This is a picture of a brakepad taken from a vehicle (mine!) after 3 months of hard work (yes I do check things that often!)

The car it was in was driving very normally, and under (often) hard braking would lock a front wheel, and the abs would work just fine, it was always 50/50 etc no dominant wheel.

The brakes felt just fine, no pulling, nothing, no odd noise, in fact the pad would still be in the car now if it had not been found.....

Wheel was removed to allow some more waterproofing of the wheel arch, its been a wet winter etc, and I also decided to change the front flexi hoses as I just got some new ones, this resulted in having to remove the pads to screw back the piston for bleeding etc. (tip, run some weld down side of an old 26/27mm socket)

pad was removed and.........
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down a bit....
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It looks like a stone had fitted itself between the top 'ear' of the pad and the slide it runs in, the force of the piston when braking bending the pad and causing separation of the actual pad material.

Not something you want.......

So, all you lazy puttng it off till tomorro (oh hang on thats me with decorating) people take heed, check the pads, check your tyres, check your fluids.....

This routine check looks like it could have been a lifesaver, either for poor old me driving, or whoever was in front of it.

This post has been edited by lez on June 25, 2007 12:38 pm