A month or so ago whilst we were holidaying in Somerset my wife and I begun to hear a ominous grating sound coming from the passenger side rear wheel when we were going slowly or braking. When I checked the rear pads I found that they were ground all the way down and were grinding into the brake discs. It cost around £170 for new discs and pads – ouch! (This was a another reason for starting this blog)

When I bought the car I noted from receipts that it had had new discs and pads around seven months before so I didn’t really worry about the brakes. With steel wheels and hub caps you can’t really tell that easily. Also I didn’t have that chance to check properly before I left.

So today I decided to check the front pads. On my course we have changed the pads so I wanted to check that they were okay and change them if necessary rather than they go the way of the rears. With the drivers side front wheel taken off I found that the pads were thicker than their backings which is the rule of thumb that my teacher works on.

The brake pad visible from the front. As you can see the pad is thicker than the backing.

This the other pad of the sliding caliper which also seems fine for the time being.

I will check them again and maybe replace them before the MOT in June.

With the wheel off I decided to have a look at the hub, suspension and the rest of the brake mechanism. Although it looks pretty dirty and the hubs are a bit flaky everything seems attached together with no leaks or perished bushes etc. I still plan to look again with a manual for reference but as time was short it was enough to know everything seemed okay for now.

I also managed to see the pads through the holes in the wheels on the other wheel and that was also thicker than their backings.

Whilst the car was jacked up I had a quick look underneath the car. I couldn’t see any leaks or anything that looked out of place but saying that I could easily have missed something as I didn’t have a torch and lack the knowledge to know for definate. I could tell the oil filter looked knackered and the leak from the battery or whatever could be seem over what I think is the gearbox.

So I really must get the oil and filter changed and get the engine bay cleaned ASAP.

I do feel better for checking the brakes even though it took a good while to jack up the car as I was a bit cautious. Next time I will be quciker.

P.S. I also remembered to tighten the wheel nuts with a torque wrench to 85 Nm.