I got both cars inspected this morning, and I noticed they made some changes to the inspection procedure since 2 years ago. In fact I went to a new facility, I don't know how they do the test at the old facility.

Anyway, one of the final things they check is "brake balance" (at least that what I saw on their monitor). They drive the car on a ramp, stop for a few seconds, then they drive another meter or so until the front wheels are on some special pads, stay there for maybe 10 seconds, then they drive until the rear wheels are on the pads, again they stay there 10 seconds, and finally they finished the test and drive down the ramp. This "ramp" is just a few inches above the floor level.

How do they check the brakes? all this time the inspector is in the car.

by "feel" They Feel ok.

Were they "special pads" or could they have been rollers? They've been using rollers for years:

[www.motester.co.uk]

Paul

What state?
In CA, no such inspection.

Joe

CA here. Never heard of such a thing.

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SoCal for now.

I use a micrometer and a dial indicator to check run out.

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I'm not a bad guy! I work hard, and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell? -Homer.

no, no rollers. they seems like a big flat surface, maybe 1 feet wide, 2 feet long and were covered with some rubber mat, which was torn in some places. It looked more like a scale.

Perhpas the pads move in the same direction as the car travels. Drive on the pads, set (apply and hold) the brakes and then the pads move an inch or so. They can measure the resistance each pad experiences when the brakes are set and the pad moves one inch. If the wheel on the pad on one side turns a bit then it will be offering less resistance (or is it more given static and dynamic friction co-efficients.) Brake balance could possibly mean that the resistance is the same from side to side.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

They might be checking to see that both the primary and secondary pistons in the master cylinder are working.

If you lose the back brakes in a front-to-rear split brake system, or either one of the pistons in a diagonally-split system, you might not even be aware that you have a brake problem.