Took my MkII Octavia in for a repair to a sticking handbrake cable. The dealer's "health check" highlighted "front discs excessively corroded on inside face....braking surface is breaking up". The dealer sent me a video of the vehicle inspection, but it's hard for me to tell from this how bad the corrosion is. Attached is a snapshot of the video where the technician mention the corrosion.

 

I know the picture's not great, but from what I can see, the surface of the disc doesn't appear to be breaking up, can anyone opine?

 

The car is now seven years old (I've had it for roughly 4 of those years) and I don't think the front discs have ever been replaced. Is this potential level of corrosion common (I guess it can depend on other factors like where you live, where it's parked overnight, does the vehicle regularly travel over salty roads etc)?

Looks like quite a big lip on the outer edge. Tap it hard all the way round with a hammer and the rusty lip will probably come off.

 

If there is still a big lip after that it may be worth replacing them. I put Pagid disks and pads on mine and they have been great.

 

Always quick to find these issues with brakes. Happens to them all. The sticking point is when the pads get low enough to catch the disk  lip. If they pass a brake test on MOT they are ok surely my personal opinion from my experience. They do give you an advisory for the rust. Please do check all 4 pads inner and outer for equal wear and replace disks and pads together next time. 

11 hours ago, FatblokeVRS said:

Looks like quite a big lip on the outer edge. Tap it hard all the way round with a hammer and the rusty lip will probably come off.

 

 

Be careful with that. Brake discs usually are made from cast iron - a material that is rather brittle.

Edited 6 July, 20178 yr by Jevpls
found a spelling mistake

On 7/5/2017 at 17:39, silasramsbottom said:

Took my MkII Octavia in for a repair to a sticking handbrake cable. The dealer's "health check" highlighted "front discs excessively corroded on inside face....braking surface is breaking up". The dealer sent me a video of the vehicle inspection, but it's hard for me to tell from this how bad the corrosion is. Attached is a snapshot of the video where the technician mention the corrosion.

 

I know the picture's not great, but from what I can see, the surface of the disc doesn't appear to be breaking up, can anyone opine?

 

The car is now seven years old (I've had it for roughly 4 of those years) and I don't think the front discs have ever been replaced. Is this potential level of corrosion common (I guess it can depend on other factors like where you live, where it's parked overnight, does the vehicle regularly travel over salty roads etc)?

That is a fairly large lip i can see, but if the pads have quite a bit of "meat" left on them then don't change the disc's, let the pads wear out and then change pads and discs at the same time. The reason i'm saying this is if u fit new pads on them discs it ruin the pads very quickly and may cause squealing or other issues.

 

Fit decent brand of brakes like brembo or pagid for best results.

Probably chuck the lot sooner than later and be safe and have other road users feeling safe.

7 years is pretty good for what is often rather crap discs as Skoda fit.

 

When were the brake pads replaced, ever in the past 4 years in your ownership?

Seems to be a common problem.  My car needed new discs all round at 42K miles/5 years due to heavy corrosion.  The edge of the discs were crumbling away.

 

Never had the problem on early cars, even after 6 years and 85K miles.

Are we saying the general concencous is fit Pagid or Brembo from GSF rather than the VAG economy/or standard range?

 

Do these disks not rust on the lip as much?

It's nice to know fit first time with TPS stuff though. 

The dealers love flagging up the brakes as needing remedial action, after all who is going to risk it with something as important as brakes?

 

Better still claim its the inside edge which the customer can't easily see and provide a grainy video to prove the issue exists.

 

As I found out they also use it as an opportunity to create unnecessary work.

 

Get a second opinion.

Do they brake well still?

How long ago last mot'd and was there any advisory?

 

If answered yes to first question and no to advisory, then i would wait until mot. They cannot have degrade that much within one year or less, imo.

 

I'll bet this was a main dealer....get an independent to replace the discs they're not expensive.

 

I'm running ebc pads and discs all round on mine. To be fair ive got very little runt on them even on the top part of the disc!