I just changed the front pads & discs on my MK1 Fabby today (nice easy job BTW) & just out of interest I thought I would check when they were last done.

The pads I changed myself at 107k & the discs (with new pads obviously)were last changed by my local grease monkey at 66k. The current mileage is 146k, so just short of 40k for the pads & 80k for the discs is pretty good in my book. The last set of pads were Ferodo, the new stuff is Pagid.

It'll be interesting to see if they last as long.

Not much point buying genuine with this kind of lifespan.

I replaced the front discs and pads on daughter's late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 S/C at 40K miles, initially I spent lots of time trying to clean up the discs as the swept area was being restricted due to corrosion, I ended up measuring the thickness, they were 20.4MM so just past half wear point as were the pads, but to make life simple for probably the remaining period she owns it, I just grabbed a pair of discs and pads (Pagid)  from ECP, roughly £75 including brake cleaner and replaced the lot. Typically, these cars tend to need new discs after the second set of pads have worn down - or if you are being attentive, once the disc swept area has started to get reduced due to corrosion.

Edited 22 September, 201510 yr by rum4mo

40k doesn't seem much for the discs, but about right for the pads. Depends on the type of driving she does I suppose, but the first set I had lasted about 66k & that was mixed driving. Perhaps genuine stuff is inferior as the replacements lasted a lot longer.

Nickg65, I resent the pejorative term 'grease monkey'! Vehicle technicians, engineers or even 'mechanics' are skilled and trained people. Whilst realising some may have less competence, most do a good job.

It may be a casual remark for you, please don't.

Oops no offence intended. I have nothing but respect for the chaps who fix our vehicles.

Nickg65, I resent the pejorative term 'grease monkey'! Vehicle technicians, engineers or even 'mechanics' are skilled and trained people. Whilst realising some may have less competence, most do a good job.

It may be a casual remark for you, please don't.

As with anyone there are good ones and some not so good,  it's a human trait,  with no offence or insult meant nor intended..as with your mitigation end of sentence.

I have just added a comment at my indy garage where no copper-based grease was applied to backs of my new rear pads/ and the sliding shims on assembly, started to squeal.

So when does this training kick-in and is applied ? please return to first sentence..

Nickg65, I resent the pejorative term 'grease monkey'! Vehicle technicians, engineers or even 'mechanics' are skilled and trained people. Whilst realising some may have less competence, most do a good job.

It may be a casual remark for you, please don't.

In my experience there are many more mediocre people working on cars than good ones.

Even a VAG single brand Mastertech (a fairly rare qualification) can vary enormously in their quality. I had one that adapted a part from a newer car to make my older car run smoothly and yet his equivalent at another dealer nearer my home told me that he had exhausted all the options on the guided fault-finding system and could do nothing for me. One actually diagnosed the problem, the other was a parts-swapper. The computer told him to check a reading and swap a part until the issue went away. 25 years ago an AA man stripped the carburettor on my 15 year old SAAB, cleaned it, reassembled and adjusted it, all in the dark by the side of the road. That sort of person is extremely rare these days. I had to have the sump replaced on my last Audi TT because the supposedly trained main dealer "technician" crossed the threads on the drain plug and, rather than back off and try again, he just used a big ratchet to force it in place. When it failed to hold oil he had to admit his error and I had 2 weeks in an A3 loan car while they sorted it. I could go on. For a LONG time.

Pretty much everyone has a bad story about a dodgy "vehicle engineer" so it really shouldn't come as any surprise that people hold people who "fix" cars in a bad light.

The problem is now that so many variations exist even in a single brand setting that dealer mechanics do tend to rely on computer aided diagnostics rather than skills developed over time. This is dumbing down the trade rather than moving it forward.

 

Best example I can recall was a Rav4 I had, the mpg display would die after 15 minutes, they sent the HU away and it was tested and worked fine (probably tested for 5 minutes). Same issue when installed in the car so they swapped the full cluster/ODO out resetting the miles to zero. They even pulled in a chief Toyota tech to auth the work as it was expensive, it didn't fix it. I drove back and insisted they nicked a different HU out of a stock car of similar age, magically it fixed it and took all of 10 mins. If they'd thought about it they'd have done that in the first place at near zero cost rather than send the old one away and then have to replace/code the full cluster and the HU while saving me weeks of running back and forwards, but the computer didn't suggest it.

As with anyone there are good ones and some not so good,  it's a human trait,  with no offence or insult meant nor intended..as with your mitigation end of sentence.

I have just added a comment at an indy garage where no copper-based grease was applied to my new rear pads/ shims on assembly, which then started to squeal.

So when does this training kick-in and is applied ? please return to first sentence..

 

I have never ever put copper grease on new brake pads to stop them squealing, if that is needed, then the offending workshop has just fitted pads that are not equipped with anti-squeal shims/material. Why some aftermarket suppliers just "use" a "short" selection of pads has more bearing on the selling unit price than the suitability of that part for the car it is being fitted to. For what it is worth, I've only had squealing rear brakes once, ATE pads from ECP, I removed them and fitted proper ones as soon as the novelty of having "taxi" brakes passed! In this case "proper" ones came form a TMD Friction brand as used by VW/Audi at the factory.  The only use that I've put copper grease to was to help the pads move across the calliper carrier.

40k doesn't seem much for the discs, but about right for the pads. Depends on the type of driving she does I suppose, but the first set I had lasted about 66k & that was mixed driving. Perhaps genuine stuff is inferior as the replacements lasted a lot longer.

 

I agree about the service life looking a bit short for the discs, but as I said, that car would need its discs replaced before she had replaced it, and that would have meant a short window of opportunity turning up when the car was free for me to work on, currently she is abroad for another year so it is just really a runabout for me, so changing them now made sense, though maybe I should have made that decision before trying to clean up the old ones!!

Edited 29 September, 201510 yr by rum4mo