Project Petrolhead

October 2023.

I decide to treat myself to a little holiday. A road trip around some of my favourite parts of Wales; starting at the legendary EVO triangle, then down the coast to Aberystwyth, finishing at Devil’s Bridge. It’s a short route I’ve driven before and follows some of the best driving roads in the area, while only taking the space of a weekend to complete.

During the trip, I started to notice a strange sound coming from the Jag’s brakes. When coming to a stop, they would make a loud metal-on-metal grinding noise, that would quickly go away once rolling again. Obviously, this is not the sort of sound you would like to hear from the only things that can stop you in the event of an accident, so I drove back home and got the car booked in with a garage.

I’m willing to pick up a spanner where necessary, but I’m no Edd China so when it comes to important things like brakes, I’m more than willing to take the financial hit and let someone with experience have a go. In this case, I work in the middle of a small industrial estate that contains two chain garages (that’s garages owned by a larger conglomerate, not garages that only operate on metal loops) so I book in with one of those, thinking I can drop the car off in the morning and then pick it up after work.

Garage number One (which I will not name for legal reasons) then informed me that the grinding noise was coming from the offside-rear calliper, which was no longer holding the brake pads in place, meaning they were in constant contact with the disk. Because of this, the whole assembly (disk, pads and calliper) would need to be replaced. I gave the go-ahead and picked the car up later that day.

There was one small problem…

Coming out of the industrial estate, I approached the junction in the same way I have done hundreds of times. Only this time, when I applied the brake, nothing happened.

Oh bugger.

After forcing my foot so far into the carpet I thought it would puncture the firewall, the car rolled to a gentle stop. The brakes had obviously not been bled when the calliper was replaced. After returning to Garage number One to inform them of that fault, I was told that “The brakes will need to bed-in to start with” to which I responded, “That’s nonsense” (albeit with marginally stronger language). Shockingly, after they had agreed to “re-bleed” the brakes (they still maintain that this was done, even though it clearly wasn’t) the car stopped perfectly. Funny, that.

February 2024

After the brake debacle, I decided to take the car for it’s MOT at Garage number Two (which I ALSO will not name for legal reasons). They couldn’t possibly be worse, could they? Apologies for spoiling the meta-narrative, but I’m here writing this and you’re still reading so we both know where this is going. The MOT was booked for noon. Four and a half hours later, I receive a call from the garage saying that the car had failed it’s MOT as the entire rear subframe and suspension setup was “dangerously corroded” and needed to be replaced, to the tune of around £1500. Having just returned from a trip to Silverstone a week or so prior, that didn’t sound correct. There were no knocks from the suspension, it wasn’t unusually stiff or bouncy, and nothing had been mentioned by Garage number One. Something just didn’t seem right, so I decided to (or rather, my friend talked me into) take the car to an independent garage, for a second opinion.

Garage number Three were good as gold. The mechanic told me straight what needed to be replaced (the rear drop links) what could be repaired and even applied some rust prevention to the rear subframe to help keep the car on the road. One fresh MOT later, and the car has been fault-free. It handles better than ever and even stops, which is a bonus apparently.

If you ever have the option, seek out an independent garage. At the very least, you might get a human to speak to.