Warranty Direct

[lewcurry]

Hello All!

Had a problem with my brakes on Thursday night with the passenger side brake binding on, the disc was so hot I could have cooked a breafast on it! I took it to the garage first thing Friday thinking it would be something simple only to find that my caliper has siezed and needed replacing along with new discs and pads!

I wasn't too bothered about the caliper at first because I took out a Warranty with Warranty Direct which cost

[VRStu]

I'm afraid it's one of the pitfalls of dealing with these warranty companies, they are in the business to make money.

A common choice of paint is Hammerite Smooth Green, many posts and pictures around on here if you search.

[Hoddy]

I had dealings with this lot a number of years ago when I had an ECU problem on my Fiesta RS1800. They failed to pay the claim because the problem was while I was on holiday in Belgium and it was fixed by a Belgium garage. In addition, they required the car to be serviced every 6000 miles when the manual said 12000. As a result I would not touch them with a barge pole.

[lewcurry]

Cheers for the quick reply Stu, nice interior by the way!

I looked at the smooth green at the weekend and it seemed like a brilliant match but I'm not sure if the temperature of the brakes will make it blister and peel off. I would love to be proved wrong though if any one has used it without this happening.

I know I will have no joy with the warranty to be honest, I just needed to get it of my chest. The big pain is that I really wanted Jim at Star performance to do it and fit some grooved discs but it is about an hours drive away and I think it would have done more damage than good, also it was my first wedding anniversary on Saturday and I needed the car to take us on our romantic adventure. The lad at the garage (none Skoda) was brand new, he didn't charge any labour for Friday's diagnosis work and offered to strip and paint the caliper for free so that it matched. That's the sort of service you want!

He has lubed the drivers side as welll just in case but advised me to replace it as it is very possible that it may suffer the same fate, and I would need new discs and pads again. Will just have to bite the bullet I reckon, can't afford to take the risk.

Lew

[lewcurry]

That is bad luck Hoddy. What were you supposed to do like!

Thing is I only had my car serviced at the end of January this year and was advised that I would need discs on the next service but I suppose you wouldn't be able to see the caliper piston without stripping it. It's just bugging me!

I will live and learn though, it's daft that skoda won't let you extend the warranty unless you specify it when you buy the car, specially as I bought it when it was nearly 3 years old anyway so couldn't.

[VRStu]

Cheers for the quick reply Stu, nice interior by the way!

Thanks :P

I looked at the smooth green at the weekend and it seemed like a brilliant match but I'm not sure if the temperature of the brakes will make it blister and peel off. I would love to be proved wrong though if any one has used it without this happening.

Yes it is very well tried and tested

I know I will have no joy with the warranty to be honest, I just needed to get it of my chest.

If you were prepared to take it to Small Claims I would imagine you might stand a better then 50% chance, IIRC it's about

[DGW]

I have Warranty Direct Gold Cover too. That excludes breakdown or damage to parts...caused by corrosion...that has affected the normal operation of that part(s).

[TKW]

IIRC, Warranty Direct recently got the thumbs up from Honest John (for what that's worth). I looked at them when my Octy's warranty expired, but didn't take it up in the end after reading all the exclusion clauses!

[lewcurry]

Thanks for all your advice, it's much appreciated!

My car is a 2002 Octavia VRS with 44,000 on the clock.

Not sure what to do, I have phoned Skoda UK today to see where I stand with the age of the car etc and the part failure. I will probably just get the other caliper changed and forget about it to be honest.