Recent service - Skoda approved service centre (VW Dealer)

 

Both front back plates insecure quoted £69.90 each - declined. (Assumed it must be loose screws)

The back plates are original and have not been touched from new.

Have had a look at one of them - plate is not loose, not rusty, not bent. 

Quite flimsy but that is just the design.

I do notice that the part of the back plate that sits in the fairly limited space between the between the ball joint and the disc is quite flexible - but again just part of the design. Still I'm thinking this must be what they are looking at.      -    Any thoughts.

 

 

Assume this is for the disc brake backing plates. 

The mountings get weak and this is what will cause MOT failures.  Sadly, they are usable replacement parts and not warrantable.

 

Thought I better check the other one too so I've been out and had a look. Yes I can see the problem there, one of the mountings is ripped out of the backing plate - presumably corrosion damaged rather than any great force as the rest of the backing plate is not deformed.

 

Still convinced first one is properly secured. Will need disks and pads soon so may as well get both new backing plates while the disks are off.

They are made of a special spage age alloy tin foil thats both flexible yet brittle and also corrodes faster than a Fiat, work hardens as well with the flapping around, took years to develop, earlier examples were not as succesfull as some of them were lasting more than 2 years.

 

If the second one is not as corroded and fractured as the first it will be by the time I have finished typing this.

 

They cost only slightly more to buy than the two soft drinks can that they are made from.

3 minutes ago, J.R. said:

They are made of a special spage age alloy tin foil thats both flexible yet brittle and also corrodes faster than a Fiat, work hardens as well with the flapping around, took years to develop, earlier examples were not as succesfull as some of them were lasting more than 2 years.

 

If the second one is not as corroded and fractured as the first it will be by the time I have finished typing this.

 

They cost only slightly more to buy than the two soft drinks can that they are made from.

Aye, I'm seeing that. Mine have almost made it to 5 years (despite living near coast) so have already exceeded their design life, will definitely be getting both while discs are off.

 

They just corrode around the mounting bolts, and make a fairly startling noise if they come loose, as mine did. As they were both totally insecure I applied brute force and ignorance to remove them. I did wonder how easy they would be to replace, in an ideal world they'd have their own securing screws, but it looks like they share part of the caliper mountings or something. Certainly wouldn't want to pay £70 a side to replace