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Car stuff again..

maureen

Amateur Rider
Joined
Apr 25, 2025
Messages
191
Location
Bamburgh
Mikes car MOT says the disc pads are 60% worn and need looking at in 4 months time. Also says the front tyres are worn on the edges and need realigning. Again recheck in 4 months time. Is it worth just getting it done now? Life was much simpler when it was just pass or fail!
 
Would you throw out good milk a week before it's expiry date cause you only had 2/5ths of the carton left?

Just leave it for 4 months and get it checked out again.
 
I don't think "reaching out" ( to use the modern term for contacting others) to all us randoms on an internet forum as a good way to get good advice over a subject as specialist, complex, and potentially a device of death or serious injury as a motor car is the best idea, tbh, Maureen.

The real life advice of reputable professional car mechanics is the advice to heed, imo.

If they say work needs doing now, get it done now, if they say it needs doing at a point in the future then, unless the money is burning a hole in your pocket, get it done by the recommended point in time.

Keep your car legal, keep your car safe for you and other road users - but you know all this, anyway, I'm sure.
 
He’s going to get it done anyway as we have to travel up and down the M1 a few times each year. I did get some good advice on here about my car a while back. It’s just that these MOT’s that now tell you what is going to go wrong with your car in the future is a bit like seeing your doctor for a check up and being told well you’re ok now but dear oh dear I wouldn’t like to be you in a couple of years time. I’d rather be told that the car has passed it’s MOT but that the work needs doing now rather than in several months time.
 
It’s just that these MOT’s that now tell you what is going to go wrong with your car in the future is a bit like seeing your doctor for a check up and being told well you’re ok now but dear oh dear I wouldn’t like to be you in a couple of years time.
No it isn't!

Everything on your car needs replacing eventually - the tread on your tyres will eventually become illegal and unsafe, for example, but that's no reason to change your tyres if they are perfectly safe and legal at the moment.

But if it gives you peace of mind to do what can wait now, then do it now - you do you, Maureen!

You always do!

And don't forget the USA racing Saturday night - I'll be reminding you!
 
Firstly those pads would of been fine. Brake pads are a relatively simple job however if you have them done at a dealers or even a kwik fit type place you'll get charged a fortune. Pads are fairly cheap to buy and labour realistically can be and hour to and hour and a half max. My mrs had a fairly new car the dealer wanted 800 quid to change the pads I got it done with the with the more expensive pads for 180 quid. So by the sounds of it you've already had it done hopefully you didnt get ripped off . If you did next time shop around for a decent mobile mechanic.
 
This is part of the problem. We both take our cars to the Toyota dealers that we bought the cars from and we know we pay over the odds for any work done. Gone are the days when my ex used to keep our ancient cars going by welding them himself. And memories of me sitting in them while he bled the brakes pressing my foot on the brakes. Up/up, down/down…Then cars had computers in them and needed diagnostic testing etc. by which time it wasn’t really possible to maintain them ourselves. A couple of years ago I pointed out to the garage at MOT time that my car still had its original battery and winter was coming, but they said it was ok. Of course, a few months later I had to call the AA out because the battery was dead. Then a few months after the last MOT my indicators stopped working which could have been pretty dangerous. I’m going to have a good look at my last MOT before I take mine in next month just to see if anything was amber. Forewarned is forearmed.
 
We both take our cars to the Toyota dealers that we bought the cars from and we know we pay over the odds for any work done
Only use main dealers to buy a new car and for servicing while the car is still on warranty. Servicing aged vehicles with them will cost a packet and some overly-pushy salesman will probably suggest 'time for a new car madam?'

As has been said a mobile mechanic or a local independent garage are the places to go for servicing

A pal of mine had a minor shunt in his BMW which resulted in an unsightly dent in the bodywork. A BMW dealer advised a new panel which with parts and work came to a ludicrous £1800. Stuff that was the response and he found a garage that did panel-beating which repaired the damage plus respray for £300
 

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