worried!

[charlie c]

i recently had work carried out on my car and a mot. i took the car to a specialist garage recommended by a forum web site.

 

the short story is parts need to be replaced on the suspension which involved removing the brake callipers. picked the car up and all seemed fine for a few days.

 

then one day got into the car to find i had no brakes! i had a look underneath and spotted fluid leaking. on further inspection there was brake fluid leaking so i decided to take the wheel off to have a look.

 

to my horror i found the calliper had come off the disk shearing the brake pipes and wrapped around the suspension arm. on closer inspection there where no securing bolts which where supposed to hold the calliper to the hub assembly. all i can assume is they put them in but not tightened them and had come out.

 

thankfully i wasnt travelling down the motorway or i might not be writting this email!

 

the garage has picked up the car to make good. am i within my rights to ask for my money back as some form of compensation at least or should i pursue the matter further due to what might have happened?

 

thanks for listening and look forward to some suggestions.

[Conniff]

Are you out of pocket over the incident?

[paul self builder]

In theory, the brake fluid level warning light would come on well before you loose all braking capabilities as its operated off a float in the fluid chamber.

With regards to the caliper bolts.... they should nearly always be re-fitted using a thread sealant or some form of mechanical locking pins to prevent them working loose due to the high temperatures experienced through braking at higher speeds and over long periods. I very much doubt they were just re-fitted without tightening as the chances are, you would not have got far due to the high energies involved under braking, more so on the front wheels. You would feel or hear an immense knocking through the steering wheel! Its harder to pick up these symptoms on the rear brakes though.

The garage may well refund you for all or part of the repair costs but ultimately, they fully carried out the mot finding the faults with the car.

With regards to compo? i would guess that if you were involved in an accident then your insurance company would give you all the compo advice you require but, as no accident took place it could be a grey area!

 

But then again as the low life penny vultures say.....where there's blame theres a claim!