Their terms and conditions specifically exclude taxis, commercial usage etc.
Even if they did, the warranty is 12,000 miles and you have blown that as well.
i suspect this will just be a headache for you and end up going nowhere.
I’m after some advice. I’m currently sat in kwikfit waiting for my car to be looked at. Back at the end of May I had new front disks and pads put on the car at this branch (no other option being that it was a Saturday morning) and the car has recently started juddering for want of a better word under braking.
I took it to the garage who do my servicing yesterday and they put it on the brake test rollers and the guy concluded that my OSF disk is warped.
Now seeing as my car has only done about 15,000 miles since fitted and there is loads of meat left on the pads, thereby proving in my opinion that I’m not hard on the brakes, am I being reasonable in expecting them to replace the disks?
My car is a taxi and one of the guys working here has already come in and told me that they don’t warrant taxis. I knew I wouldn’t get the free brakes for life that they offer but not warranting the disks for 5 months? This seems to me that they are trying to squirm out of their responsibilities.
Opinions please.
Cheers.
Their terms and conditions specifically exclude taxis, commercial usage etc.
Even if they did, the warranty is 12,000 miles and you have blown that as well.
i suspect this will just be a headache for you and end up going nowhere.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
It could actually be an issue with the calliper not transferring equal pressure across the pad… resulting in an uneven wear on the disc which gives you the vibrations through the steering wheel you might be feeling. I’d guess that they only cover faulty components and wear and tear, either way your talking about Quick Fit and they’re as slippery as a greased pig.
A product must be 'fit for intended purpose', so there is an argument that the disk having warped at 15k miles does not meet that criteria. As soon as you add in the taxi/commercial element and the fact that the disk could warp if overheated under hard braking, then I would suspect you will have to just take this one on the chin and move on.
As has already been said, you may get a good will gesture, but I think it is very unlikely.
Panic over. I hadn’t done as many miles as I thought I had. I had only done 11,000 so they swapped them out for me, and even up rated the discs.
Thank for the replies anyway folks.
Last edited by jaytip; 22nd October 2019 at 12:11.
Good result! There's many people tried to take away consumers' statutory rights with their "terms and conditions". They possibly would have realised 15,000 (as originally posted) wasn't much of a life for a disc but that would probably have been more trouble than it was worth for you. Anyway all's well that ends well.
Well done.
11k is certainly harder for the garage to argue as being 'fit for purpose'.
Good result.
Good result,not often garages fess up.
The one thing that no one has mentioned is the Product Liability Act. This act, if my memory serves me correct, was passed in 1987 and states that liability is the area of law in which manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and retailers are held responsible for any injuries caused by defective products for a period of up to twelve years.
Therefore if a defective disk was the proven result of an accident, then the liability rests firmly with the earliest person in the supply chain within the EU.
Therefore if the disk was imported from say China, the liability lies firmly with the import agency and if they are no longer in business, the liability passes onto to the next company in the supply chain, right down too the final retailer.
This act is only applicable on goods where safety is involved.
It is used extensively in commercial dealings but I once used it successfully when a pair of motorcycle boots started to fall apart in their 8th year.
The motorcycle dealer was not a happy bunny on that one.
So if you get a cracked disc due to an accident or collison, the retailer is ultimately responsible for the disc even if the accident was your fault? Good luck with that one.Therefore if a defective disk was the proven result of an accident, then the liability rests firmly with the earliest person in the supply chain within the EU.
I hope you told them where to stick their good will and uprated discs!
Not only have you let yourself down but you’ve let the forum down as this thread could have lasted for days with plenty of twists and turns, possibly even threats of legal action. I don’t know how you drove out of that place happy knowing that you’ve nipped this thread in the bud ;-)
If you tried it on under the Sale of Goods Act, you would get nowhere.
The Product Liability Act is restricted to goods whose defects will cause danger to life or limb.
Also you have slightly misstated what I said. The act comes into force if the defective disk is shown to have either caused an accident or is highly likely to cause one.
However if the retailer dismisses the Act, then he could be in serious trouble and that is why the Motorcycle retailer gave me a brand new pair of boots in exchange for the 8 year old pair.
Interesting, I’m not a Lawyer and I definitely haven’t read the whole act ! but that’s not how it reads to me. I think the liability created by the act is for injury or damage arising from a defect and excludes liability for the defective item itself so unless the boots had actually injured you the supplier would have had no liability to replace them - not under the act anyway. In any event the Statutory Limitation periods are 3 years for PI and 6 years for Property Damage (in England/Wales) but as I say I’m not a Lawyer and happy to bow to superior knowledge.
