Vanquish II, Bleed nipple snapped of brake calliper
Vanquish II, Bleed nipple snapped of brake calliper
Author
Discussion

AstonSteve

Original Poster:

17 posts

60 months

Friday 7th August
quotequote all
Looking for your thoughts on this issue.

I’ve had my car serviced by a main dealer, on collection they told me that one of the bleed nipples on a front brake calliper had snapped off. The car is drivable as there is no leaks, it must of snapped off while being tightened after the brake fluid change, which seems a bit odd to me.
The dealer expects me to pay them £800 to repair the calliper. I have argued with them as I think they should cover the cost, as it was them that snapped it, they don’t accept that, as they say sometimes the brake nipples do snap off. The dealer has offered to cover the cost of removing & reinstalling the calliper with me picking up most of the cost to get the snapped bleed nipple machined out.

Interested to know you guys thoughts, do you think the dealer should pick up the whole cost, on the basis it’s their liability or should I accept they’re offer to cover the cost of removing & re installing the calliper with me covering most of the cost of having the calliper repaired?


Thanks. Steve

Darranu

346 posts

248 months

Friday 7th August
quotequote all
it's not uncommon for bleed nipples to shear, generally when trying to open them due to been overtightened previously and then seizing slightly over time. When it comes to the next maintenance they fail and the garage doing the work gets the brunt of it.

There's plenty of independents who should be able to sort this for a lot less than quoted

M1AGM

5,036 posts

60 months

Saturday 8th August
quotequote all
AstonSteve said:
Looking for your thoughts on this issue.

I ve had my car serviced by a main dealer, on collection they told me that one of the bleed nipples on a front brake calliper had snapped off. The car is drivable as there is no leaks, it must of snapped off while being tightened after the brake fluid change, which seems a bit odd to me.
The dealer expects me to pay them £800 to repair the calliper. I have argued with them as I think they should cover the cost, as it was them that snapped it, they don t accept that, as they say sometimes the brake nipples do snap off. The dealer has offered to cover the cost of removing & reinstalling the calliper with me picking up most of the cost to get the snapped bleed nipple machined out.

Interested to know you guys thoughts, do you think the dealer should pick up the whole cost, on the basis it s their liability or should I accept they re offer to cover the cost of removing & re installing the calliper with me covering most of the cost of having the calliper repaired?


Thanks. Steve
I had a similar issue with a main dealer snapping my handbrake cable and then telling me to pay for it. Ended up paying for parts only but did not enjoy the experience of being told the cable snapping was my fault for never using it (despite using it every time I parked the car). Wonder if it is the same dealer?

bogie

17,027 posts

300 months

Saturday 8th August
quotequote all
I had the same happen to me on my previous Vantage and a Range Rover Sport . On the RRS it was 15 yrs old and having bi-yearly services due to low miles, so I blamed that, ended up with used refurbished caliper being fitted.

On the Vantage I had been stretching out the service intervals during Covid, had barely done 2k miles and it was probably 20 months since previous service....which was a good excuse for the dealer to blame that as obviously they undo/redo the bleed nipples yearly (dont they?)

The dealer quoted £300 for a special engineer visit to get it out but the engineer didn't succeed. I ended up paying for a new caliper, they gave me some discount on it and fitted as part of the service, but it still didn't leave a good impression, after all the car didn't go in there needing a new caliper. Made me cautious. Since then on my cars I've been slightly moving the bleed nipples myself after 6 months or so to make sure I dont get any excuses come service time.

kevin_cambs_uk

560 posts

82 months

Saturday 8th August
quotequote all
Similar
First repair cost me 100
Then had the other three fixed before they were nightmare which was 800

Kev

paulrog1

1,222 posts

169 months

Saturday 8th August
quotequote all
AstonSteve said:
Looking for your thoughts on this issue.

I ve had my car serviced by a main dealer, on collection they told me that one of the bleed nipples on a front brake calliper had snapped off. The car is drivable as there is no leaks, it must of snapped off while being tightened after the brake fluid change, which seems a bit odd to me.
The dealer expects me to pay them £800 to repair the calliper. I have argued with them as I think they should cover the cost, as it was them that snapped it, they don t accept that, as they say sometimes the brake nipples do snap off. The dealer has offered to cover the cost of removing & reinstalling the calliper with me picking up most of the cost to get the snapped bleed nipple machined out.

Interested to know you guys thoughts, do you think the dealer should pick up the whole cost, on the basis it s their liability or should I accept they re offer to cover the cost of removing & re installing the calliper with me covering most of the cost of having the calliper repaired?


Thanks. Steve
I think they probably snapped it while attempting to loosen it, the bleed nipples are terrible to undo, too much force and then you'll snap it, if they don't move you need decent penetrating fluid like plus gas or Rost off Ice.

You need to remove them all, one at a time, and put a tiny amount of silicon grease just on the threads and retighten, plus make sure all 8 are moved every year when the garage performs a brake bleed then you'll be ok.

My brake nipples were awful years ago until I did the above, plus never snapped any of mine.

cliffords

4,093 posts

51 months

Saturday 8th August
quotequote all
It's a simple caliper with no mystery. There are many independent garages that break them every day in all sorts of cars .
I would not expect more than £100 to get it out , just find a garage and have a replacement ready when you book it in.

LTP

3,051 posts

140 months

Sunday 9th August
quotequote all
AstonSteve said:
Looking for your thoughts on this issue.
Unless you already have I'd be inclined to ask them if they actually bled that particular limb of the braking system (i.e. did the nipple break off trying to open it, or when they nipped it up - I'd guess the former)
If they said they managed to open the nipple and bleed the brake but it broke on re-tightening then it's a candidate for an "easy-out", as it's recently been moved and it has a hole down the middle ready.

If it broke off trying to open it then it could be a (very careful) drill out job.