Talking about wheels and things, I was checking my tyres again today - I need to change one very soon - when I noticed that the front brake discs had some very fine cracks in them. I don't recall ever seeing this before, and have been looking into replacing them, but is this a common Skoda thing - and are they just superficial or something more serious?

This really needs a photograph or two in good light and sharp focus @Salopshire

picture ?

I'll try and sort something out as soon as I can.

Personally, I would have bought a genuine one via ebay UK, the plastic needs to be as high quality as VW Group original ones - or you will get very disappointed when you need to change a wheel quickly - in fact I did buy a spare genuine VW Group one via ebay UK complete with a spare set of bolt covers for my car, just can't remember where I put the spare wheel bolt cover set!

 

I've bought VW China plastic trim once in the past as it was the only place to buy the trim I wanted for a B5 Passat 4Motion - and it was very "funky" not same as VW Group Europe stuff.

Genuine high quality VW group plastic 🤣

 

Most of it these days is made from recycled dildos!

 

Look at how many radiator expansion tanks go brittle & degrade from the 5 minutes of sunshine they are lucky to get once or twice a year.

 

Just tried one on a penny washer in the vice, it grips just fine and I can pull it with all my strength, more than strong enough for the plastic wheel nut covers also the counterbores they sit in hold the extraction tool tight, you have to clip it into place. It was well designed by VAG, these ones are a bit longer also.

This morning I managed to get the wheel off and put the spare wheel on. To get the wheel nut covers off I fashioned a tool from a large jubilee clip. It took no time at all and it worked perfectly - I cut off the screw part of the clip which left me with a  length of metal strip about eight inches long. I made this into a U shape and just bent a small amount of the ends over - on the inside, obviously. It pulled the nut covers off very easily.

 

Going back to the 'cracks;' in the brake disc. With the wheel off I could see them much better. They aren't cracks but concentric marks which seem to correspond to the shape of the brake pads. Nothing to worry about I'm sure.

18 hours ago, J.R. said:

Genuine high quality VW group plastic 🤣

 

Most of it these days is made from recycled dildos!

 

Look at how many radiator expansion tanks go brittle & degrade from the 5 minutes of sunshine they are lucky to get once or twice a year.

 

Just tried one on a penny washer in the vice, it grips just fine and I can pull it with all my strength, more than strong enough for the plastic wheel nut covers also the counterbores they sit in hold the extraction tool tight, you have to clip it into place. It was well designed by VAG, these ones are a bit longer also.

 

Ah well so maybe made in China is now okay for VW Group parts, certainly China has been supplying certain petrol filters for many years, maybe we must need change our minds about that source, or t least I should - the front grills for that 2000 VW Passat were complete junk when compared with any VW Group trims from European sources.

Skoda has a production facility in China I believe to serve the asiatic market, certainly I buy a lot of genuine VAG parts from Ali-Express that are made in China and are excellent OE quality identical to the parts they are to replace, some examples are trim items, overhead storage locker for spectacles etc,always far cheaper than sourced in Europe.

 

These things come from very complicated and expensive injection mould tooling and the market is far to small for anyone to be tooling up for and producing either aftermarket or counterfeit OE ones, its just another channel to market for OE spares.

 

Granted my wheel bolt cap tool is not a VAG part but then its not mission critical either.

Yes well China wisely said "if you want to sell your cars to us, you will make cars here" - just like USA and some other places demanded  (work share).

On 13/02/2020 at 13:50, J.R. said:

Yes a few days ago but I could not remember what thread to update 😞

 

They are longer and look more substantial than the OE VAG one.

 

Mine has arrived now. I have to say that it looks a ridiculously flimsy thing to have been sent halfway round the world. I think the one I made from a jubilee clip will outlast it.

It seems equally robust/flimsy as the VAG original, neither bear comparison to rolled steel.

 

Does yours work though? My Yeti is in a different country, it worked on a penny washer of a similar diameter.

12 hours ago, Salopshire said:

 

Mine has arrived now. I have to say that it looks a ridiculously flimsy thing to have been sent halfway round the world. I think the one I made from a jubilee clip will outlast it.

Does it work and do the job?

I tried it on a couple of wheel nut covers and, yes, it pulled them off ok. However, how long it will last remains to be seen.

My experience with the genuine VW Group ones is, they work okay, what I have done, is to apply some superlub grease to all the contact areas on all the covers to stop light corrosion on the bolt heads gripping the covers.

 

With any VW Group car we have owned, we have not had any issues with covers falling/flying off and getting lost - some people with some models/marques within VW Group, have had issue and so applying superlub grease will not be useful for them.

 

Another thing, I swop wheels/tyres every roughly 6 months, so these bolt covers never get "seized" to the bolt heads, so maybe my cover removal tool does not get heavily used - obviously I did become aware that if only ever removing these bolt covers when sorting out a puncture/brakes etc would lead to bolt covers becoming tight/seized to the bolt heads - I had that on my S4 bought used, so that was why I started applying a touch/spot of superlub grease - to save me any grief at puncture time!

I use the genuine tool that came with the car-After I purchased another one, not realising I actually had one, tucked away in the boot of the car! I think it was either in the plastic/foam tool holder that holds the tyre inflator and additional bits or actually underneath this. So a spare is handy but you may just have one. 

To go further, I am pee'd off with tyre repair/replacement companies just quickly "Yanking" the caps off with liars, scuffing and chewing lumps off them so I now use the tool on any tyre related visit and take them off myself.

 

I think I will now make sure I replace them too as after having two rear tyres replaced, I found within a week or two, two caps missing. Bizarrely, one off each wheel. My first thought was that someone had pinched them, then I thought perhaps the tyre fitter failed to push them on firmly enough so they just "Spun off".

 

Bah-either way!

My experience of spotting missing caps on cars on forecourts and at auctions are that the wrong caps have been forced on to the locking wheel nut meaning that the larger cover will have been put onto one of the 4 normal sized ones and have then come off when the car was driven.

On 22/01/2020 at 13:30, Pirate76 said:

In a perfect world as its the front I'd put a pair of new tyres on, not good to mix and match, unless it's same as other side and nearly same tread depth

 

i agree with this...

i once got a full set of 4tyres for my 2001 golf4 1.6 at costco, manchester because they were %off bargains..the set..michelins

...the fitter said two of mine still had a bit of mileage on them and said to keep them at home and bring them back later and he would fit them when the other 2 needed replaced. it was about 3 months

 

during this process of fitting the initial 2 new only ....they put them on the back and put the part worns on the front

he showed me a notice about tyre fitting saying that if fitting 2 new they are advisable on the rear to avoid the rear end moving out on slippery situations....etc

what say you chaps?...i never thought that was the way to do it...front or rear drive car...

 

 

On 22/01/2020 at 13:30, Pirate76 said:

In a perfect world as its the front I'd put a pair of new tyres on, not good to mix and match, unless it's same as other side and nearly same tread depth

 

 

On 22/01/2020 at 13:30, Pirate76 said:

In a perfect world as its the front I'd put a pair of new tyres on, not good to mix and match, unless it's same as other side and nearly same tread depth

 

 

Edited 22 February, 20206 yr by mrcrow
mistakes