Brake pad / disc rip-off?

[JB.]

We are a Skoda family, my wife has the Octavia (1.4 125bhp estate) and me the Superb. We choose Skoda for the value for money, reliability, robustness, and excellent service. But, for once, I feel let down.

My wife took her Octavia in for its first MOT last week (30,000 miles, mostly town driving), which it passed, but she was told from our local dealer that the brakes and pads are nearing exhaustion (70% gone), which seemingly explains the squeaking noise from the car over the past few weeks. Anyway, the quoted cost for replacing all 4 sets is £540! This to me seems extortionate, and not consistent with what I would have expected from Skoda. The dealer said that Skoda discs and pads used to be more robust with expected lifetime of 6 years, but Skoda have changed the materials used in recent years and lifetime has halved.

Is the quote excessive? Can this be done cheaper, for example through an independent, without loss of quality? I don't know my way around cars and so could not do it myself.

My Superb has had no issues since I bought it shortly after my wife's car, and feels much more solid and robust. I have to say it has made me think twice about buying another Octavia.

Thanks for your advice.

Andrew.

Edited 13 June, 2013 by JB.

[allan1888]

who was the dealer ? according to skoda national pricing it should have been £398 inc vat see here http://www.skoda.co.uk/owners/service-and-maintenance/national-pricing/maintenance

[Dallan]

Sounds excessive, i got 70k miles out of the original pads, and the disks were still ok

Also they are fairly straightforward to do yourself,

How old is the Octy?

Edited 13 June, 2013 by Dallan

[mr rooney]

Sounds like a rip off all right! If your wife drives mainly around town buying discs and pads from somewhere like euro car parts will be just fine, then fit them your self or take to independent garage for fitting and save your self around £400.

[Rob_Quads]

It sounds overpriced to start with. IMO I would try an independent. For things like brake discs it won't make any difference to trade in values etc.

I would be amazed if your rear discs are 70% worn after 30K. OK with a bit of decent driving, the fronts I can understand but the rears not a chance. They do soo much less braking than the fronts, all my previous cars i've been changing the front discs for the 2nd time by the time I need to replace the rears

[TsvRS]

It is an increasingly common practice for dealers/workshops to tout for business by saying that the disks are worn. Must be in a best-practice manual somewhere.

My answer has always been that when they are actually worn down i.e., 100%, then I will change them.

Town driving is heavier on brakes but as Rob_Quads points out, you would have to be a very special sort of driver to wear your rear discs out at the same time as the fronts.

[Chester]

On Wednesday I ordered discs and pads all round for Mrs Chester's Fabia vRS from Euro Car Parts for £123.

Octy ones may be a bit more expensive.

I used discount code parts25

Mark

[allan1888]

was the dealer Arnold Clark ?

[silver1011]

Click on the link in post #2, print it out, take it to the dealer and ask them to re-quote, minus the excessive margins.

[bobsco11]

I have just had a new set of Pagid disks (part no 104441508), pads (part no 101441138) , and 2 x 500mm bottles of brake fluid delivered from Carparts4less for my 2009 and Octaia VRS, cost a total of £90.64 using the discount code.

The discs even have the nice silver paint on them, just like when I bought the car new. I am almost certain that they are OEM parts.

Guess what I'll be doing this evening.

My car has only done 45k, but it tends to sit for long periods during the winter in the garage with salty brake disks which has caused pretty bad corrosion. The pads however look still to have around 8mm (at least) on them. New pads going in too though.

I'm hoping they will be easier than the rears mind you, those splined bolts were a royal pain to get at!

[cheezemonkhai]

312mm discs VW economy range (Circa £25 each)

Front Pads (Circa £40 for the axle)

Rear Discs (Circa £17 each)

Rear Pads (Circa £35 for the axle)

Parts cost around £160 all in.

Bear in mind a dealer will get a discount on that, which is where they can make some profit (reasonably so too as they are a business).

