Hi all,

I joined a while ago and posted about buying an Octavia. Using the great information on this forum I purchased an 03 Octavia Elegance last december with 53k on the clock.

I made sure the toothed belt etc had been changed before purchase.

I've done 9,500 mils and just passed 62k & had it in for a service today (on variable, as I do a lot of motorway miles).

Imagine my surprise when the garage doing the work (not the original one I purchased from) calls and says "you need discs and pads front and rear".............to the tune of £450.

Both the supplying garage and servicing one are Skoda franchised dealers. I won't name them at the moment as it's on going.

I call the supplying garage and their attitude is basically - discs are a consumable on cars and will need doing at some stage, tough.

They haven't even offered a goodwill getsure. If they'd offered to pay for the discs, I would have taken the pads as a hit.

The servicing garage even discounted me on parts & labour assuming the supplying garage was going to pay. You can imagine how happy they are that they're not.

Am I unreasonable to expect the supplying dealer to at the very least, contribute to these costs?

Cheers

450 quid for pads and discs is stupid, just get it done somewhere reasonable. This should be in the Octavia i forum anyway.

Do the discs really need changng?. Some garages have been known to say they need replacing even when they dont so they can get more money from the customer. Had this with a previous car, and the car went on to complete another 40K miles on the same disks and pads. My mk2 octy has 73K on the clock and is still on original disks/pads all round.

Discs and pads are consumable items but you dont have to have them done by the garage. Me personally would get a vernier caliper out and check the disc thickness to see if indeed it does need doing. Also make sure the disc is not damaged in any way.

Seems slightly early to be replacing the disks - I'd agree you should double check.

To be fair, you should have checked them when you bought the car and negotiated replacements in the deal if they looked near the end of their life.

I think it is fair to count them as consumables and you can't really expect the supplying dealer to pick up the bill 10K miles later.

Price is mad - but probably right for a main dealer!

Take it to an independent, and get the discs checked. Chances are, as Mannyo has said, they don't all need changing.

Even if they do, £450 is very steep, so shop around.

Good luck

In answer to your first question.... yes after doing 9.5K in it I think asking for the discs and pads to be change for free is a little bit of micky take.

But saying that so is them asking £450 for it. Are you sure you don't fancy getting your hands mucky and doing it your self.

As has been said before check what they measure and if you look around you should be able to find the min spec on the discs is. Price also seems a little high but that will be the case at any dealer.

I only changed my disk around the 110-120k mark due to warped disks at the front, not due to them being badly worn. Seems like the garage might be taking liberties! There again I don;t know how your drive, or how the car was previously driven.

If your in Christchurch, I am wondering if your dealer might be W**tover......?

I had a similar call last time mine went in for a big service at the (supplying) dealer - £450 ish on top of the £500 odd bill I was already expecting for service and cam belt/waterpump etc.

Can't really agree with the idea that the dealer should pay for discs and pads after nearly 10k - they ARE a consumable item and despite what certain tyre and exhaust centres may advertise about free replacements for life, you cannot expect a dealer to do this :thumbdwn:

I ended up buying the discs and pads from GSF - £220 delivered next day and then fitted the fronts myself (easy apart from fitting the wear indicator wrong side and cuting the plug off and tightening a caliper bolt instead of undoing which then required a helicoil insert.... lucky I work for an engineering company!) and then I got a mate to help with the rears (mostly his work in that case as the handbrake's were a bit tricky)

Even so I reckon you'd save around £100 - £150 by supplying the bits and getting a good independant to fit if you're not confident.

Yes you are being unreasonable to expect the supplying dealer to contribute anything IMO.

But as others have said £450 is way over the top.

I have just changed all the disc's and pads on our MK5 Golf (the Octavia is based on the earlier Golf platform, so similar) total cost of parts (OE disc's & Mintex pads) £130, that included about £15 P&P.

If i was paying a garage then i would expect to pay no more than £100 labour to have them fitted and up to £150 for the parts.

Thanks for all the replies. Sorry if I'm in the wrong forum - kinda new to the place , if a mod can move it to the Octavia I forum, that'd be great.

