OE / TRW rear disc distress :)

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Heya. I know the OE rear brakes are known for being a bit rubbish, but...

 

Two years ago my 2014 VRS was in for an MOT at the main stealer. Brakes looked ok to me before presenting the car, but a phone call came to say it will fail on excess corrosion to the rear discs. Asked for £220 to replace, managed to haggle that down to £200. This was the second set the car was on, so they fitted a third set. It's done 60k.

 

Anyway this week, with the MOT looming, the rear discs looked a bit flaky, so I cracked the wheels off to give them a good looking over.

 

Christ, what a horror show! The outsides looked a wee bit ropey, but the inner faces? Resembled well-used boat anchors. Worse still, the pads were only contacting about 15mm in the very centre of the swept area. The rest of the discs were crusty, with pitting and actual holes. After just 24 months and 10,000 miles. Shocking.

 

Apart from the poor quality, any ideas why the inner faces of the discs start to lose contact with the pads top and bottom? The calipers are in great condition. After giving them a clean, they are spot on. Was easy to wind the pistons back in. No sign of split rubber boots. And the floating pins on the carrier were equally good. Boots fine, lots of grease inside. nice shiny pins, no stiction. So I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why this is happening?

 

Anyway fitted some nice Brembos now. They look to be better quality than the stock TRWs, but time will tell I guess.

 

Edited 17 November, 2023 by Ray Luxury-Yacht

[inspectorman]

Saab rear discs at 109K. Audi never changed in 125K. Every Skoda I've had in the past decade; OEM rear discs dead at 24K, 28K, .. need to inspect my Octavia at 26K when the winters go on. At least you got the message this time. Pads too I hope..... and the last time too??

[ords]

Mine all original at 65K. No signs of rust at all.

[Gabbo]

On my vRS I managed 9 years & 180k km with my discs/pads.

I replaced the rears for the same reason as you, pretty bad corrosion rather than completely worn before the equivalent MoT check this year.

Mostly highway mileage & very little braking so I was quite happy with that.

The new ones the main dealer fitted seem to create a lot of dust so I'm not sure they will last the same...

Maybe the service parts are cheaper than the factory ones?? 

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

On 18/11/2023 at 14:45, inspectorman said:

Saab rear discs at 109K. Audi never changed in 125K. Every Skoda I've had in the past decade; OEM rear discs dead at 24K, 28K, .. need to inspect my Octavia at 26K when the winters go on. At least you got the message this time. Pads too I hope..... and the last time too??

 

I did get the message, yes haha!

 

Ok so spent a nice afternoon fitting my new Brembos. Apart from the swines of hidden M14 bolts holding on the carriers, it was all pretty easy to do on the driveway.

The sliding pins were all fine, but I cleaned them out and re-greased them anyway. Calipers in nice condition, no signs of seizure, pistons wound back nice and easy.

 

The Brembo parts are visibly better quality than the OE stuff in my opinion. One thing which is nice is that there is like a hammered metal finish grey paint on the parts of the disc which aren't contact surfaces. So they shouldn't corrode. Pedal came up nicely after an hour or so's driving. Looking at the contact surfaces now, it appears the pads have bedded in nicely both sides.

 

Cost for the Brembo discs and pads from Euros was £138 all in. Pretty good I thought.

 

Best news of all was she flew through the MOT today at the main stealers. They didn't make any comments at all. So I'm well happy. 

 

Hope this info helps others. Cheers!

 

ETA: You get replacement slider pin bolts and even the little screws which hold the discs on with the Brembos too...

 

Edited 24 November, 2023 by Ray Luxury-Yacht