Your brakes are the most important part of the car. If your engine does not start or a wing mirror falls of then it is not the end of the world. If your brakes fail it may well be the end of the world for you. I would never attempt to do a brake repair myself unless I was 100% sure I knew what I was doing. If you are new to repairing your own car Don’t Touch The Brakes. Get a mechanic to have a look at them. Nevertheless, what you do need to know is what to look out for before you brakes fail. Here are the main symptoms that may lead to you needing a brake repair done:

• Brakes squeal
• Brakes grab
• Brakes go spongy
• Brakes pull to one side

Brake squeal is quite common and usually is caused by water causing rust on the brake pads and is usually not serious. You can get it quite a bit in the morning after the car has been left out all night and moisture has gathered around the discs or pads. This is usually a simple brake repair.

If you get any of the other 3 symptoms then I’m afraid it is of to the garage with you. Having said that:

This reminds me of the time I had my brakes done at the local garage. I drove away after paying my bill and pretty skint and came to my first set of lights. Pressed the brake. Nothing happened. I grabbed the handbrake with both hands and pulled it as hard as I could in pure panic. Luckily that worked and I avoided belting into an oncoming vehicle. I tookthe car back to the garage using my handbrake to slow down and stop the car. It was only 100 yards down the road. I advised the mechanic of what had just happened and he stripped the brakes down again to investigate.

What the technician said then astonished me. In order to stop the brake fluid leaking out during the brake repair, the mechanic had put matchsticks in the brake pipes but had forgot to remove them before rebuilding the brakes. When I pressesd the brake pedal there was no fluid getting through to the discs. Bless him.

The point is even if the mechanic had made this mistake surely when the were testing the brakes after the repair they would have noticed the brakes were not working at all. Or maybe they did not even test the brakes. Surely not.

Speak to you soon