Labour, probably call it 1 hour an axle, plus another 30 minutes to get the car up, wheels off and deal with any rusted bolts etc.

At £100 per hour, you're talking £250.

So all in would be £410.

Now the £100 an hour isn't low, the 2.5 hours IMHO is quite generous when it's on a 4 poster with the right tools and the parts costs are not with any significant savings.

Doing both at once, you should easily be able to do it for the £400 price point.

Go aftermarket and indy and you won't IMHO save a huge amount on parts etc, possibly £25 for decent parts.

What you will however save on is labour, with a typical price of £50-£60 per hour, so on 2.5 hours, that's £100-£125 saved.

I think the main dealer £398 is not unfair and if both at once you should be able to get it down a bit to say £375.

Otherwise you're talking £285 (£150 labour + £135 good parts) or better at an indy.

[duro]

who was the dealer ? according to skoda national pricing it should have been £398 inc vat see here http://www.skoda.co....ing/maintenance

They will surely explain that in their first quotation they forgot to mention the out-of-standard caviar grease and platinum-plated gloves they'd use as a special, super-pro service.

It is an increasingly common practice for dealers/workshops to tout for business by saying that the disks are worn. Must be in a best-practice manual somewhere.

My answer has always been that when they are actually worn down i.e., 100%, then I will change them.

[...]

Two years ago I went to MOT my brother's Toyota at the closest MOT-authorized shop.

It passed with no problems but afterwards the mech told me the tyres were pretty gone and it'd been better to change them.

Knowing the car was going to be sold soon, I said "Thanks. I'll think about it."

After a couple of days I popped in my usual, small and accurate tyre fitter for advice. He said the tyre would have gone thousands of kms more.

BTW, the MOT shop happens to be also a big tyre fitter.

Moral: Always take a second (or even third) advice, at least until you find a 100% trustable shop.

Edited 14 June, 2013 by duro

[billywhiz040480]

Grooved and drilled front and rear discs all round £120 Mtec brakes, EBC Green Stuff front £55 and Mintex rear £22, all in for less than £200 and fitted by myself, huge savings!

[booke23]

When they say 70% worn, are they referring to the Pads and they just change the discs as a matter of course?

I agree with what others have said.....I'd be absolutely astonished if the discs showed more than absolute minimal wear. The pads are a more plausible candidate for wear, but they were obviously good enough to pass the MOT.

I'd get a second opinion.

I suspect this dealer was practising the shady tactic of seeing a female bring a car in for a first MOT, pass it as it is fully roadworthy, but then list a lot of "faults" that need attention and try to scare the lady into forking out for the work.....A lady work colleague had this happen last week at a franchise dealer (not Skoda) on her cars first MOT. It passed but they noted the exhaust had patches of surface corrosion and should be replaced.....I told her to ask them to show her an exhaust on any 3 year old car that doesn't......the fools. She opted not to get a replacement exhaust.

[cheezemonkhai]

Grooved and drilled front and rear discs all round £120 Mtec brakes, EBC Green Stuff front £55 and Mintex rear £22, all in for less than £200 and fitted by myself, huge savings!

Grooved discs just wear pads quicker and can have a negative effect on high temperature braking as there is less mass in the brake disk.

For a road car, why would you want to do that and pay extra for the privilage?

[cheshire_cat]

if the brakes were in need of "doing" it would have failed the MOT

[monkster]

JB...yes they were attempting to rip you off. This is sadly common practice, every time I take Mrs Monkster's Yaris in for it's service and MOT, which it always passes I get a phone call after about an hour from the dealer in Doncaster telling me this car has passed but could do with either brake pads/ discs, air con pipe which is split (has been for 4 yrs but still works.) I could list all the things they have said over the years but you'd get fed up reading.

Likewise I took my Octavia to F1 for 4 tyres last year, they were the cheapest. They told me I needed discs/ pads and all 4 wheels tracking...lies just to get custom. I was told by the manager there when I questioned it that the fitters were on bonus for all the extras they can glean out of the customers.

