New brake discs corroded after 16500 miles-is this normal?

shane2k

go to a non dealer they will charge alot less then that let say half

mattyprice4004

Rear brake wear all depends on how well the pads 'sweep' the disc - as soon as there's an area that the pad isn't sweeping, it'll build up corrosion very quickly (as the rear brakes don't take anywhere near as much of a beating as the front, so they don't clean up very well). 

Some cars are also more prone to needing brakes more often than others - my various Rover 75s and MG ZTs have only needed discs and pads every 40-50k or so, whereas my Mazda 3s needed them quite a lot more regularly. 

treeroy

spiritus said:

cs. Last year when the car was only 2 yrs old and probably around 13500 on the clock the dealers told us it needed new rear brake discs and pads.

So you bought a car knowing it needed new discs, and you are surprised 1 year later that.. it still needs new discs?

Brakes rust extremely quickly when the car is not being driven. 

If its any consolation to you, I bought a new car and I went through 4 sets of brake discs in the 3 years it was on finance. 

BY the way don't bother paying £550 for discs at a dealership. It's not warranty work so there is no reason to use a main dealer. Just get an independent garage to do it. Quick look on euro car parts and I'm getting prices of £100 per pair of discs for a mercedes C200. 

akira181

I'd say the issue is the car isn't driven much so discs corrode like everyone says.  3,000 miles is hardly anything, less than 60 a week so I assume there's long periods of time where it isn't being driven at all.  I can park my car on Friday and by Monday morning, minor surface rust/discolouration is clearly visible on the discs if it rained at any point.  Driving can clear it up but if it's heavy corrosion, it can put crud into the pads, which in turn score the discs until the crud falls off the pads.

Plus, I never trust the opinion of a dealer garage.  I took my BMW to a dealer for a safety recall and as part of their "complimentary inspection" they tried to claim I had 2 discs badly corroded, a wheel severely bucked causing the tyre to leak air slowly, and a major oil leak because there was "a lot" of oil on the under engine tray even though I've never once needed to top up the engine oil (and I check it regularly).  What's worse, they gave me the car back with broken central locking and claimed it was like that when I gave it to them.  After pointing out that I locked my car fine with the central locking and was parked in clear view of their CCTV if they wanted to check, they then claimed it must have broken after I parked it but before they started their inspection and therefore not their fault "but would review CCTV to verify".  Unsurprisingly, I never heard back from them.  If that wasn't bad enough, the car locked me in (autolock on driving) and I had to lean out the window to unlock the car from the outside with the key.  Nice safety recall work BMW...

I took the car to an indy garage and they said the tyre just needed some new beading and was balanced without an issue and the oil leak just a messy filter change on the last service.  The discs cleared up after a little driving and were "perfectly fine, just mildly scored and not worth worrying about" according to the indy garage.  Only charged me £130 to replace a central locking motor, BMW wanted £2800 + VAT to fix all the issues they "found" and couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be additional costs depending on the source of the oil leak.

In short, drive the car more often or risk discs wearing out faster.  Or only drive in the dry and park inside a garage when not in use.  Plus, don't trust repair opinions from dealers.  They want their cars looking shiny and new, "only" mechanically sound isn't enough.