Front Brakes Imbalanced - MOT Fail

[bunzee]

Stuck the 182 in for MOT today, it failed on the front brakes application being uneven. MOT tester said it was 100% on the right, and 54% on the left.

It had new discs and pads all round not long ago, so I've no idea what could be causing this.

Anyone else had the same problem or any ideas how to sort?

Ta

 

[cliobritt]

Mabey seized calliper?

 

[dciRon]

Contaminated pads sounds most likely? New pads & a suitable disc cleaner spray should sort it out...

 

[bunzee]

I'm hoping not caliper issues as I imagine that could get expensive...

How would pads get contaminated? Is that a common issue?

The tester said something about a slider possibly needing cleaning or a new kit, I know nothing about brakes, would this seem likely?

I'm just praying it's going to be cheap, damn thing has already needed 2 new lambdas, a thermostat and a temp sender to sort over fuelling issues as it failed the emissions test 2 weeks ago!

 

[scotty2hotty81]

sliders should always be cleaned and greased when pads fitted, ive had some that wont budge even with massive pliers and in a vise!

 

[dciRon]

Pads/discs usually contaminated when fitted by copper grease/oily fingerprints on the discs/pads themselves....

Single piston callipers have - yup - one piston, and work by the calliper sliding along lubricated pins... when the pedal is pushed the piston pushes one side of the pads into the disc, the caliper will then self centre & apply the other pad to the disc as well in a vice-stylee... if the sliding pins are binding or dry etc due to damage, rust, salt, faulty seals, only one side of pads will apply, hence crap brakes!

Here you go:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/disc-brake2.htm
(Click on the red arrow to apply brakes)

Motorcycles are notorious for Winter road salt, cold and damp seizing brakes up due to their exposed position - cars suffer with this too, but not to the same extent...

 

[dciRon]

Brakes only slow you down anyway...

 

[Alastair.]

Strip, clean and regrease will get it through, suprised they didnt sort it during the mot, i normally do if the customer give me the go ahead.

 

[Gt rob]

Defo give ur calipers a check

 

[Ad172UK]

Had it on mine. One sides sliders had been greased and the others hadn't, had them stripped and re-greased and all was sorted.

 

[bunzee]

Cool, hopefully the sliders just need a clean up on the one side then The MOT guy did offer to have a look at it there and then but unfortunately I had to get back to work.

At least I know what they do now as well

 

[Cupman29]

Check the rubber dust seals round the sliders. If they have popped off their grooves or a damaged then dirt and salt can get in causing them to seize. I bought a second hand set of front calipers (£10), stripped them (£free), sandblasted them (£5), painted them with caliper paint (£5) and fit a new seal kit (£20) so in total £40 for as new front calipers.

As said it's more than likely a seized slider or contaminated pad but if the piston is seized it's not expensive to fix.