alfalincs

I have a Mk3 Octavia 4x4 I bought with 14,000 miles on it in 2017. Its now done 68,000 miles in 2022. Its now on its third set of discs and I don't drive to abuse them, but I do live in a hilly part of the country. I've never had discs deteriorate like this and I think the quality of VW group OEM must be poor. It has also needed all four wheel bearings changing along the way which is three more bearings than my five Alfa Romeos put together between 1989-2010. The clutch slave failed contaminating the clutch. It now needs both front swinging arms as the rear bushes have gone (I remember changing just the bushes on our Skoda Favorit way back when....not any more). The two front disc shields also disintegrated. The car is maintained by a Skoda specialist with whom I have zero complaints. This is our ninth Skoda, the others being Favs/Felic/Fabia 1 & currently 2x Fab 2s run by my kids. My sons car needed two front suspension arms at 70,000 miles and I don't think you can complain too much about that to be honest...but the brake disc consumption on mine irritates me I confess.

I have to say its a mystery to me as we are on our ninth Skoda in 31 years with Favorits x 2 Felicias x 2 and Fabias x 4 I've changed rear bearings on the Fabia 1s, but at 140,000 miles or so, and we had a front bearing go on the 03 Fabia 1 we scrapped earlier this week at 170,000 miles, but nothing really to complain about so its a complete head scratcher as to why my Octavia chews them up. I don't even drive fast these days. Anyway the four new bearings are VW group parts..so lets see how it goes from hereon. Smoothly I hope !

As of yesterday and at a grand mileage of 57,000 I've had to replace my fourth wheel bearing on a 14 reg Octavia 4x4. I'm not impressed really as thats four times as many wheel bearings as I had to replace on five Alfa Romeos over 20 years, three of which had mileages in excess of 150,000 miles on the clock. Just to rub matters in my specialist apologised for the parts price which he says has rocketed in the last few weeks. They failed as follows : offside front at 26,000 miles, near side rear at 36,000, and both the offside rear and near side front failed last week at 57,000 miles, but the rear was so noisy we hadn't realised the nearside front was on its way out as well which only became apparent after the offside rear was fixed. Tyre wear and tyre life is completely normal. Its on Goodyear Vector 3 All Weather tyres fitted in December 2019 and probably just over half worn. Is it just me or have others experienced similar. I've had the car 4 1/2 years and its fully serviced by a Skoda specialist.

I'm not quite sure how to explain this, but having heard the odd graunch that we thought was a stone caught between the disc and the disc guard on the O/S front wheel, yesterday it got really bad to the point of thinking "something has come apart or dropped off" yesterday over 100 miles from home on the A38 just south of Burton on Trent. It was dark so I found a filling station forecourt and after telling them what I was up to I jacked up the car and removed the wheel in an out of the way (aka SAFE !!) spot. The disc guard was still there, but flapping around as the centres had been ripped out of all three attachment points. I was able to slide the shield rearwards off the hub with no tools and that revealed some serious grinding marks where there had been contact with the revolving disc. I'm not aware of anybody having contacted anything that might have damaged the disc shield I have never had the hub off, but it did have a new front wheel bearing/hub unit fitted last spring. After removing the shield it was of course totally quiet, which was a relief. When putting the wheel back on I found myself wishing for a wheel locator pin like Alfa Romeo used to supply with the 164. Getting those lug nuts in is a complete PITA.... I've ordered a new one. its a common VW/Audi/SEAT/Skoda part.....so now I know what I'm doing with at least part of next weekend...

I'm just about to have a look see...but I confess I don't even know if its a cable clutch. I last used the car four days ago and I've been away and got in at 1 pm to go to a rehearsal and bong...the pedal hit the floor and stayed there. You can pull it up. Anybody had this happen ?