MOT failure on Brake pad thickness.

[redstu]

My trusty old e28 failed its MOT on Thursday, nothing major but one item was rear pad thickness less than 1.5 mm, they passed on braking effort but have been deemed too thin! Clearly they will need replacing soon but as the disks are still ok (no advisory) why did they fail on thickness? They quoted £130 to fix! The Pads at Eurocarparts cost £22. Is there a minimum pad thickness and how did they measure them?

It also failed on both rear fog lights not working and quoted £86 to fix, I pulled the fuses and give them a clean and hey presto working fog lights, so what were they going to charge £86 for ? New bulbs?

I was intending selling the car anyway so a failure is a bit of a pain.

I've used the same station for the previous 2 MOTS without any real issues.

So Whats their game now. Not making enough lately so trying to stitch up a few mugs?

[redstu]

If 2mm is the minimum then fair enough, I cant say if the car has a brake wear sensor on the rears, as I've not changed them.
And yes you're right I ommited to check to see if the rear fogs worked, its one of those things that so rarely get used. The E28 has a panel which warns of failure of the other lights but clearly not the fogs.
I doubt that the tester has much recent knowledge of 22 year old cars , certainly not enough to state £ and pence for "fixing" fog lights.

[redstu]

Thanks for the info.
Its a fail then as 1.5 is too thin , no problem there- I've probably always changed "in between" tests previously so not been caught.

I dont have a problem with failing on items which clearly need doing, but dont want to line the pockets of garages just out to make mugs of people. Yes the pads dont cost much and maybe £130 is fair, but I'd rather do them myself in an hour or so and save over £100, its not a difficult job.

Oh and I've also got a pushbike , now check out the cost of pads for disk brakes on those , that is crazy!

Edited by redstu on Saturday 12th September 21:40