E30 Zone

Took my bm in for its mot on Thursday morning. Knew it wasn't going to pass as it needed a small bit of welding doing that i was planning on telling them to to do after the mot. So i called them up Thursday afternoon and they tell me it failed on the welding it needs and hand brake effort on one wheel was below requirment. So i thought fair enough and seeing as i couldn't be bothered to be doing the work in this weather, told them to go ahead and do it. Phoned them at about 3 today and they said they were just about to take it down and try the handbrake then do the retest. So another 2 hours later i go down there and they have just put it in for it's retest then come out and tell me its not gonna pass cause the handbrake still isn't working! Said it worked great until they drove it into the test bay then it stopped working again!

What the fuck am i paying these monkeys for? Cost me an hours labour at least for this pricker to take the brake apart clean and put it back together and he can't even make it work for 2 hours! So anyway i thought fine i'll get it tomorrow. Nope they don't work saturday will be monday evening earliest! Raging!

But anyway, can anyone think of any reason why the handbrake would work fine then stop working again? I asked him what was wrong with it and he looked at me like i was stupid and said 'well i dunno, we'll have to take it apart again' so obviously there is nothing majorly visible although i dunno with this guy, he hasn't exactly impressed me with his mechanical knowledge.

rear disks or drums?

drums, only a 316i

I bet the brake shoe adjuster has biten the dust and slips when he trys to tension it.

I dunno, i have done handbrakes myself before and could understand if he said the cable was seized or the adjuster screwed but the fact he said 'It was working beautifully when we put it back together' then when they moved it the few meters into the test bay it's not working again. I can't understand how that happens?

Because the mechanism is put under more serious load on the rollers - doesn't excuse it though!

soon as you find yourself unimpressed by a garage, stop going to it.
refuse to pay for the labour for the brakes looking at, but pay them for the welding.
then take it else where.........

Make sure your handbrake is as good as can be, I paid the hard way!

Had exactly this problem (though I didn't pay a garage for it) when a little black clip on the adjuster had died - meant that the adjustor was loose and within a few minutes it just spun down and left a load of slack again. Really frustrating. Felt fine when you tensioned it, but just slackened off as soon as the car moved. It's a funny little design. Wish I'd kept it when I did the rear drum to disc conversion, could have just popped it in the post for you - it was brand new. Really does sound like it's that. Costs about £12 from the stealers.

Firefly2005 wrote:Had exactly this problem (though I didn't pay a garage for it) when a little black clip on the adjuster had died - meant that the adjustor was loose and within a few minutes it just spun down and left a load of slack again. Really frustrating. Felt fine when you tensioned it, but just slackened off as soon as the car moved. It's a funny little design. Wish I'd kept it when I did the rear drum to disc conversion, could have just popped it in the post for you - it was brand new. Really does sound like it's that. Costs about £12 from the stealers.

Sounds like that could well be it. I dunno though i'm just gonna leave it up to them. Surely they can't make me pay labour if they keep doing what they did today? If they do what they did today again and expect me to pay for it they have another thing coming.

Make sure your handbrake is as good as can be, I paid the hard way!

I cant pay anyway! The cunts can't make it work long enough for me to pay

I know what you mean, had the same problem with my sisters mg- 7 head gaskets later i ended up fixing the problem myself! Thing is they can legaly make you pay for the work they have carried out under instruction or they will just hold the car.

hmm maybe i should have words with them about it then. Will have to wait till monday anyway but i'm not gonna keep paying this guy labour if hes just gonna keep doing the same thing.

He sounds like a right idiot to me, steer clear of them next time, name and shame them aswell so other people dont get the same problem.