Yeti front brake calliper problems

My wife has now covered 18,000 miles with her front drive Yeti and is constantly having problems with small aggregate dropping into the inside of the front cast callipers of her car?

I have now taken off the kerbside wheel twice and the offside wheel once to dislodge small nicely polished stones that drop into the calliper well and stay there to slowly grind away the disk and the stone.

She drives on normal highway roads around Norfolk and does not go off road.

I have looked very closely at this problem and taken close up photos of the offending item plus the stones that drop into the inside well of the casting.

It appears that the design of the castings instead of being flat at the end so that stones just drop off or spin out they fall into a nice large hollow between the disk and the casting at the front and of course stay there?

Anybody else finding this problem or should I fill the well up with “Devcon F” to fill the void. Kidding folks but I am getting fed up taking off the wheels to clear the stones out.

FlyingBrick

Yeti front brake calliper problems.doc

Having just put this problem into the forum today my wife has just returned from a 25 mile round trip and hey presto the kerbside disk sounds like an angle grinder as she just has driven into the garage.

Lots of small stones on the roads after the gritters have been around last week and it sounds like the wheel and the caliper will have to be taken off again for the third time?

FlyingBrick

Nearly 58k and never a problem, and I drive on some really c r a p roads.

Sorry Chris. I have no real answer at all. I am like Graham; drive every day on utter carp roads and no problems (er yet!).

Sorry Chris. I have no real answer at all. I am like Graham; drive every day on utter carp roads and no problems (er yet!).

didn't someone say they switched caliper manufacturers? i think it was the plumber who said the first ones were lucas later bosch....

br

jeZ

Have you checked whether the backing plates are OK?

40K miles in 2 Yeti's (including off roading) and never had a problem - I really think you should have it checked out at your dealer.

Will have another look at the Yeti on Wednesday when the misses leaves the car at home.

The backing plates looked ok to me without any twists or obvious bends on the plate.

Callipers are free to move in and out without any binding on either side and have never come across this problem on other makes of vehicle.

Just begin to wander if these low profile type tyres on the standard SE TDI CR110 are just brilliant stone collectors?

Will try to see if the blanking plates are in the same position on other Yeti models as the wife’s. All the stones to date are the aggregate that May Gurney threw all over our local roads in Jan 2012 and most of the stuff has come straight off with 20mph signs that have been put up recently?

Must have a walk about at the local Yeti dealer and see if the same type of calliper is used on all models? Thanks chaps for information on this continuing problem.

FlyingBrick

PS: could stop the misses from driving the car

...could stop the misses from driving the car

Are you usually this brave?

Sorry Chris. I have no real answer at all. I am like Graham; drive every day on utter carp roads and no problems (er yet!).

+1 :think:

Have driven down to Robinsons Skoda dealership in Norwich on my motorbike this afternoon armed with photos of the calliper and back plate to try and get some useful info on the problem.

Chatted to one of the young technicians in the service bay and he was familiar with the problem but only from owners with shingle drives.

My drive is herring bone so that throws out another thought. Having been shown the photos of the offending item he is not aware of any mods coming from Skoda to stop small stones dropping into the gulley formed by the calliper and the back plate.

If this keeps happening then perhaps I better get two new back plates and weld pieces on the front to stop stones dropping into the hollow. Better wait for the warranty to run out first?

Flying Brick

PS: will ask misses to try and avoid a line of loose agregate if possible

Cleared a stone out of the front right caliper of a customers VW cash cow or whatever they are called , it was in the same place as yours so not just the yeti with this problem.

Must have a walk about at the local Yeti dealer and see if the same type of calliper is used on all models? Thanks chaps for information on this continuing problem.

The front calliper used for the lower powered engines is VAG's long serving FSIII with 280mm discs for the TDI 110. Have the same callipers on our Fabia I.2HTP and TSI 86. However I've as yet not experienced issues with stones getting caught in them, only issue I have had is sticking pads on one of our previous Fabia's.

Main brake problem I've experienced has been with the current Yeti's rear brakes, were sticking pads is a real problem, along with very uneven wear rates between the inner and outer pads. These Bosch rear callipers are a very poor substitute for the Lucas units on the early production Yetis.

Would further suggest again my personally experience, that Skoda should have used the FN3 callipers and 288mm discs as used on the 140 for the 110 also. Obviously not helped by the less than effective rear brakes but our 110 takes some slowing down.

TP

Well chaps here we go yet again.

Jacked up the wife’s Yeti and took the wheel and calliper off and behold yet another black tarred piece of aggregate from the Norfolk highways jammed in the dreaded Bosch FS III calliper well?

This is getting to be a real pain as it continues and in my recent correspondence no other vehicle we have ever owned has had this problem or my motorbikes. Unfortunately as I have not come across this constant problem I cannot compare other calliper castings to see if this particular design is suspect to stone gathering.

This is now the 4^th stone picked up and its winter so the aggregate thrown down on the roads by May Gurney should not be sticking covered in tar?

