I took my spider to my local garage today for a mot which is not due untill the middle of march. But i thought i would get in early just incase something was not right. Well they said all was ok apart from a front light adjustment which they did free of charge which was nice i thought. But then the bomb shell came saying that the rear breaks are not locking up properly when the hand break is applyed. So they need to strip down and investigate which will be £70 labour. And if stripping them down and refitting them back together does not make any differance they say i may need to replace the calipers and the pads. I wondered if anyone here knew where i may be able to find some new calipers from as i will let them tell me whats wronge and take it away and do it myself or find someone who will be half the price. But speed will be the thing as i will have to get it back there asap for the re test. Anyway what will be will be just if anyone on here knows of a parts place i can look up i would be most happy.
Thats a common failure , most people replace the discs and pads and get a pass, buypartsby do rear discs for about a tenner and not much more for a set of pads, cant garantee its not ur calipers that are completely U/S but as i say a lot of owners do as I have said above, i have had the buypartsby discs and pads and they are good despite the ridiculously cheap price!
Must be something in the air as that's what mine failed on too (see my post below), though my garage quoted £95 for the work, which i'm attempting myself though they didn't mention the possibility of needing new calipers and pads
I think and I could be wrong, but underneath the handbrake cover or centre console is a bolt which is attached to the cable and probably needs adjusting, but you must do this with the back of the car jacked up, car in reverse gear and the handbrake lever off. Also if I was you check the thickness of the discs and pads and if in doubt about the condition of the caliper give it a good spray with brake cleaner with the discs and pads off and smear some copper grease into the piston and just keep lubing it and pumping the brakes so that the grease works into the piston.
Its worth a go and may save you some money good luck
Thanks for the advice guy's. I know the car has only done about 600 miles with the new disc's and pads which are on the rear. As clive did these before i brought it. By looking back at the old mot it failed on this last year and also thats how i know its only done 600 miles since. I dont know but i expect the disc's and pads where done to get it mot'd last year. Only clive could tell me if this was the case..
Well, if it's only done 600 miles since the last MOT, the problem has been caused by just sitting and not being used. It's probably a bit siezed up. I would think a good clean up will do the trick, unless the piston in the caliper has had it.
New's from the garage today they have stripped down the rear breaks and replacing pads tomorrow to see if that works. So hopefully no need for new calipers. Watch this space.
Hi all, I collected the car last night from the garage had new pads fitted and it passed but only just. They said it failed the mot because the handbreak was only holding 16% and now the pads are changed it's only holding 19%.Thay said the calipers need changing and have got some prices at £200 each on a sale and return basis ie where they remove the old send them off and get retured reconditioned. They said this takes 5 working days to do. I reckon that they would have done this if it did not take 5 days to do. They did not tell me the labour costs. Well i took it for a good drive last night and as i put it in the garage i thought i would check the oil as i pulled the boonet catch it came off in my hand. So i spent half an hour fixing it last night bloody garage's. And to top it off i said could they give me a cost for replacing the cam belt tensioners and water pump and they said that they would not wont to do it. I think they are running scared. I was only asking for a price as i need to get some costs to compare as i wont it doing very soon.
Is that wont or want, just wondered, saw a list recently with frow at the top, it took me a while to realise it was meant to be Throw.
Do these forums have any gadgets for automatically correcting spelling blunders?
Have a word with some of the folks on this forum that are braking cars at the moment. You should be able to get a pair of used callipers for well under £100, and it's an easy swap. Did the garage say anything about the handbrake cable? Has it stretched or started fraying?
I think its not adjusted properly take it to a Alfa specialist and ask there opinion.
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