Brake Fault

Hi All,

I have a Freelander TD4 2005. Last week, driving along the road my brakes failed completely. Pulled over and saw a large leak of fluid from the rear wheel. RAC recovered us and dropped me at a local garage.

2 days later, received the attached invoice for the works done.
Brakes felt a little spongey but nothing major, handbrake pulled all the way up and felt looser than usual but it was one of those things i made a mental note to question the garage on when i got a minute.

Parked the car up near my office and 10 minutes later heard a bit of a bang. Walked ouside to find the car now parked against the corner of a house!! Now i jumped in the car and moved it, not even paying attention to whether the handbrake was on. Every part of my common sense says ive been driving for 17 years and have parked in that spot most days for the last 4, never forgetting to pull on the brake but i suppose it is possible.

My question is, are the hand brake systems linked to the brake systems and looking at the work they have done (bearing in mind i have zero clue about mechanics) would they have adjusted the hand brake at all in this work?

Its worth noting that the insurers have pointed out that the brake fluid resevoir is completely empty, so clearly the garage having 'fixed' the brakes are less than useless!

The handbrake and foot brake share the same friction surfaces (shoes) in the rear drums. However the way the shoes are applied is completely independent of each other. The garage clearly hasn't repaired the brakes correctly, which should be bought to the attention of the local trading standards office. The vehicle clearly left them in a dangerous state, then they should be held liable for any losses you encounter.

For the important job they do, brakes are relatively simple things. All it takes is a bit of care and they are quite simple to replace. However, not taking care can leave bits installed wrongly or air in the system which will make them fail or perform poorly. It does look like the garage you used did not take sufficient care.

As Nodge says, the brake is applied differently for foot (hydraulic) and hand (mechanical via cable) brake - but there are common bits that are needed to be installed correctly for both systems to work, eg pins and springs. These will all have been removed to do the work described.

Omg
Sounds like you got screwed by a cowboy garage.
I'd take the car else where immediately for a thorough check of the work carried out and get them to fix whatever they find
Once you have a report then trading standards would be a good call.