MYSTERY OIL

 A customer brought his car in with this complaint: “The brakes don’t seem to be as good as they were.” Because I had had a similar complaint from a customer the previous week, only to find the master cylinder was completely shot, I wasn’t taking his car anywhere near a public road, so on to the brake rollers it went. The rear braking performance was fine, but the front was well down and unbalanced.

Further checks revealed that both the outer pads were heavily contaminated with fluid and in dire need of replacement. The problem was, where had the contamination come from? Both calipers were in good condition – no sign of leakage, and the pistons pushed back easily. Flexi hoses ditto, no sign of any leaks.

I looked again at the contaminated pads and gave them a good sniff test. Could it be engine oil? Bearing grease? Fluid from a leaky shock absorber? No. Everything was fine.

So, at a loss to explain what had happened I carefully cleaned the discs, fitted new pads and went for a test-drive of several miles, just in case something would show up, but no.

It was only after the customer came to collect his car that all became clear. It was explained to him that the brake pads had been replaced due to contamination with what might have been oil, and had he by any chance noticed any leaks or had anything unusual happened that may explain it?

“Oh...” he answered. “Not sure if this might have something to do with it – there was a squealing sound coming from the front when I braked, so I took my pump can and gave those big silver discs you can see through the wheels a good dose of engine oil.”

The comments from the foreman mechanic after the customer left are unprintable!

J W Barr