and new brake fluid and all sorted

You should really let your mechanic have a look, you'll be surprised no doubt me thinks as he should be more than able to sort it.

Bejubby

If a mechanic can't fix brakes he should call it a day.
What car and type of brakes do you have( disc or drum)
Which end of the car failed ?

franktheplank

Mechanic is usually brilliant, very thorough.

It's the rear brakes that are failing. The overall braking is passing the test, it's just the imbalance that it's failing on.

The mechanic has looked through it and says there's nothing major wrong he just can't get the adjustments right.

It's a 2001 Toyota Yaris, so I think the rear brakes are disc.

kerten

franktheplank wrote: »

It's a 2001 Toyota Yaris, so I think the rear brakes are disc.

My 99 Yaris has drums at the rear. I doubt yours has discs unless it is a rare sport version/import (which I don't know if they have discs or not.)

franktheplank

kerten wrote: »

My 99 Yaris has drums at the rear. I doubt yours has discs unless it is a rare sport version/import (which I don't know if they have discs or not.)

Cheers we'll go with drum brakes so!

nct tester

franktheplank wrote: »

Cheers we'll go with drum brakes so!

drums on the back unless its an rs vitz or something. should be easily sorted. through up the readings for the rear brakes and handbrake.

dgt

Don't handbrake cables sag with age on the yaris? Might be worth looking at that 1st

nct tester

sag or stretch??

dgt

nct tester wrote: »

sag or stretch??

Stretch. Bad wording on my part

nct tester

to be honest yaris cars dont fail the nct very often, they're pretty bomb proof, ive never seen one come in with new cables fitted so not sure if that's be the cause.

dgt

I was right, see here OP

franktheplank

nct tester wrote: »

drums on the back unless its an rs vitz or something. should be easily sorted. through up the readings for the rear brakes and handbrake.

I can't find the readings from tests 1 & 2 but here's test 3:

Rear axle Brake effort: Nearside 1.100kN Offside 1.720kN
Rear axle Ovality: Nearside 16% Offside 5%
Rear axle Imbalance 36% (Above 30% is a fail)

Service Brake effort: 84%

Parking Brake effort: Nearside 0.540kN Offside 1.640kN Imbalance 67%

Parking Brake effort: 22%

So where do i go from here? I need to get it into a garage pretty soon as the next retest is in a week. Should i take it back to the same guy or can somebody recommend a place in cork or limerick?

And here's the result from test 4:

Rear axle Brake effort: Nearside 0.970kN Offside 1.980kN
Rear axle Ovality: Nearside 16% Offside 7%
Rear axle Imbalance 51%

Service Brake effort: 79%

Parking Brake passes nearside and offside are 1.270kN and brake effort is 26%

JohnBoy26

Hi i am new to boards so excuse me if i get a few things wrong in my first post

I had the same issue with a 99 Toyota Corolla and it was the equalizer valve that was causing the problem. This can be found in the engine bay behind the engine on the bulkhead and is a common issue on some high milage Toyotas of this age.

It is more than likely the cause of your problem if your mechanic found nothing else wrong with your brakes.

JohnBoy26

RoverJames wrote: »

It could be any number of things but any decent garage should be able to identify the fault and sort it, you don't need to equipment to measure braking force to know that something's wrong or that it's fixed

This is true in some cases but in other cases like mine it's not as I was unaware of any problems with my brakes until it failed the NCT on a rear brake imbalance. The brakes felt fine and I visually checked them over before the NCT and they were fine. It was only on the rolling road in the NCT that the problem was highlighted. In the end it was an equalizer valve that was the issue. This issue was difficult to diagnose because the problem is it wears internally and is a sealed unit. Even after this was replaced and the imbalance was sorted my brakes still felt exactly the same as before so sometimes you do need special equipment.

franktheplank

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Hi i am new to boards so excuse me if i get a few things wrong in my first post

I had the same issue with a 99 Toyota Corolla and it was the equalizer valve that was causing the problem. This can be found in the engine bay behind the engine on the bulkhead and is a common issue on some high milage Toyotas of this age.

It is more than likely the cause of your problem if your mechanic found nothing else wrong with your brakes.

This was suggested initially by the mechanic and the NCT guy but then they felt it wasn't the problem as on an earlier test there was a big improvement.

But looking at it now it might still be the problem. Of course they're an expensive part and hard to find second hand. The mechanic says there's a number of different equalization valves on Yaris's from this year, which would make getting one second hand a nightmare plus they he makes out it would be very difficult to fit as the area around it is a bit corroded.

Anyone got any advice? Should I be looking for an equalization valve. The car was parked up for about a year recently would that make it more prone to a particular problem?