I took Charlie (my van) to a garage to get her brakes repaired. This was long overdue, as the brakes were doing funny things. And it became pretty obvious why that was, once we took them apart.
I found the garage through a local recommendation. The guy was great, a little tricky to get on the phone, but once I’d got hold of him he got me in the garage the very next day.
The Investigation
We took the brakes apart (well, they did, I just watched). The fronts were nearly okay, but the rear drums were a mess. The drums themselves were… wobbly. That’s the only word for it. You ran your finger across the surface, expecting it to be flat, apart from the cylindrical aspect. It was not. It was not cylindrical and it was not flat. You shouldn’t have hills and valleys on your brake surfaces! This is bad!
The drums were salvageable. The brake shoes were not. The lining crumbled when you poked at them, and they were worn down to the metal in places. Also, there’s a mechanism that’s meant to adjust as the brakes wear to keep them working, but it was adjusted pretty much as far as it would go and almost seized.
The fronts had something similar going on, with the rotors being wobbly. And the nearside calliper was stuck, meaning that the brakes had been dragging on that side.
The Assessment
To repair the brakes we needed to change the front callipers and rotors. The rear needed new shoes, and the drums had to be machined. Which was pretty much as I’d expected, after all, the thudding feeling under braking was a pretty clear sign that it was overdue for some attention.
I’m sorry to say that I left my camera in the van, and once it was up on the lift I wasn’t able to grab it to take photos. Rest assured that there was lots of black brake dust involved. There was also a fair bit of rust on the outside of the drums.
The Parking Brake
The other thing we found was that the parking brake wasn’t working. I’m pretty sure it’d been that way since I’d bought it, given the way the pedal had always behaved. Over a year without a parking brake and no one noticed. Clearly not an essential item, then.
There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Charlie is an automatic. She has a parking gear that locks the drive to the rear wheels. Secondly, Charlie is a camper. No one likes camping with their bed on an angle, so everyone has been parking on flat ground.
Relying on the parking gear works fine on flat ground, but can sometimes cause issues on a slope. The kind of issues you might face on a slope are wearing on the brake gear, and it can also actually become stuck, so you have to rock the vehicle uphill to release it before you’ll be able to change gear. Given Charlie weighs almost 3 tonnes, I don’t really want to have to try that.
The Parking Brake Conclusion
The trouble and expense of attempting a repair on the parking brake are, unfortunately, prohibitive. The problem I’ve got is that the control wire has seized. But it’s impossible to know, without further investigation, if it’s seized the whole way along the wire or just at one point somewhere. I do suspect that it’s been seized for upwards of a year and a half. So, I think it’s likely that it has seized along a good portion of the wire, if not the whole way.
Wheel chocks are the only practical solution in this case.
I’m also going to avoid parking on hills.
The parking brake aside though, it’s such a relief to have the brakes repaired. I don’t have to worry anymore that they might fail as I’m driving down a hill. Can you imagine? Coasting down a hill towards a red traffic light, putting your foot on the brake and not getting a response? Knowing that you are now a passenger in 3 tonnes of a van that’s about to run a red? No thanks. Not today, Satan!
Two Lessons to Take From This
First Lesson: keep savings. You can’t pay for a brake repair if you don’t have money. So, keep a few thousand in an emergency account, separate from the ‘saving up for…’ account.
Second lesson; find a local guy. Local guys are awesome. If you’re travelling and find yourself in need of a garage, ask around! You’re getting coffee, then ask the barista. Ask loudly! If they don’t know anyone, someone else in the shop might. Get a few recommendations. What you’re looking for is a mechanic who only does the work that’s needed. That’s your guy.
Overall, going to the local guy saved me money. Quite a bit of money. I paid $1226.68CAD. I could have easily been looking at twice as much if I’d gone to a chain garage. The other thing about a local mechanic is their experience. A mechanic working in a chain might be new to the job, and they probably just change out parts rather than servicing them. An older guy who owns his own shop clearly knows the trade. And this guy had a lathe to be able to repair the drums in the back of his shop. Very useful.
