I posted about squealing noise when pulling away when cold. Lots of people helpfully said it was rust etc on front discs. I think that is the case but it is driving me nuts as only started a few months ago.

Looking at them and the pads they don't look really worn and car only done 35k mainly around town driving.

Its 2010 vrs petrol estate. So 3.5 years of same discs and pads.

Would anyone consider replacing discs and pads at that age even though mileage not that high or am I being a bit OTT?

The parts using pagid discs and pads are100 quid which I thought was pretty cheap from ecp. No discount code unless anyone has one?

Advice from clever people rather than a brake numpty like me would be much appreciated. Thanks

I would try doing a few hard stops from about 60mph in a row before changing the discs and pads. I know that when my vrs was not being used and was sitting outside for a month I could hear that the pads were dragging on the discs where the rust had built up. All I did to get rid of it was 3 hard stops in a row and they have been fine ever since. I could see in the light from the headlights dust floating in the air that had come off of the discs there was such a large build up.

I replaced my front disc's & pads on my octy when it was just under 5 years old & had covered around 46,000miles due to the inner face of the disc's been badly corroded,the pads were not even half worn.

I posted about squealing noise when pulling away when cold. Lots of people helpfully said it was rust etc on front discs. I think that is the case but it is driving me nuts as only started a few months ago.

Looking at them and the pads they don't look really worn and car only done 35k mainly around town driving.

Its 2010 vrs petrol estate. So 3.5 years of same discs and pads.

Would anyone consider replacing discs and pads at that age even though mileage not that high or am I being a bit OTT?

The parts using pagid discs and pads are100 quid which I thought was pretty cheap from ecp. No discount code unless anyone has one?

Advice from clever people rather than a brake numpty like me would be much appreciated. Thanks

I have recently replaced my fronts using spares from car parts 4 less and it only cost £85 all in. If you've got the dosh and want to do it then go for it. For me once something starts to niggle away at me I just have to get it done otherwise it would drive me mad

I replaced my brakes at 40k last year making the car 4 years old. Better safe than sorry and you have to think if throwing money at car if you consider trading it in etc etc. I will have mine for at least a year yet so it was worth replacing the brakes for me.

I would replace my discs when they are worn out. Why do so before then?

Mine are at 70K and have loads of life left but having said that I don't use them that much.

Strip and clean them (brake cleaner spray). Grease edges of pads (slider lugs) with a small amount of copper grease. You can also put some on the back of the pads where the calipers touch.

If there is a rusty lip round the disk, chip off all the way round before putting everything back together.

Unless you know for sure that the squeak is brake related I wouldn't be throwing cash at new pads and discs with only 35K on them.

 

As already mentioned, first get them nice and hot and clean the surfaces with some hard and heavy braking (like the larger vRS brakes were designed for).

 

Secondly, wheels off and give them a good inspection / clean / copper slip. Brakes on cars straight of the production line can squeak, a sniff of copper slip can sometimes be all that is required.

 

If you are sure it is the brakes my thoughts would be the rear discs rather than the fronts as these don't get worked as hard. Lightly applying the handbrake (at slow speeds in a straight line in the absence of other road users obviously) also does a good a job of cleaning the rear disc surfaces.

Thanks for all the advice, cleaning and stripping sounds sensible but if I have everything off I may as well replace. I will try done heavy braking.

Did a motorway run yesterday which not done for ages and rust went and no noise. Might just do that a bit more often to clear them. Then if it keeps coming back will do cleaning or replacing.

The copper grease goes between the caliper and the pad backplate, btw, not on the friction surface.  Pagid make a high temperature grease (Cera-Tec) which is a bit less messy.  Also remove, clean and regrease the slider pins.  They are an awkward 7mm allen key to remove, if they're like most German-derived cars.  I wouldn't use copper grease on the slider pins as it's not really a lubricant; the Pagid stuff or just normal Castrol LM grease are better for something that needs to move constantly.