Morning,

Just had my car to the dealer this morning for its 'Free' 1st service. car is currently on 9500 miles and not quite a year old yet.

Imagine my surprise when they advised me it needed new disc's and pads on the rear!! £175.00 Garage offered a 10% discount, haha....

After coming down from the ceiling I explained that this was unacceptable for a new car and one of the reasons I bought new was to avoid the unexpected expenses associated with an older car.

I called Skoda Customer Care line and the woman I spoke to obviously had no idea what a car was, let alone what they do on a service!! She advised me it was normal to replace the pads and disc's during a service and what I was wanting her to do about it?

Eventually persuaded her it was not a normal part of the service to replace discs and pads on a 1st service.. She then contacted the garage to ask them for some photo's but these parts are not covered under warranty.

I've had 3 Skoda's from new in the past and had each for 3 years, none have required new pads, let alone new discs. Was due to attend the Yeti launch on thursday night and purchase a new Yeti for my mum - guess what - I aint going to now. This is the first time I've had a problem like this on my Skoda's, this has been the worst of all for build quality and niggling faults, only other thing I had to do to my 3 other's was replace a headlight bulb!!

I await a call back from the unhelpful person at Skoda, if she can work the phone, on what they intend doing, which I suspect is nothing.

Can anyone advise where I can get the car examined by a 3rd party and get a report on the brake conditions, someone like AA or RAC or ??

Any advice appreciated.

Brake friction parts are not covered by warranty - so you've had it there.

But are you sure that your car has discs on the rear? - most Fabia Mk2 have drums (unless equippend with ESP, IIRC).

This kind of wear is most unusual, since the rear brakes normally do very little work (unless you do a lot of driving with the car heavily laden or towing?). Typically they only account for around 20-30% of the braking effort.

I would dig a little deeper, rear brake discs normally last many tens of thousands of miles, often twice the life of the front brakes, or even more. This kind of premature wear suggests to me that the rear brakes are 'dragging' for some reason, possibly sticking wheel cylinders, handbrake cable, or fault with ABS/ESP.

After a short drive *carefully* feel the rear brake discs and see how hot they are - take a look a the disc surface for signs of overheating (scoring, discolouration, bluing etc).

IME 'Skoda Customer Services' is an oxymoron - they are hopeless and often seem unable to comprehend a simple question. I sent an e-mail query about Skoda Assist (which my local dealer was unable the answer) - the reply I got was simply the name, address and phone number of my local dealer!

Edited 14 September, 200916 yr by Hauptmann

IME 'Skoda Customer Services' is an oxymoron - they are hopeless and often seem unable to comprehend a simple question. I sent an e-mail query about Skoda Assist (which my local dealer was unable the answer) - the reply I got was simply the name, address and phone number of my local dealer!

Yip, despite giving them my mobile number to call they somehow managed to get hold of my home number and phone that instead?? leaving a message on my answering machine while I sat at work with the mobile waiting on them to phone me :-(

Car is the level 3 with rear discs and pads..

Car is the level 3 with rear discs and pads..

In that case I would suggest rear brakes are dragging. Is the handbrake cable properly adjusted?

Car is the level 3 with rear discs and pads..

Well my Level 3 estate with a 1.9TDi engine has drums, so I don't know how yours escaped with discs!

Just phoned Skoda Customer Service as no return call - They are willing to pay for the replacement parts if I pay the labour.

Anyone from a Skoda garage know what the cost of labour for this is likely to be? or time wise for the fitting?

Book time is under an hour, so they will probably just bill you 1 hour. There is an underlying problem that needs to be resolved though, otherwise it will just happen again.

Just phoned the garage and their quoting 1.2hrs @ £70 ph + VAT - quoting aprox £95 + VAT to fit.

Is the fit time of under 1hr in an official Skoda service manual?

Spoke to the engineer who advised the discs are 'pitted' not worn.

When I asked if they had changed the material used recently as the previous new Skoda's I've had for 3 years each never suffered this problem, and my main concern was I would be in the same situation again next year when its serviced again, he advised they should be the same. Probable causes were wet weather, salt from winter gritting, and living near the sea, advised the other Skodas were kept in the same area with no problems. My only though is the car was kept poorly in storage somewhere before bought for new, was not a factory made to order car.

I've had the front discs replace free of charge as they were damaged (they should be smooth but if you run your finger or some object across the disc they were lined)

Just phoned the garage and their quoting 1.2hrs @ £70 ph + VAT - quoting aprox £95 + VAT to fit.

Is the fit time of under 1hr in an official Skoda service manual?

Autodata quote 0.7hours to R&R both discs. Since the pads have to be R&R'd as part of this job then they should really be quoting only 0.7hr for the whole lot. I think they may be adding disc and pad R&R times together, which is not strictly fair.

Hello

I would be getting a independant review, done by RAC and AA if I were you have a report generated by the mechanic and if they are fine (Which I suspect they are) then you can go to official bodies and get the ball rolling into investigation into the relevant dealer.

Currently dealers and mechanic's are feeling the pinch of the recession and doing 'Everything' they can to get the extra buck out of you.... this comes from experience (I work for a large hire company and I am responsible for maintenance in the branch I work at)

Get a RAC or AA inspection before you even entertain the dealer. If I am right then you should name and shame themand process a official complaint with skoda and the motor trade body.

Well thats my 50cents

Timelord