Not much fun jacking the car up outside in the winter to retrieve one nasty little stone.

As Robinsons of Norwich could not come up with a solution it looks like my front wheel nuts will be worn out at this rate as the rear ones have so far stayed clean.

Anybody else up for some ideas?

FlyingBrick

Don't have much of a solution but i feel your pain.

I have the aforementioned shingle drive and, although the yeti has not suffered, my previous two cars both did.

Even then i think it was like 4 or 5 times over 6 years, not weekly.

I'm quite interested to know how she is doing it

Have you tried reversing and braking at the same time to dislodge it?

Do you have the standard wheels and tyres fitted==I wondered whether there was something in that setup which pinged the stones into the caliper

I drive around country roads in Northumberland which are in a pretty poor state in places[ same as everywhere!] and I have never had this problem :sun:

What about gluing a piece of plastic or similar over the space. I was a bit dubious about anything metal as you suggest just in case it comes adrift and jams the caliper. You don't need much to deflect the stone away.

The heat of welding might weaken the metal of the caliper. Also you don't want to be drilling any sort of holes in it either, in case you get crack propagation- oo err misses!

The old trick of reversing and braking does not work with this problem as the stone sits in the calliper well loosely and only when you go forward does it start to rub up against the disk. Nice thought though.

Standard wheels and tyres that came from the factory are fitted on the Yeti SE CR110 TDI nothing has been changed since the car was picked up from the Skoda dealer in Colchester.

I would not touch the actual calliper casting by drilling or welding but if this continues then perhaps some made up plastic putty just to fill the well might just be the answer if this continues to happen.

Yes it could be the tyres issued that are more prone to having this problem. Standard 17” Dolomite alloys are on this Yeti.

Hi AlleyCat

Yeti still returns 50mpg on a reasonable run around Norfolk and managed nearly 58mpg driving down to La Rochelle on the west coast of France with 18,000miles on the clock.

Nothing has come adrift or fallen off the car and for comfort it is the best I have driven all day at 6 ft 1” tall. Great driving position for me. The paint work and welding is way above some of the Fords we have owned.

The main things we altered were the horrible vague H4 headlamps for some really good Philips bulbs from eBay which worked out half the price of Halfords.

Bought some mud flaps and fitted them in an hour.

Requested the spare wheel option as there was no way I would drive a car with that crazy puncture package that is now forced upon the customer as standard. Try using it in the middle of France in the night with a really bad puncture?

One of the standard wiper blades has broken away in the middle and have replaced the pair with some better quality German Heyner blades which look better built and more separate spring areas for the blade to stay in contact with the screen.

To date the only problem which is silly, the push button for the glove compartment sticks when the car is cold in the winter. Must get round to a drop of silicone spray.

Otherwise very impressed with it and the parts installed. Definitely purchase another Yeti.

FlyingBrick

What about gluing a piece of plastic or similar over the space. I was a bit dubious about anything metal as you suggest just in case it comes adrift and jams the caliper. You don't need much to deflect the stone away.

The heat of welding might weaken the metal of the caliper. Also you don't want to be drilling any sort of holes in it either, in case you get crack propagation- oo err misses!

You'd have to find a piece of plastic (& glue) with a very high melting point for this to work though. The calipers can & do get extremely hot even in normal driving (eg going down hill, or at the end of a motorway slip road) so most plastics will melt onto the discs, which is not recommended!

Incidentally, warped discs are more & more common on cars these days. Too many people stop at traffic lights with their foot on the brake rather than using the handbrake. Apart from their brake lights dazzling the driver of the car behind, when this is done after the car has been brought to a stand at the end of a slip road or similar, the disc retains a great deal of heat where the pads are clamped onto it and as the rest of the disc starts to cool, heat is concentrated in a small area which encourages the disc to warp. But try telling people not to do it!

Edited 4 February, 201313 yr by speedsport

I have a theory and it may be nonsense so please don't shout at me......

From what I remember of my Yeti it had two plastic channels from the bottom of the bumper that led toward the back of the front wheels. These are on most modern VW group cars and I assume direct air toward the callipers to help with cooling. Could it be that small stones are thrown up from the road and are diverted toward the callipers by these channels? If so, maybe attach something to these little bits of plastic to block the flow for a day or two and see what happens. As I say probably nonsense but it was just a thought. If I still had my Yeti I would have checked before posting and so I am just going from memory.

p.s. why do I have reference to an annoying statistic under my name referring to 'warning posts'???? Nobody else has one.

Edited 4 February, 201313 yr by shrub

p.s. why do I have reference to an annoying statistic under my name referring to 'warning posts'???? Nobody else has one.

We all have one but only visible to you as would be any warning points , part of the new look

p.s. why do I have reference to an annoying statistic under my name referring to 'warning posts'???? Nobody else has one.

We all have one but only visible to you as would be any warning points , part of the new look

Thanks. I'll ignore it then and stay out of trouble.

Would brake calliper covers not solve this issue?