Tim V Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 You may recognise what I spotted outside my house in the road - it's the pad from a car disc brake. I live on an "A" road. This means that someone is potentially driving round with no brakes. How does that make you feel? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I hope it's fallen off a van or lorry carry scrap parts rather than off a car itself... Is it the whole pad or just the friction material? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 i hope so too, but somehow..... It looks like the pad, not the plate it is supposed to be stuck to. And they should be well stuck on - which is why I suspect it did come off a working car. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 If it's from a vehicle's rear brakes, there's less chance of a disasterous (sp?) result but if they're from the front, I don't really want to think of the potential consequences... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted June 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2011 What a coincidence. Saw one myself the other day in the road. It looked too big for a car and was certainly the material side up but whether it had the rest of it attached I don't know. I did think pretty much the same that someone was running round with less braking than is ideal. Luckily I did see it rather than hit it with my motorbike. If it was hit at speed it would do some damage I feel sure. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted June 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2011 The glass of my driver's side wing mirror just dropped out yesterday. Perhaps they used the same glue. Seriously, I didn't realise just how much I used that mirror until it wasn't there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted June 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2011 - which is why I suspect it did come off a working car. A poorly maintained one! I wonder what the noise was like when they braked... Regards, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 If it's from a vehicle's rear brakes, there's less chance of a disasterous (sp?) result but if they're from the front, I don't really want to think of the potential consequences... James Not to criticise, but you should have a look at Andy's thread on choosing a browser, one thing he didn't mention was that Firefox (for instance) has an inbuilt spell checker which as I write is underlining your disastrous! I would say it wouldn't matter if it was from the front or the back, the vehicle will still pull to one side. And what state are the rest of the brakes in? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 Not to criticise, but you should have a look at Andy's thread on choosing a browser, one thing he didn't mention was that Firefox (for instance) has an inbuilt spell checker which as I write is underlining your disastrous! The problem is that I have an in-built anti-spellcheck device! At work I don't have a choice of browser - we've just moved to Google Chrome at home. I would say it wouldn't matter if it was from the front or the back, the vehicle will still pull to one side. And what state are the rest of the brakes in? The danger of the front brakes being so defective is that you may have one side braking efficiently and the other side not at all so the vehicle could, in the worst circumstances, flip over. I hope it doesn't happen. And not just what state are the brakes in, but what of the rest of the car?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim V Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 At work I don't have a choice of browser - we've just moved to Google Chrome at home. The danger of the front brakes being so defective is that you may have one side braking efficiently and the other side not at all so the vehicle could, in the worst circumstances, flip over. I hope it doesn't happen. And not just what state are the brakes in, but what of the rest of the car?! Agree with you there, at work I have IE6 - and I'm not permitted to view RMweb. Yes what of the rest of the car? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted June 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2011 Yes what of the rest of the car? Perhaps it's being driven by Fred Flintstone?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady_Ava_Hay Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 This would appear to be a disc brake backing pad that has literally been worn down to the bone. The missing bonding tab for the pad material is the hole on the left. The locking tabs are the two rebates at each end and they register with similar tabs on the disc brake caliper casting. It is impossible for the plate to fall out unless the tabs are destroyed ( they aren't ) or the disc itself is missing. If this plate had been recently mounted in a working brake assembly it would be heavily scored and blued. This one looks just plain bruised and not a little corroded. Corrosion on working brake pads is rare as they are near always hot and not exposed to rain when not in use plus coated in oily residue of the pad material. It is not infeasible for this pad to be missing and the brake caliper piston to reach the disc and apply pressure to it. The use of steel to steel braking actually increases braking performance but creates a lot of noise and sparks. My take is that it is a scrap part that has been trapped underneath something or been used as some sort of inert packing piece and has dropped off and been bounced along the road. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I wonder what the noise was like when they braked... Expensive ! A lesson leaned the hard way from using cheap foreign imports and skipping service checks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noiseboy72 Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I would say it has worn down to the metal and then fallen out of the calipar. Quite common on a lot of vehicles with floating calipars when worn down to this extent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted June 19, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2011 Expensive ! Very good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Natalie Graham Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I would say it wouldn't matter if it was from the front or the back, the vehicle will still pull to one side. Unless the one on the other side fell off previously and the driver now has discovered his problem of the car pulling to one side has corrected itself without the expense of taking it to the garage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eddie reffin Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 How thick was this item? If it was only a thin (1mm) piece of metal then it is only the anti rattle shim. If it was thicker then it is a brake pad. However, if indeed it was a pad, then I find it very difficult to believe that it became detached from the caliper whilst driving as in 20+ years in the motor trade, I have never seen one fall out because of wearing this thin. The noise from the brakes when pressed would be unbearable and even the most stoopit motorist would stop to check. What is most likely from this whole thing is that it was already removed from the vehicle and became deposited on the road on its way to the landfill/ recycling centre. Cheers Eddie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Wtf should I care? Do you think he'll reach Gotham City? Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Max Stafford Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Anyway lads, these days the roads have sizeable populations of uninsured vehicles, unregistered vehicles, unregistered drivers, drunk drivers, drugged drivers... A solitary brake pad is the least of your worries! Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Wtf should I care? The point at which the poorly maintained car is heading towards you and might not stop in time! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Believe me if you stop any 100 vehicles on any road at any given time you'll find at least one (or a driver) in a worse condition...... He still will not reach Gotham City. The odds will always be in my favor, still. For God's sake I'm on another Continent! If he/she's car is in such bad condition hopefully he will never get this far! Best, Pete. PS Oh, Dave said almost exactly the same....... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Given your location Pete, I think you should be safe from this one! Interestly when the police were doing spot checks in beverley a few weeks back they found, IIRC, 40% of vehicles had some issue. The minor ones varied from what would be MOT adviseries to some quite shocking faults! And from what I took from the report, the serious offenders included some rather 'comfrortably off' middle class drivers who should have had enough funds to maintain cars in the correct condition... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 James, You'll probably find the same answer: "I'm too busy to take a morning off to get my car serviced........." - they are probably the same ones over the limit on their way home. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERS Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I was party to some photos of a very similar looking lump of metal which was the backing plate of a brake pad, the lining of which had worn away in similar fashion to this. The offending pad had fallen from a floating caliper and become wedged in the wheel where it was fouling the disc. The noise suggested something seriously wrong and removal of the wheel revealed the problem, and a complete lack of opposite pad which was long since gone. The disc was badly scored by the metal to metal contact of the caliper piston on it and the heat build up had caused a blow out of the tyre. The piston itself was bent in the cylinder by the rotational force of it contacting with the disc and was found to be leaking air badly. All the more worrying that this particular vehicle was an 18t commercial vehicle. The opposite side pads were also found to be worn beyond accepted tolerances and well overdue for replacement. In 20years in the auto industry, I've never witnessed anything quite like it but it does go to show that the pic above could have been from a vehicle in use rather than from a scrapper. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 I've heard of worse - my father was once following a lorry over Barton Bridge when the lorry's driveshaft fell off! Fortunately my father was in a Land Rover and was able to clear it, but apparently it made rather a mess of the Mini that was following him! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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