2 hours ago, alfalincs said:

Catching the wheels on the discguards when removing the wheels ?  Who does that anyway, and even if you did it should only damage them if they are made of foil. Do you seriously have to take a front hub out to replace them ? I flippin hope not. It seems like there are three torx headed screws...and as long as you can get at them.

 

Anyone who, when on their knees leaning into the wheelarch, with the full weight of the wheel and tyre in their hands doesn't pull the wheel off the hub and towards them far enough before lowering the wheel to the ground. The outer edge of the disc guard is already quite close to the inner rim of the alloy wheel.

 

So, I'd imagine more people than you might think.

 

They are indeed made of foil, I cut mine off easily with a pair of tin snips...

 

And there you can witness that without putting a cut in the new one the hub has to be removed to fit it, thanks for the photograph.

 

I think that we can all agree that they are crap quality compared to earlier vehicles, with all the stifness and rigidity of a wet lettuce leaf.

 

I do disagree however that the factory fitted ones are 2 pack epoxy painted, they are simply electrostatic painted over bare untreated unprimed metal, not even powder coated.

 

I also disagree that the failure mode shown so well in the photo (thanks for that!) is initiated of provoked by the weight of the wheel coming into contact with the shield, as thin as they are that one off or occasional loading will not take the material beyond its elastic limit around the boltholes, indeed the tensile stress is only beneath the fasteners, the material is in compression above. No they are too flimsy, ill protected and weaken very quickly with corrosion, that exacerbated by them being flimsy and vibrating causes fatigue cracks at the stress raisers around the fasteners which have been weakend by corrosion.

 

Once they get close to self destruct if you drop a wheel on them you will simply give them the coup de grace.

 

I never lift a wheel on and off a hub as described although would do if I had a vehicle lift, I sit with my legs either side of the wheel, knees slightly bent and lift the wheel on and off with the inside of my shins, for anything really heavy like a truck tyre I use a shovel!

I upgraded my mk2 from 288mm to 312mm. When I did that at a good Skoda dealer, they advised they wouldn’t bother with larger shield themselves. At approx 130k miles later, the brakes had always been fine, the callipers fine, everything else fine.

 

maybe they should use say composite or plastic that can take heat and doesn’t rust. That or make them trivial to change without removing anything else and cheap.

 

i would go as far to say the axle without was cleaner. I will however admit they might reduce somewhat water on the disk surface when driving in poor conditions.

Edited 3 January, 20206 yr by cheezemonkhai

4 hours ago, flybynite said:

think you are confusing brake cleaner with carb cleaner. The solvents in brake cleaner won't remove cured paint especially the 2-pack paint the shields are painted with. It will soften powder coating but I don't powder-coat my brakes

Nope Brake cleaner desolves paint over time, and so does carb/injector cleaner, both contain petroleum dissafates which is known to effect effect any painted surface, so does other solvents. As JR says they are NOT painted in two pack paint or powder coated, they come of the production line and given a very basic spray of satin black, they may get 2 or more coats, depends on manufacture, but because they not a cosmetic item thats all they get.

 

4 hours ago, flybynite said:

Is there any better time to replace dust shields than when the disk is off for replacement? Or do you just charge for all that work again when they need replacing?

 

woulden't you, my employer has a huge company to run, the get quoted for if found to be braking away, but it's by no means a routine service check. At the most it's an hours labour plus parts plus vat to replace them.

 

4 hours ago, flybynite said:

I don't, mine are still going well some at well over 100K cleaned as above

owned a nissan primera that had all its origanal backplates at 170k, never once cleaned them, would still have that car if a drunk driver hadn't rammed me and wrote the car off at 8 o'clock in the morning some 10 years ago now.

Edited 3 January, 20206 yr by Ju1ian1001

6 hours ago, alfalincs said:

Do you seriously have to take a front hub out to replace them

 

Not the front, but you do have to do that at the back, not an issue really.

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

I never lift a wheel on and off a hub as described although would do if I had a vehicle lift, I sit with my legs either side of the wheel, knees slightly bent and lift the wheel on and off with the inside of my shins, for anything really heavy like a truck tyre I use a shovel!

I tend to slightly lift and tilt the wheel towards me if on a lift or do as you when on the floor, never caught a backplate yet, if the wheel has corroded to the hub a put a wheelnut/bolt back in till it is almost home it a tap on the back with a copper mallet (the copper won't damage or crack the rim) until it breaks the corrosion and then as above.

15 minutes ago, Ju1ian1001 said:

Brake cleaner desolves paint over time,

 

Put it in a bath of the stuff for a year and I will give you that, Put a tooth in coke it is gone next day but most peoples mouths don't dissolve drinking a glass full

 

1/4 tin over the brakes, catch the residue filled with brake dust and leave to evaporate does a lot less than 12 months of brake dust.

 

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

I do disagree however that the factory fitted ones are 2 pack epoxy painted,

 

The ones I have on the bench are not e-coated. I don't know of many parts that are not painted 2K these days. Not all 2K paints are epoxy

2 hours ago, J.R. said:

I never lift a wheel on and off a hub as described

 

I just use a wheel hanging bar (sometimes two) 

2 minutes ago, flybynite said:

The ones I have on the bench are not e-coated. I don't know of many parts that are not painted 2K these days. Not all 2K paints are epoxy

Considering most car plants in the world now use waterbased paints because 2K paint is VERY VERY toxic then most parts nowadays are not 2k painted anymore, i didn't say e coated they are painted in the normal sense of the word. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, Ju1ian1001 said:

Considering most car plants in the world now use waterbased paints because 2K paint is VERY VERY toxic then most parts nowadays are not 2k painted anymore, i didn't say e coated they are painted in the normal sense of the word. 

