Done 10,300 on my Roomster 3 and am now getting the 'graunching' from the front - indicative of brake pad backing rubbing on the disk. Took n/s wheel off and the inner pad is down to metal, although the outer one has quite a bit remaining. The pad thickness warning light is not on (but they tend not to work, in my experience, anyway).

I only cover about 5000 miles/yr, predominantly on a 20mile/day journey. The wheel has never been excessively hot and there's never been any binding, so I guess the caliper hasn't been sticking.

Is this sort of asymmetric wear normal?

Is this a typical lifetime for the front pads?

Rather than change them myself (I've done them before on our Golf IV), I'll probably book it into the dealer - any idea what cost to expect?

Thanks.

Spectacularly poor mileage for front pads I'd say. Suspect something wrong somewhere on that one - what is the other side of the car like, is it equally worn ? If not I'd be looking for a sticking caliper.

Are the pads OE fitting or are they aftermarket replacement items ?

I'm currently on 42,000 miles on a Roomster still with original pads and discs. It was serviced recently and I was surprised when it came back having just had the scale removed from the discs but no new pads required. Mechanic was confident it would easily see another 10k miles before needing pads. That car does a 50:50 mix of dual carriageway and town driving and hasn't been cossetted at all (SWIMBO drives it like it was stolen !)

There are no pad warnings fitted to the Roomster.

Sounds to me like you have a sticky caliper if it's gone on one side (This happpens, you could have some crud stuck in it...), they should be no where near like that at that mileage. As a comparison I have just hit 65k and I am on originals all round with plenty of meat left on everything.

Dealer replacements with cost about £150 to £200. If your out of warranty or don't really care you could replace the lot for less than £100 and it takes about an hour. Not much different if any from the Golf.

Edited 25 January, 201016 yr by Decron

As Decron says, must be a sticking caliper - I got 50k out of my front pads, only had to change them because the discs were more worn... it's an easy diy fix, but you might want someone to check out the sticking caliper.....

Sticking caliper was my thoughts as well - only on the one side, and it's the inboard pad that has been taken down to the backing plate. I would have expected the caliper on a 58-plate vehicle, with only 10,300 miles since I bought it, to be better than that - it is a 'sealed' unit, after all.

Thanks for confirming expected mileages - the guy at the dealer was a bit taken aback at the low mileage. I've booked into the dealer for Thursday 'cos I think it should be warranty job (its only 16 months old and was serviced there at 10K) - will let everyone know what happens.

A.

yep, just about to change my first set of fronts at 95k, car is 2 1/2 years old

peter