I had to attend a bloody boring 5 day course on this Act and what you say is basically true. However the commercial aspect is that I had informed the retailer that the boots were potentially dangerous and there was a reasonable chance that several motorcyclist could suffer damage from these self same boots.
The retailer basically took them back and gave me a new pair of boots and was obligated to tell his supplier of this. This got him off the hook. Had he not refunded me or had not informed his supplier, he could have been in trouble if another defective boot resulted in an injury.
The limitation period was 12 years and I remember being surprised at that, but that was as stated when the Act was originated.
Last edited by Mick P; 22nd October 2019 at 17:23.
Why did the disc warp? Metal doesn't normally change shape/form without the assistance of heat or force.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
I had an RSQ3 in which I had to do a very hard braking manoeuvre on the M56 when some ***head towing a caravan drifted out into my lane.
Not to a full stop, but 70 to 40 PDQ and then had terrible vibration under braking at every stop after that.
No way that one stop warped a disc!
Sent it into Audi (under warranty) with a 'we don't know, changing the discs/pads should cure it, that's Ł1200 please' response. Errr, no thanks.
Local trusted garage reckoned some kind of uneven pad material build up on the disc and to do some hard stops, not to zero, where safe.
It got slowly better, but was never quite right, IMHO...
Good result for the OP. :)
It's Irrelevant its a taxi, brake discs would have had atleast a years warranty as standard. Even if you'd done 30k in that time they'd be covered. The useless gits likey didint clean the hub up properly in the first place when fitting the original. Very few discs actually warp and cause the issue.
VAG product? VWs tend to judder when braking as well. Some within 10, 12K miles! Luckily, most VAG cars' brake disks aren't expensive. We have a bunch of VWs in the workshop. Mostly from friends, neighbours and... my own Up. Nearly everybody comes in with this braking problem. Skimming them is almost as expensive as new ones. Some say that owners hold their foot on the pedal after breaking hard, thus localising the heat. Not my experience though.
M
Normally 2 things happen.
either incorrect fitting which will be noticeable straight away or caused by poor bedding in and overheating. Look at lateral run out and DTV
Discs are tested before they leave the factory
and very few are actually 'warped'
Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 22nd October 2019 at 20:03.
As Chris_in_the_UK mentioned above, it states in their terms and conditions 12,000 miles or 12 months whichever comes first. I think had I been over the 12,000 miles since they fitted them they would have told me to jog on.
It was only when I was sitting in the waiting area that I started this post and Chris informed me of the 12,000 mile limit.
I only went back there because of the relatively little time they had been fitted. I didn’t give any thought to the actual mileage I had done.
Very few people have discs warped when they experience a problem like this. It's variable thickness of the discs which causes the issue caused by localised heat to one spot of the disc.
That can be caused by several reasons, poor braking habits is by far the biggest factor.
Last edited by Franky Four Fingers; 22nd October 2019 at 23:46.
Sorry Mick but no I haven't, this is your statement which you can read back.Also you have slightly misstated what I said.
Why would the supply chain of a brake disc be at fault if the result of an accident is a defective disc?Therefore if a defective disk was the proven result of an accident, then the liability rests firmly with the earliest person in the supply chain within the EU.
Presumably from your statement the result of an accident will result in many defective parts and all the supply chains at fault?
Or did you mean if an accident is the proven result of a defective disc and not "if a defective disk was the proven result of an accident".
What the Act says in essence is that buying a proven defective product gives the consumer more protection than say a defective camera. So in the case of this defective disk, the OP has a claim against the retailer who has the right to pass the claim up to his supplier and so on until it reaches the maker of the defective part who will then be prevented from selling it to other customers.
So you don't see the difference between what you previously stated and what you are stating now?What the Act says in essence is that buying a proven defective product gives the consumer more protection than say a defective camera. So in the case of this defective disk, the OP has a claim against the retailer who has the right to pass the claim up to his supplier and so on until it reaches the maker of the defective part who will then be prevented from selling it to other customers.
Regarding discs being warped, as has been mentioned it's rare for discs to be actually warped, for instance on track days some may claim they have warped discs because they feel vibration, but it's usually that they have not done enough cooling off time and then come into the pits, the discs heat the pads up nicely and you get material transfer from the pad to the disc which leaves a nice pad shaped impression on the disc.
Usually the material can be worn off again in time or use a more abrasive pad for some time and it will disappear.
If you don't do enough cooling off you can also boil the fluid as the heat transfers through the brakes. Just as bad is noobies putting the handbrake on.
Haha, point taken.My average speed over the last 59,000 miles has been 19 mph. Whatever the issue was with the disc, it’s definitely not through heavy braking.