FAO a Car Mechanic/Expert re Wear on Brake Pads / Discs

Weird_Nev

OP:
YOu can always get a second opinion on the brakes if you do not trust what the garage are telling you, but brake pads and discs are "wear" items, like tyres. No reason at all why they couldn't have worn out by now. THey were not new when you bought the car.

What was the noise? Grinding when the brakes were applied? That's the metal brake pad backing hitting the discs, and it spells the death of both pads and discs.

£300 seems expensive for an astra though, I@ld be looking to get 2 discs and the pads for the front axle for £100 or less, and 1 hours labour for fitting.

Norman_Castle

londonTiger wrote: »

I think this is often assumed to be the case but probably untrue, even on motorway you use the brakes surprisingly a lot, you have to slow down when you come across slow cars and create distance with the car in front. I think feathering the brakes at 70mph (sometimes more) will be pretty tough on the pads. I would not be surprised if it was more hard than bringing a 20mph car to a standstill.

/caveat emptor - i;ve driven motorway about 3 times in my life.

caveat emptor ?. Let the buyer beware ?.

richard734

It does all depend on your driving style. I am a very light user of brakes, lots of motorway miles, drive in a proactive manner (come off the accelerator a lot earlier, react to things way further ahead than 2 car lengths) brakes last me forever
Town driving, lots of stops and starts will cause more wear. The quickest way, especially on Vauxhalls and Hyundai's, to knacker the brakes is to stop and keep your foot on the brake. An expert in ThermoDynamics will give the proper reason, but as I understand it, the contact of the hot pads on the hot discs in one fixed spot, warps the discs, which in turn increases wear on the pads during normal use.

Weird_Nev

richard734 wrote: »

Town driving, lots of stops and starts will cause more wear. The quickest way, especially on Vauxhalls and Hyundai's, to knacker the brakes is to stop and keep your foot on the brake. An expert in ThermoDynamics will give the proper reason, but as I understand it, the contact of the hot pads on the hot discs in one fixed spot, warps the discs, which in turn increases wear on the pads during normal use.

There's nothing unique about Vauxhalls or Hyundais that make that more of a problem for them.

IT's not really a problem anyway, unless you have been braking VERY hard or down a long hill, for example. YOu can "Weld" a bit of pad material to the disc, which in turn can lead to vibrating brakes and need premature replacement of discs to cure it. IN normal use you're not going to get enough heat into the brakes to make it a problem. They're designed to cope with very high heat: They're devices for converting kinetic energy into heat, and shedding that heat quickly, after all.

forgotmyname

portly1 wrote: »

Did you put new pads on an old disc? If so that may well be the reason for your early failure.

Always discs and pads, never new pads on old pitted and worn discs.
Not worth the trouble. A new set of discs every 3 years should work out about £100 a year.

Nope it was a brand new car with.... 7500 miles on the clock... More to do with the driver and the type of use..

I am heavy on brakes. If you see my brakes lights then panic.

Type of use that gets plenty of mud into everything. And no it didnt involve woodland carparks at midnight

thescouselander

portly1 wrote: »

Did you put new pads on an old disc? If so that may well be the reason for your early failure.

Always discs and pads, never new pads on old pitted and worn discs.
Not worth the trouble. A new set of discs every 3 years should work out about £100 a year.

Complete waste of money, if the disc is within spec and has no unusual degradation it should be perfectly ok to keep with the originals and change the pads only.

LoidPhil

An update to my original post....

The MD of the dealership telephoned me yesterday evening, having himself spoken with the mechanic who most recently looked at my car.

Although the mechanic had advised that the front pads "required urgent attention", they have in fact an estimated 4-5000 miles left in them. On the rear pads/discs, whilst not immediately unsafe they are advising that I have them replaced imminently.

The MD advised that it would not be unreasonable for the degradation to have occurred since the car was last looked at by them in January. He did say, however, that there was evidence of the rear wear being as a result of a fault with the callipers (stuck/seized), apparently some form of dust/residue being visible on inspection(??), which again has likely occurred in the period between now and the time that they last inspected the car.

In summary he does not believe his company to have been remiss in so far as failing to spot that there was a problem when I purchased the car, however, as a gesture of goodwill, he has verbally said that they would be prepared to consider a nominal contribution towards the cost of repair. He has said that he will consider the precise sum towards this gesture and email me with his conclusions.

Not having thought about it during the phone call, but something that has since sprung to mind, is that if a fault with the callipers has caused the rear brakes to wear more rapidly than would be normally expected, then does my warrantly not actually cover this? Callipers are on the component list specified in my warranty booklet as being covered against mechanical breakdown, and so surely if they have sufferred a fault that has contributed towards the rapidity of the wear on my brakes then I can legitimately expect both the fault itself (the MD didn't say whether the calliper issue has resolved itself - is that possible?) and the knock-on effects caused by it to be resolved by the warranty.

I've checked the T&Cs of my warranty and, of course, they are open to interpretation depending on which side of the fence you sit. Under the "exclusions" listings it states that it will not cover claims caused by, or arising from or in connection with....4. Any damage to or by excluded Component(s). It doesn't state, however, whether that clause applies if the problem with the excluded components (i.e. my pads/discs)have been caused as a result of a failure to or with an included component. I've emailed the MD to ask that he give this matter due consideration.

salubrious

They initially diagnosed the noise as worn out brake pads, and now say they have 5000 miles left on them?

That would be enough for me to go elsewhere.

colino

If they are worn enough to make a noise, they are not fit for another 500 miles never mind what he is suggesting. Mechanical devices do need maintenance and it is quite common for calipers to become sticky as their pins/blocks/guides get contaminated from rust, dirt or brake dust itself. I'd get a second opinion to confirm the diagnosis and help you decide if you want to maintain dealings with this garage.

closed

take a look yourself, then you are less likely to get ripped off