My daughter just got her sei back from the MOT and was very depressed.

It didn't appear to me to be too bad, but now I have tackled the problem I can see that it is not going too well.

1st problem is that the o/s front brakes were not working and causing the n/s froint to skid.


I had only replaced the pads about 5 months ago and when I dismantled the brakes on the n/s 1 pad was almost worn to the metal and the other was still brand new (on that side the disc was corroding because the pad was not actually pressing on it). I have replaced the pads and checked that both the caliper and the piston are moving freely. But! The n/s still skids when the brakes are applied heavily. Whether this will improve as the pads bed in I don't know.

Any suggestions would be ideal

Problem 2
The car had 12% efficency on the handbrake and apparently needs 16%. I dismantled one side at the rear and noticed that the the linkeage that passed through the backplate was seized solid, I freed this up (guess it will be better to replace at some stage) and my daughter tells me the handbrake is better, it actually stop the car on a hill which it never did before. The rain and dark defeated me when it came to the 2nd side, so tomorrow I will tackle that.

Do you think that freeing up this linkage will solve the problem, it seems a very hard thing to check without the MOT brake testing equipment.

Thanks

freeing up the linkeages and adjusting the cable should help with the hanbrake.if you get it adjusted nicely it should come on tight at a bout 3 clicks.

if the pistons moving freely on both then maybe you have a collapsed flexi pipe?
think the problem is with the O/S and the N/S is doing all the braking

The brakes are linked diagonally so make sure both rears are properly adjusted to get the fronts working.

Cheers

D