MOT time again

[Doggy]

Dropped mine off for its MOT this morning and now I'm fretting cos I haven't heard anything yet.
Makes no sense, it'll either pass or it won't, it's got a ticket until Friday so should be OK either way.

[highlander]

Good luck sir. Not that you need it; you take damned good care of your car.

Stop fretting; they may be busy! I had my old saloon dropped off for an MOT once at 8:00 AM and I heard nothing. I phoned them at 4:30 PM as I was going to need it to get home that night, and was told it was just going on to the ramp "as we speak"... Never went back *there* again; luckily the car didn't need anything at that point. I'd have been peeved if I had to take it back the next day to get parts fitted and a re-test.

[Welly]

No news is good news. Or something.

To be fair you normally only get a call when something bad happens as they'll need your instructions etc.

I just hope your indicator bulbs were 'orangey' enough.....

[Doggy]

Failed.

O/S handbrake pretty much not working, N/S OK. I knew it wasn't brilliant and tightened up the front adjuster a bit yesterday and it seemed to hold OK, but obviously I didn't compare both sides.

Oh well, I shall try to reach an understanding with it this evening.

On the positive side, if that's all it failed on I guess I have another year of ridiculously cheap motoring in prospect.

[Doggy]

I've tightened up the O/S adjuster as much as I can without it dragging and tightened the adjuster at the handbrake as much as I dare. Then did a fair bit of shoe bedding in, (applying the h/brake gently at 20 mph), then tightened the front adjuster a bit more still.

It holds much better now, but it still definitely works more on the N/S then the O/S.

Just have to hope this is enough and/or MOT man can either tweak it a bit more, or convince himself he has and pass it anyway. Tomorrow will tell.

[highlander]

Good luck sir!

The handbrakes on these are indeed a pain in the bum. Mark.W replaced all the discs, shoes, and cables for my handbrakes when he visited; the cables on mine were all stretched out and knackered over time. Cheap parts, which is a plus, and readily-available, which is another. Haven't had any kind of advisory or failure on the handbrakes ever since he did that for me, which is great.

[Captain Jack]

Good luck Doggy.

The handbrake on the 406 is spectacularly awful, no matter how often you adjust it or replace drums, shoes or cable. The one on 407 is so much simpler in its conception and is night and day in terms of actually holding the car.

[OllieNZ]

I'm surprised that nobody has come up with a way of fitting later model calipers and cables to 'improve' the hand brake?

[Welly]

On my 1999 D9 the handbrake was good and remained so it felt a bit 'wooden' but got a good grip of the drumz fairly easily.

Granted it would never win at handbrake turnz in the McDonalds car park on a Friday night. If such behavior exists.

[Doggy]

Passed.

Still takes a good old heave to apply, so I'm thinking all is not well in handbrake cable land but it'll do for me.
I just have to come to terms with spending a whole £30 on the MOT.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

It'll be a siezed up cable doggy, bite the bullet & replace both the left & right rears
Might not need to do the main one.

p.s congratulations on another pass