You were right to be suspicious.Get an opiion off a good independant VAG garage like Deutchmark in Doncaster.

[andyvee]

Where are you located and someone might be able to recommend an indie for a 2nd opinion.

For the record, I get around 50k or 2 and a half years out of front discs and pads, and 100k or 5 years out of the rears. I do about half motorway miles and half round town.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[billywhiz040480]

Grooved discs just wear pads quicker and can have a negative effect on high temperature braking as there is less mass in the brake disk.

For a road car, why would you want to do that and pay extra for the privilage?

Because they actually stop the car as good if not better than my standard disks, yes I have EBC green stuff pads but for what I've paid I'm not complaining. They are still far cheaper than letting a dealers overrated gold fingers do the work and as I'm still only 33 I want then to look pretty under my new wheels, does that answer ur question?

[Aspman]

I changed all 4 sets of disks and pads for not much more than Skoda quoted for the supply of the front disks only.

Car went to VW for MOT the year before and they flagged an advisory on the brakes. Car did another 12 months and 12k miles and still had plenty in reserve.

I think putting 'pitting to disks' is pretty much standard practice in many MOT stations.

Edited 15 June, 2013 by Aspman

[JB.]

Thanks for the many replies folks. It looks from the Skoda link above that the garage are overcharging, and it sounds like it could save us another £100-150 if we go with an independent (I shall check out Which recommendations for a local independent garage). If the garage are willing to honour the Skoda prices in the link above (assuming we are on a fixed servicing regime with the Octavia), then I may end up going with them for simplicity.

To anwser the few questions: the Octavia was bought new in June 2010, and the dealer who is quoting the £540 is Henrys Skoda in Glasgow (where we bought the car, we've dealt with them for many years, and I always thought them to be reliable and honest).

[allan1888]

Speak to Donald the service manager and point out the national pricing. I had a disagreement with the same dealer last week over my brothers Vrs. But they have been great any other time I have used them with my last vrs and current vrs.

[mitch5075]

Hi Guys,

 

Just had the same from the dealer whilst my 2010 VRS is in for it's second service at 39k miles. "Needs new discs and pads front and rear..." Very surprised as at least 80% of my mileage is on the motorway.

 

However, as I expected they would be trying to get other business from me I cut the guy off as he was telling me the price on the phone, but I'm pretty sure it was about £380 for the front and £180 for the rear!

 

Does anyone know of a decent indy they would recommend in the Reading area??

[vrs777]

Front discs and pads just replaced on mine for the grand total of: £51.20 inc VAT and Delivery (fitted myself) from:http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PARTS2CLEAR-0844-736-0567/Braking-/_i.html?_fsub=2919572010&_sid=283023800&_trksid=p4634.m322

 

Took a gamble but can report they stop aswell at the Ferodo DS2500 combo that were on before.

 

 

So £540 seems high to me, but the rears are slightly harder cause you need the wind back tool rather than pushing the piston back, but a wind back tool is £20.

 

It's max and I mean max 4 hours work for any garage, more like 2 if they are any good. So £540 still looks expensive.

[cheezemonkhai]

Because they actually stop the car as good if not better than my standard disks, yes I have EBC green stuff pads but for what I've paid I'm not complaining. They are still far cheaper than letting a dealers overrated gold fingers do the work and as I'm still only 33 I want then to look pretty under my new wheels, does that answer ur question?

 

They don't actually stiop the car any quicker and can stop them more slowly, due to the higher temperatures the disk/pad can reach, due to the lower mass (due to drilling/grooving of the disk).

I really don't understand where the they are more so must stop better myth comes from. It's more about the pads than the discs if you use good quality discs.

 

As for the price, I've already made a point about the OEM discs not being expensive.

 

The pretty side, sure, if that's your thing.