Brake Pad/Disk Options (Wear indicators?)

[AmyK]

So today's payday and I need new brakes. 

 

I'm planning on getting disks and pads, although they've passed an MOT I'm not convinced they're top notch having driven around for a couple of weeks now.

 

I've looked on Euro Car Parts for Pagid and Brembo options, however I'm unsure what the best options would be. Looking on the Pagid pads it has two options, those with and those without wear indicators. How do I know which I need? Is there an easy way of telling, or would I need to go and have a geek at my current set up?

 

Can anyone advise what the best option would be for a 2006 Fabia VRS? 

 

Thanks all in advance!

[KenONeill]

Pagid and Brembo are both VAG OEM suppliers; Brembo are probably better known in the UK.

 

If you have a wear indicator, there's only one, and you're looking for a wire leading to the left-hand inner brake pad.

 

Also, you're quite right to not take "passed an MoT" as an indication of anything other than legal adequacy.

[Breezy_Pete]

I don't think any UK Mk1 Fabias have wear indication?

[KeithCheetham]

 While not necessarily applicable to the VRS, my Elegance has the FS111 brakes and I found that the pads with wear indicator were actually cheaper, but dimensionally exactly the same so bought these and just cut the wire off.

[vindaloo]

A few years since I did mine now.... Got the full set of Pagids from ECP but only because there was a major promotion running at the time.

Dropped the price from £150+ to just over £100+.

 

No wear indicators.

[Avalon]

Padgid, Brembo and Bosch are what you want to look at for OE quality. Do not use Eicher - it's ECP's own brand and basically gets subbed out to whoever is cheapest, that may be a decent OEM who does good work to a high standard, or the nastiest and crappiest thing that just meets the standard. CarParts4All is ECP's online division and are generally cheaper, ECP always have a discount code/sale on and are more convenient. Call your local parts place and ask them what they can get - you'll sometimes find they offer things from known brands at better prices than ECP. For example my local parts guy is great and i'd rather know I was supporting someone local. Pay your money and take your pick.

[stevobeavo]

I'd go with brembo if you can. We use pagid at work an we've had a few issues with quality. I know the pagid pads they sell are specifically made for them at a cheaper price which could be why this has happened. 

[AmyK]

Thanks everyone for your advice, ordered a set of brembos last night. Just hope the weather clears up to fit them at the weekend!!

[rum4mo]

On ‎31‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 18:41, stevobeavo said:

I'd go with brembo if you can. We use pagid at work an we've had a few issues with quality. I know the pagid pads they sell are specifically made for them at a cheaper price which could be why this has happened. 

 

That good/bad to know about ECP and Pagid, does not surprise me though, I have discovered that they sell some bits under the Pagid banner/branding that I can't find in the Pagid electronic online catalogue. Maybe I'm getting careless, but normally I find out as much as possible about the kits of pads I buy from them and make sure that the numbering is the same as on the Pagid/Textar website (TMD Friction)!  One thing though, twice I've had to resort to emailing TMD Friction as I've not been able to match what ECP sell as being correct as far as the TMD Friction website catalogue - in both cases TMD Friction supplied the correct parts when I pointed out that, at both times, ECP were the sole importers of Pagid brake parts to UK - maybe TMD Friction need to be a bit more careful who they make deals with in the aftermarket area of business?

 

Edit:- I think that I worked out that for brake pads, ECP were stocking a "shortened" range of pads that fitted a wide range of cars, but might cause problems like noises due to ant-squeal stuff not being fitted as per the official VAG parts or as per the official TMD Friction catalogue. In one of my cases, the old B5 VW Passat that were quoted for the pads they sold was Japan only market! Slightly, very slightly different profile of backing metal, but different and used with different callipers.

Edited 2 February, 2017 by rum4mo