bigchez

I took my Mondeo to a guy who lives in the next street and has his own garage. I don't know him that well, but he came well recommended. All it needed was a service to keep the book stamped, and to have the handbrake adjusted as it had become very loose. This was early to mid December.

He did the service, and rang me up whilst doing so to say the front brakes needed replacing, it needed 2 new tyres and that the handbrake needed a new cable, not just adjusting. The price for all this was a fairly eye watering £500.

I got it back and was pleased with it, except the bill!

Then the front brakes started screeching. Annoying, but putting some copper slip on them is not beyond the bounds of my mechanical aptitude.

Yesterday it all took a turn for the worse when after a trip I could smell burning. It wasn't the heady scent of a knackered clutch, but I wasn't sure what it was.

Today I was driving to work, and stopped for fuel. I'd ony done ~3 miles to the petrol station, got out and again could smell burning. I did notice that the car had warmed up very quickly for 4 degrees and the distance travelled (dunno if its just mine, but its a diesel mondeo and takes a few ins to come up to temp.) I had no choice as I had to get to work, and drove off and it didn't feel right. As I stopped on a hill, I went to put on the handbrake, which was as floppy as a tired dog's mouth. It was worse than it was before. It's well over half the entire travel now before it even does anything, and even then won't hold the weight of the car on even the shallowest of inclines.

It was obvious to me that for whatever reason it is now binding on when driving, but very ineffective when you want it to be.

I called the mechanic, and said I want him to take another look. Give him his due, he said drop it round tonight (which I will in a min) and he will take it for a look tomorrow. However he did diagnose a binding caliper over the phone...... rather than him making a balls up.

As far as I'm concerned, he did a major service on the car less than a month ago, which SPECIFICALLY included me paying for a new handbrake cable to be fitted and correctly adjusted. As such I do not want to be paying for remedial work to my car.

Anyone agree/disagree with this?

lardypants

sounds like the drums need to come off mate and inspected

vroooom ptssssh

Im assuming it's discs at the back? as if the handbrake isnt right and he diagnosed a binding caliper?

Karl 3dr

iTrader: (9)

It sounds like the rear calipers are sticking mate, very common on Mondeo's

bigchez

Yeah, its discs on the back.

If the calipers are sticking and there's nowt wrong with the handbrake, how much roughly am I looking at?