Are these easy to arrange at short notice, and inexpensive?
Generally yes on both counts. Naturally availability varies, but normally they operate 24x7. Inexpensive is a relative term of course, what I may find acceptable you may find unreasonably expensive. But it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg.
Top hit on Google was local to me and from £59...
I've been a vehicle mechanic for over 30 years, the pad that is half the thickness to the others clearly has a sticky slider. Either clean and lubricate the sliders with suitable grease or fit new sliders. It's not going to get any better, and will only get worse over time, it could eventually become dangerous. The worn pad has far less life left than the others, so whilst doing the sliders you might as well put new pads in, generally they are not expensive.
I had a sticky caliper on my VW, I became aware of it when steam started coming up from the wheel whilst on a day trip in wet weather some way from home, I only usually make short journeys so hadn't previously noticed, point being if you don't fix it, one day it will cause a problem when it's most inconvenient.
As for the tyre you might as well change it, it hasn't got much life left and quite possibly has one part of the tread on the limit.
As for VOSA they are now called the DVSA, or as I prefer to call them devious because it sounds similar data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I oversee the preparation of over 80 vehicles for Mot every year,most of them are HGV's so have to go to DVSA test stations, a large proportion of the trucks are over ten years old.
Imbalance is different to bind, on trucks the maximum imbalance is 30%. Bind is measured as the amount of effort required to turn the wheel without the brake aplied, this effort is then compared to the axle weight, if its more than a certain percentage (3% IIRC) then it fails. We have a commercial brake tester at work, it calculates the results automatically,so we no longer need to know the exact specifics. Imbalance is the difference in effort between left and right brakes whilst breaking, it's what would cause a vehicle to pull left or right when braking. Bind will cause the vehicle to pull all when not breaking if bad enough, and depending on the cause could also cause imbalance.
A sticky/seizing slider will cause excessive wear on the piston pad..The outboard pad is more than like worn more because of rust build up on the disc(no info on whether car is used every day),so when the brakes are applied it's like pushing the pad on sandpaper,till the disc is cleaned(so to speak) by the pad..
@Aerojon that is incorrect, when you press the brake pedal the piston moves out pushing its pad against the disc,once against the disc it then pulls the other pad against the disc because the sliders allow the whole caliper to move, thus clamping the disc. When you release the brake pedal the piston releases allowing its pad to move slightly away from the disc. If the sliders are seizing then the caliper cannot slide back and the outer pad is held against the disc due to the seized sliders, thus wearing it out quicker.
Actually here's a video which explains it nicely
If discs get too rusty then they will not self clean and you will actually get a hard layer of rust form on the disc that doesn't wear off. Seen it many times on trucks, but also happens on cars.
New pads fitted, as I already ordered them prior to checking,
New rear caliper on the left rear as well. After removing the bleed nipple, I could not wind it back in. I just need to make some adjustments to the handbrake.
Was going to do the CV boot today but the weather has been awful (no garage unfortunately)
Will not be going back to that garage, and the VOSA/DVSA route takes too long as the car MOT runs out end of this week.
A 1 star review on google should suffice.
Having just gone through the whole sticky-caliper beaming issue (to the tune of 2x new calipers, new sliders, boots, fitting kit, lines and of course discs and pads) I know all too well the uneven and excessive pad wear that comes with it. I also know that unless it's binding it's not an MoT fail. A tester does not fail a vehicle because of an opinion about a vehicles maintenance, he fails it based on a stringent set of guidelines that are written to not be open to interpretation (at least, as best as possible anyway - there's always an area of this as all people are different)
I'd have had it MoT'd at a different garage in the state state as you left that first one, and if it passed then you know it's the garage. Take the cert and your evidence back to the first garage and demand a refund before discussing getting DVSA involved. And then never use them again.
Bottom line is, none of those pads were anywhere near 1.5mm.
Delvey has made the decision to mend them himself and let social media take care of the rest. Sounds like a plan.