I just feel the original garage that sold me the car knew they were going to need changing - The car had 8 months left on the MOT & they wouldn't do me a new one as part of the sale.....

And yes, unfortnately, the discs did need changing. As I need the car quickly, I had no option really - I'll chalk that up to an expensive experience! I went back with a mate to pick it up & the garage showed me them - About a third of the disc width had gone, so it was definitely fubar'd! I've asked them to keep them at the moment.

The servicing garage were fine, and in fact gave excellent service - apart from the price obviously :shock:, but hey, they've got a show room to pay for...... They were piggy in the middle really. The car also had the rear wash/wipe leaking into the boot, which they did under warranty. I'm happy to name them - Willis Skoda in Ruislip.

I was more annoyed at the "tough" type attitude from the selling garage, as when I did the deal he was a lot more professional & courteous and basically said, any problems etc etc, the warranty covers everything (yeah, I know.........).

He then gave me some old guff about he'd just bought a car & had to change the discs & pads on it - at which point I knew he was basically going to say anything - and when I mentioned about buying from a Skoda garage & paying more rather than privately, to nullify any of these issues, suddenly the car he'd bought also came from a main dealer too.

Coincidence? Codswallop more likely. He hasn't renewed my faith in salesmen........

Anyhoo. Thanks again everyone. Bread and water for a week or two for me now..............

Although I feel your pain, I think that what you've experienced is not unusual.

I have just changed disc/pads front & rear. I did the job myself but using genuine parts from a Skoda dealer. Parts cost alone was £285. I asked the parts guy how much they would charge to fit the discs etc & he quoted £200. So, £485 all up from the dealer.

My car had done 55K at the time.

I know my car is slightly different from yours but I don't think you really have a case against the supplying dealer.

Sorry.

How are you going to do that, when the vernier will measure the unworn lip at the top plus the rust crud and give you a value that is roughly no wear? The middle of the disc could be 5mm less... You can use a micrometer and a dial gague but 17 years of experience have made me give up on them and quite simply I spin it and watch for any run out (I can see good to about 0.25mm which in my experince doesn't give judder) and feel the top lip. If its grooved, got much of a lip or got visible run out, it's new disk time. If not, I'll remove the light lip with a angle grinder, deglaze and fit new (premuim - always, generally genuine) pads.

100 times in 100 the above results in perfect brakes after servicing the caliper, however in the past on my own cars when a student I haven't replaced the disks and pushed them a bit far and ended up with warped disks and vibrating braking.....

A fast fit will put a dial gauge on every time and 'prove' it needs new discs every time. I have seen this even on new disks fitted only a few hundred miles before, it's a little bit of a scam!

As for the original post, it's expensive copared to a small independednt (even using genuine parts). As for the supplying garage - did they say they would service your vehicle after sale? If not then service parts eg brakes are not to be blamed on them - if you want that then make sure it's specified next time you buy a car :eek:

Greg.

Discs and pads are consumable items but you dont have to have them done by the garage. Me personally would get a vernier caliper out and check the disc thickness to see if indeed it does need doing. Also make sure the disc is not damaged in any way.

How are you going to do that, when the vernier will measure the unworn lip at the top plus the rust crud and give you a value that is roughly no wear? The middle of the disc could be 5mm less... .

Fit the caliper to the disc & take that measurement; the measure the air gap & take that away - you'll get a good enough idea whether they are shagged or not.

To the OP: I don't think the discs & pads are the selling dealers problem - sure if it was within 3 months of purchase but after that.......:thumbdwn:. Agree with the others - 450 quid is a bit OTT for a job that might take 3 hours at worst. Did they flush the brake fluid as well?

Slightly o/t but my micrometer is about 37mm from the anvil faces to the yoke, so I'd expect to be able to measure the middle or the wearing track on an Octy's discs with it.

How are you going to do that, when the vernier will measure the unworn lip at the top plus the rust crud and give you a value that is roughly no wear? .

My bad :rotz: meant to say micrometer.