It passed a brake test so can't be binding that much as isn't a failure something like 25% imbalance.
I had a new Peugeot 306 in 2000 and that had a faulty caliper from new, went through pads like nobodies business, but they wouldn't change it as it couldn't be proven. Glad when that car went back.
I thought the rule was 1.5mm wear left. That is not the same as the overall thickness.
Anyway pads are cheap. Half an hour of your own time and job is a good one.
Sometimes it useful to know when to pick your fights.
I strongly disagree with that. The only reason for that to happen is when the vehicle isn’t properly maintained. I would hate driving such a vehicle.
Qualification; one of my vehicles is 32 years old, and the other is 15 years old, third one is 2.5 years old now.
No out of the ordinary uneven wear on any of them.
If the tester believes its less than the minimum of 1.5mm then they can fail it and it would be a dangerous defect and should not leave the test station unless repaired or on a trailer. If you caught then it can be a fine and points as you are driving a unroadworthy vehicle. You wouldn't be insured either.
Also the tester is not allowed to remove anything so its purely on observation. The tyre you haven't taken a picture of but is it definitely tread depth and not not a cut ?
Simply give the garage a call and say that you have removed the wheels and there is plenty of pad, could you take it back for a retest. Where i work we may want to take a wheel off just to check given you cannot see new pads fitted.
If the car is one from the VAG group then its likely to be a sticking caliper, they seem to eat them. However I would guess its lack of maintenance and that the brakes haven't been stripped and cleaned in a while and the reason its wearing is its stuck. Strip it and clean it.
As you have correctly written, you wouldn't be allowed to take anything off to check, that's why i said in an earlier post that it's a tricky one.
According to the photo of the brake pads the thickness is well within limits, if the tester couldn't confirm the actual thickness then he should have issued an advisory instead of a fail.
Clearly there is nothing wrong with the pads and you should go back and speak with the Manager about that, however before you do you should address the other issue with the CV boot and as for the tyre just replace it, you say its at 1.9mm so that's only 0.4mm to go before it needs replacing anyway so its not worth arguing about.
I have no idea what you've been doing for 40 years in the motor trade but it certainly didn't involve having tools in your hands. Just cos you washed them or sold them doesn't mean you know about repairing them.
I'm a time served apprentice trained mechanic with main dealer experience at Land Rover and Nissan. Those brakes if functioning and passing a brake test are absolutely fine and we used to see much worse than that coming into the Land Rover dealership with it being in a rural area. What you're seeing is dirt which has got contaminated with iron dust from the brake disc during normal use, gets wet which embeds it in the dirt then as it dries it gets that brown colour. 2 minutes with a wire brush on the caliper and tapping the outer edge of the brake disc as you rotate it would see all of that disappear. The stuff on the outer edge of the brake disc would once upon a time be removed by the mechanic as a normal part of doing a service using the method I stated but now seems to be something else no longer bothered with.
Depends on how hard on it is stuck. On my MX5 which had been stood over winter I found out the NSF was stuck after going down a 1 in 6 hill. By the time I got to a safe place to stop there was smoke coming out of that corner of the car. Ultimately the brake fluid could have ended up boiling resulting in no braking effort. Stuck brake calipers are a common reason for lorries ending up on fire at the side of the motorway.
My Mondeo had to have the front caliper replaced last week at 143,000 miles. It has full main dealer service history and has never failed a MOT. Usually it happens because the rubber boot acting as a weather seal for the piston merely fails due to nothing more than age and fatigue from use. You don't need to have scrimped on maintenance for a caliper to seize.