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Thought I'd check the thickness of my brake pads - they looked good for a while yet, given the low mileage I do these days, but then I popped them out, and to my horror found that on one pad the friction material was delaminating from the backplate, something I've never seen before. I shudder to think what the consequences would have been if it had dropped off. I reckon that was a lucky escape

I had a problem last week that could have had unpleasant consequences, but fortunately didn't.

I'd been experiencing a bit of front wheel vibration at certain speeds, with a slight tendency to pull to the left.

Investigation revealed a very large bulge in the tread surface on the right front tyre. I had had the wheel off and checked it over two weeks previously in preparation for the MoT, which it passed OK, and there was no sign of any problem then. After checking the date codes on the other tyres I replaced the lot. I payed under £200 for five Falken ZE912s, new valves, fitted and balanced, which I thought was pretty reasonable. You'd pay more than that for one tyre on a lot of modern cars.

Jon wrote:I had a problem last week that could have had unpleasant consequences, but fortunately didn't.

I'd been experiencing a bit of front wheel vibration at certain speeds, with a slight tendency to pull to the left.

Investigation revealed a very large bulge in the tread surface on the right front tyre. I had had the wheel off and checked it over two weeks previously in preparation for the MoT, which it passed OK, and there was no sign of any problem then. After checking the date codes on the other tyres I replaced the lot. I payed under £200 for five Falken ZE912s, new valves, fitted and balanced, which I thought was pretty reasonable. You'd pay more than that for one tyre on a lot of modern cars.

I had something very similar happen on a pair of michelin tyres on my last company car, I'd been into ATS to get them changed only the week before and they had refused to change them as they weren't worn enough for the contract. When I went back with my lumpy tyres the miserable git accused me of causing the damage by handbraking the car.... Not surprised they are going out of business..

Here's the little rascal

May be time for some green stuff of mintex pads this has happened to me before buying unknow versions of pads which I thought were decent

Definitely not the sort of thing you want to find your pads doing. I've got Green Stuff pads in the Metro calipers on my Bronze, and with a new remote servo I now have the best brakes so far on any of my Midases.

These were Greenstuff pads! I've got them on all my cars. I spoke to my garage guru who reckons he comes across this from time to time, but doesn't remember seeing it on Greenstuff. However, the proportion of cars with them is probably pretty small. Apart from this, I've found them to be very good.

Funnily enough I have seen both these issues before.

When I was racing my MG Midget, the race series must have been hit by a duff batch of pads as about half the field were affected by delaminating front pads. Fortunately, no one got hurt but one of the first competitors to be affected had a pad let go completely at Castle Combe and suddenly found his car wanting to turn left as he braked for Quarry (a right hander that is tricky enough at the best of times). Somehow he avoided planting his car in the barriers there and we all started checking our pads more regularly after that!

A friend of mine who had a Lotus Elan Plus Two, went through a spate of tyres that bulged. In his case, the supply of the original type of tyres stopped - a problem that has affected many Midas owners. I think that they were Dunlops something like 155/70-13, but wouldn't swear to it. Anyway, he could only get cheaper brands in the same size and they were clearly not meant for performance cars as he went through several sets that developed strange bulges and blisters until he found a source of tyres that lasted more than a couple of hundred miles. I can recall riding in the Elan with him on the A338 above Wantage and the car suddenly starting to vibrate violently as a tyre, that had been fitted just a few days earlier, started to give up.

Alistair