rcd

IIRC the plate was attached with 3 screws, and the metal had rusted away around two of the screws. I'm guessing the plates must have been removed and replaced at some point which may have scratched the paint away leaving the metal open for corrosion. Either that, or parhaps yours had some anti rust treatment?

My bad, you're right. I must have overseen the edit.

Nobody was right. The problem was a loose anchorplate on one of the front wheels. This is the plate that protects the caliper and disc against mud and dirt from the inside. It was rusted through where the bolts were fixing it in place. This caused it to scrape on the disk. The brakes were fine.

Aha, I think that probably is the cause of the noise That would make perfect sense, with the sound pitch changing with varying speed, but not with varying brake pressure applied. Thank you all. I will follow up after the service !

I thnk it's just poor lighting. Yes the brake fluid has been changed at the indicated service intervals. I suddenly noticed the noice while driving, nothing was done to the car prior. The noise is barely noticable with windows closed, but very obvious with open windows. I was already planning to change all pads at tomorros service, hopefully that will take care of the noise and maybe give an indication of what it was.

Is this what I think it is - like a kind of marker to notify the driver of time to change pads? I was considering this, but not sure if it was a thing ....

That was also what I thought. The inner pads have exactly same age, so logically they would be similar conditions. It's hard to explain a sound in word, but it is exactly as I would expect to hear with something scraping against the disks while driving, including changing pitch following changing speed.

Obviously the dealership asked if they should change the pads at the last service but admittet that with my driving history they would be fine until next service. My own thought was either, like you suggest, a small stone or something trapped, or, and that was my real concern, failing wheel bearings. Would that not produce such a noise? The car has done just over 210K km. Here are pictures from the front, through the spokes - taken after the car was parked overnight, hence the rust marks. The first two are the front, the last two the rear. Notice the fresh groove near the center....

From what I can see through the wheel spokes the brakepads are low but still good. I have no way of seeing the back side - I'm not a mechanic and don't have a lift in my back yard. Obviously I limit the use, but have no option but to drive the car to the garage to get it fixed. The disks already appear a bit worn so perhaps they needed changing anyway.

See, that was a good and useful reply. Thank you. Incidentally the car passed MOT two weeks ago, and I am going for service tomorrow, but that's really beside the point. I was asking a serious and polite question and didn't need a rude, condecending reply.

Sorry to hear about your bad day. What makes you think I didn't have a look at the pads? Try reading my post again

My 2015 Octavia has suddenly started having this noise that appears to come from the disks, like something is scraping. It follows the speed, but doesn't seem to change much by applying brakes. I know the brake pads are low and was planning to change them anyway, I'm just a little concerned if the noise is related to this, or something worse, like for example wheel bearings. Anyone experience with this?

I ended up calling the dealer that sold the car first time. Their sales team was very helpful providing a PDF with all the car data and options. As I suspected I actually learned a couple of things I never knew, like the car has "telescopic front headlight washers" and that the mat in the boot has a rubberized underside so it can be flipped over and used if you need to transport messy or wet things.

Interesting. How does he get more information than the dealers are able to provide? Sorry, I'm always feel Ebay is a bit suspect

Ah, ok. I'll try that, thanks.