Should Have Gone To Toyota

[Nick Tulett]

In January the "Brake Wear" alert appeared on my 98 MkIV and I took it into a garage local to work (Reigate) thinking pads wouldn't be a hard job. When he'd finished the alert was still showing because he was "waiting for the part". A week later it went back in and the alert was gone so I thought no more about it.

In June, at a particularly involving stage of my wife's pregnancy I took it to a garage local to home (Aldershot at the time) to have the front discs and pads replaced. From the minute I drove the car away, the brakes were screeching like nobody's business. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed the pads would wear in. 2 weeks later I took it back to complain about the noise, they cleaned the brake dust out and I drove away in silence. For about 10 minutes. A month later I couldn't take it any more and returned it to the garage and asked them to please check that the brakes had been re-assembled properly - including the shims, etc. They couldn't find anything wrong but ground the edges off the pads to see if that would make any difference. It did. For about 20 minutes.

I put up with it for a few more weeks but once the baby and house move were over and done with, it became more and more annoying so yesterday I took it into Abbey Toyota in Redhill. Here's what they found:

1. NSR Shim missing
   
2. NSF Pad upside down
   
3. NSF Disc retaining screw missing
   
4. OSR Brake wear detector disconnected
   

It should have been obvious but next time I'll swallow the slightly higher Toyota labour costs to avoid the frustration and wasted time from going to bleedin cowboys. :tsktsk:

[steve2006]

You should report the garage that did the bodged repairs given that brakes are a major safety item, do they do MOTS? if so organise a visit from VOSA.

I generally try and do my own maintainance but made the mistake once of buying cheap pads and did I know it, squeel and more brake dust than a coal fire makes soot,replaced with genuine Toyota and both problems gone!

[Chris.S]

A Toyota dealer wont carry parts in for a Lexus unless they have a Lexus centre