 

You didn't say they were e-coated @J.R. did. I agree they are painted in the normal sense.

 

There are many 2K paints today that do not contain isocyanates or polyisocyanates used where extra durability over waterborne paints is required (like underbody components)

I had the front two go within 8 months of one another just annoying more than anything.

Hi All, 

 

Sorry to bump a thread from the dead but I have had the same backing plate failure on my 2013 Octavia III.  I've ordered the parts from Skoda as I didn't want the head-ache of the variants listed on the internet. 

 

Does the disc need to come off to fit the replacements? I think it might need to but if anyone can confirm that would make it quicker for me to fetch the right tools when I fit this coming weekend. 

 

Many thanks.

On 03/01/2020 at 02:17, flybynite said:

 

You didn't say they were e-coated @J.R. did. I agree they are painted in the normal sense.

 

There are many 2K paints today that do not contain isocyanates or polyisocyanates used where extra durability over waterborne paints is required (like underbody components)

 

He said electrostatic painted not even powder coated.

 

In any case its the thinnest coat of paint known to man, I reckon its electrostatically applied (this does not mean powder coated) because of the H&S requirements in the Western world and simply that there are far fewer paint losses through overspray.

 

I doubt that either of us could tell the difference between a thin coat of crap paint craply applied from an electrostatic spray gun or a Chinese aerosol, the bacofoil disc backplates would last no longer with one or the other.

The brake design on 2013-2016/7 non face lifted cars is not as good as the 2017-20 FL cars.

 

What seems to be a killer for the guards is salt and dirt that is not washed off. I think the guards were designed to stop stones and detritus getting into the brakes. It didn't work that well. A lot of non-FL car owners will have experienced jamed stones either in the disc or in between the guard and the disc. Neither is ideal.

 

Our 2016 4x4 SE Octavia had rotten protectors at 50k miles. The car got sold on before we had them replaced. Note to all pre-FL car owners....wash all the salt and dirt regularly from your wheels. It will slow the rot.

My rear left stone guard fell over last year - made a terrible screeching sound! I limped home making a hell of a racket and my local mechanic whipped it off for £38.50. Didn’t seem bothered about needing to replace it when I questioned him, but I wasn’t about to spend money on it. Now the rear right one has done the same! Spent £13.50 on Amazon and bought some tin snips and cut it off myself! 
 

I’ll scrap the car before there will be any issues from dust and heat etc etc. We live on a busy road - car has been hit a number of times. I’m afraid of buying a newer one! To be fair, I’d rather go electric next... 

Here's 4 years / 99k km "old" front splash guard. Corrosion at bolt's bores.

Replaced it yesterday with same OE aluminum new crap.

On 22/04/2021 at 12:05, indars said:

Here's 4 years / 99k km "old" front splash guard. Corrosion at bolt's bores.

Replaced it yesterday with same OE aluminum new crap.

 

Same happened with my Octy, but a front one.

 

The shields are aluminium, the screws are steel (but plated). Put aluminium and steel together and you get galvanic corrosion occur. My shields on my previous car (steel, they looked rusty but still solid) lasted a full 10 years and were never touched.

 

My theory is, as the screws are tightened, the paint may be disrupted on the shield and then allows this to occur. I put a smear of grease under the screw heads (I toyed with the idea of a fibre/rubber washer), and the mating faces on the back, just as an experiment.

 

Mine was 4 1/2 years old when it failed... To replace the front you need to remove the caliper, caliper bracket and brake disc.

 

Edited 24 June, 20214 yr by micro

It looks like I will change these when I do the front break discs. The OEM one seems to have poor quality, so most likely I’ll be an aftermarket splash shield. Any recommendations for non-OEM brand?
Even if the non-OEM don’t last longer, they will certainly cost less.

 

BTW do the rears suffer from the same issue?

Edited 29 June, 20214 yr by fr1nklyn

4 hours ago, fr1nklyn said:

It looks like I will change these when I do the front break discs. The OEM one seems to have poor quality, so most likely I’ll be an aftermarket splash shield. Any recommendations for non-OEM brand?
Even if the non-OEM don’t last longer, they will certainly cost less.

 

BTW do the rears suffer from the same issue?

 

There is a mix of front and rears on this thread. If my theory is correct, if the screws haven't been tightened so hard as to damage the paint where the screw heads/mounting face sits, then they should last fine.

 

If your plates are in good nick, I wouldn't touch em personally. I'm not replacing any more of mine (and important to note that the one that failed had likely been removed/reinstalled at some point in my car's life before I had it according to service documents).

Are you sure that they are aluminium?

 

Every Skoda backplate I have replaced, & there have been many, have been steel.

45 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Are you sure that they are aluminium?

 

Every Skoda backplate I have replaced, & there have been many, have been steel.

The weight, and the fact they're not magnetic in the slightest leads me to believe that - and the corrosion is white and powdery in nature, not rust.

 

The weight id liken to that of a foil dish you'd make a flan in.

Edited 29 June, 20214 yr by micro

It certainly sounds that way but the steel ones I have replaced were even thinner & floppier than aluminium pie dishes!

 

They were however eaten away with rust elsewhere and yours look undamaged aside from the fixing lugs but that was the exact point of failure on the steel ones.

2 weeks ago I had this issue too. I have the car for 2 years, I don’t know if someone changed it before. My car is Octavia 3 2016. I changed also the one from right side to be sure that I won’t have this problem soon. I was on highway and suddenly some noise came up. It got stuck in the wheel but nothing bad happened.