Dubious Quality Of Brake Servicing

[LAURIE MILLS]

Just had Chris, my trusty independent mechanic service the front brakes in my 97 GS300 Mk1 which I bought three weeks ago and has the worst brakes of any car I have ever owned (except perhaps my 1965 Ford Anglia 105E).

This car is highish miles at 127k, but has full Lexus history, and was last serviced in January by Lexus at a large south coast town much favoured by the Prince Regent

Brakes were juddering, and pulled to either the right or left depending on how hard you applied them (passed on MOT less than 2000 miles and 3 months ago. Amazing)

Bought some new discs (twice the price of ones for a BMW 5 Series), and got my friendly mech to strip down the front brakes. The NS caliper had one of the pistons locked absolutely solid, and on the OS one of the sliding spigots for the calipers was tightly rusted into the housing and hardly slid at all. According to my man these had been locked for years, and would have shown up in any "wheels off" check of the braking system, which should be done at every "proper" service, and which Chris does at every service (quote, "it only takes five minutes"). It does make you question the value of Main Dealer servicing

Anyway one exchange caliper, new pads, new discs, the sliding mechanism thoroughly cleaned and greased and the car now stops like it should, and I am £300 worse off. Good job I got the Lex cheap. :D

[Jolliffee]

Makes me wonder about the previous owner driving all those miles on dogy brakes; must have been braindead...