Advisory - brake discs worn

[ianjohnston]

Hi everyone, 

At my last MOT Skoda West End advised I need my rear brake discs replaced. I had the rear brake discs, pads, etc replaced 2 years ago and have since done 22k miles.
I have read brake-pads-replaced-after-50k-reasonable-distance and surface-of-brake-discs-rust-quickly and people seem to suggest some of it could be down to the ACC, which I do use a lot. 

However, I struggle to see how a brand new set of disks would need replaced just after 2 years ... again and again!

Additional information

* I didn't ask for actual measurements, like everyone else I got given a % 

* Its a 5 year old Skoda Kodiaq with 36k miles on the clock

From the MOT 

• Nearside Rear Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))
• Offside Rear Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))

Wonder what to do now? 
Chance it for another year? or get Autohaus to have a look?

 

The brake disc in question : 

 

 

 

 

[nta16]

It's your brakes THE most important thing on the car so if you are unsure of them then get them checked by someone good (and honest where possible) and ask for more information on them.

 

Mileage and age are a very loose measure, as with other items on the car their wear depends on the use (or lack of) and how the car is driven some drivers get through brakes, tyres and clutches more frequently than others.  Also if parts are replaced it does depend on the quality of those replaced parts as to their wear and longevity (poor in the case of VWSkoda front dampers for 2015 Fabia Mk3 I've found).

 

The wear of one part, set of parts, components or systems can also depend on the condition of other related parts, systems and components.  For example tyres are an important, and often overlooked, part of the braking system (and steering and suspension) even if they have lots of tread on them they can be aged and worn and possibly lower quality than is available.

 

Note an MoT test is only to check the vehicle meets the statutory standards to one person's opinion at one point in time only it doesn't mean the car is as good as it could or should be or that it its bad.  You only had advisories.   Dealerships will only quote for replacements on such things and may just be looking for more chargeable work to do.  At least one Briskoda poster (certainly not me) does preventative cleaning and lubricating of the brakes to prolong the brakes parts life but I doubt it's the type of work a Dealership would do well but still charge a lot of labour (and perhaps materials) for.  The discs do seem a bit marked up in those photo (might be smalls grit stones from a drive or road perhaps(?) or not and other cause(s).

 

If you have loads of "meat" on the discs and pads and all are worn evenly and they are good (or reasonable) quality perhaps never know from internet or photos for sure) a clean and lubricate might be good - but I'm not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

I wouldn't know a Kodiaq if it ran me over but my wife's Fabia Mk3 had the easiest discs and pads replacement I've ever done in my limited experience of doing such work other than the front Fabia Mk3 discs and pads which were even easier so perhaps you might want to research checking the pads and discs for yourself and even perhaps replacing them yourself IF they're anywhere near as easy as for the Fabia Mk3 that way you at least have someone you ought to be able to trust looking at it and perhaps doing the work.  Doing the work will involve borrowing or buying the necessary tools if you don't have them.  Buying the discs and pads if required at lest gives you the choice of options.

 

I bet others might say just drive the car and see what's said at the next "service" and/or MoT.

 

[Breezy_Pete]

Leave them a year.

 

[Graham Butcher]

Those discs are badly scored, I wonder if you do have issues with the brakes, I've never seen discs wear like that unless there are stones or something under the pads and are scoring the discs. Do you get any weird noises, squeaks etc coming from the wheels at all?

[skomaz]

6 hours ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Leave them a year.

 

 

Ditto...   I wouldn't be too worried about those...   They look about par for the course for rear Kodiaq brake discs. 

[Ootohere]

@Graham Butcher  Scoring like that is not uncommon oop north.

Gritting done with more grit than salt can be the cause. 

[Tilt]

Look perfectly reasonable to me too

 

Maybe cheap discs were fitted (no offence intended) ............ maybe not???

 

I say this as once I replaced the fronts on my Octavia with cheaper parts (both sets worked perfectly well) but the next time I needed a set I purchased Brembo discs. The difference visually was quite noticeable even after the new ones were well used.

[nta16]

11 minutes ago, Rooted said:

Gritting done with more grit than salt can be the cause. 

At least it scratches up the discs to a shine and gets rid of the surface rusting we get down here in the relatively balmy, if damp and wet, winters here in the East Midlands / (West) East Anglia region of England (north to Lunduners).  😊 

[Ootohere]

@nta16  The Electric Corsa i had for 3 years had the Discs replaced twice. 

That was really from lack of use as no need to use the brakes other than each time to try and take the surface rust off them.

*Not lack of miles covered because that was high.*.

Not easy to clean off braking with a e-brake for the rears, and not easy with the fronts because as soon as you touched them even a little the car came to a stop if you tried rolling down a hill. 

Edited 29 March by Rooted

[nta16]

@ianjohnston - I forgot to put, take any % worn or left figures with a large dose of salt, I can only guess they are done by (biased) eye estimations, one time my wife had to remind a chap I had  only recently replaced the front discs and pads.  Tyres tread depth is another area of wide interpretation for them, the old service tick sheets could be amusing and more so when compared against previous sheets, one time the tread on some tyres increased between two tick sheets despite the additional mileage the car had travelled and the recorded tread variance on the non-existing spare wheel was interesting, to be fair a couple of times it was noted that there wasn't a spare wheel.

 

[nta16]

Off Topic (ish) warning (and back on-topic at end)

 

@Rooted they're almost baby's bottom smooth.  😄

 

Only this afternoon my neighbour's son took away the car I was driving every three week just really to clear the rust of the brakes to stop them seizing up again (through lack of use).  I also had to keep an eye on the very small old (smaller) sized battery and use one of the chargers to keep it alive.  Not a heavy VW car or VW stop/start, so small battery, small alternator and small starter motor all very easily capable despite the lack of use over the years (decades) and lighter components than the VW stuff of course. 

 

Ended up driving it a dozen or so times round the block (about 2.5-3m) and three weeks later 15m round trip to properly warm the engine a bit and get stuff moving and used, then three weeks later round the block and so on.

 

2005 Kia Picanto, 28kmiles from one owner new, I moved it to park it when three weeks old and I didn't need to touch the accelerator or brake pedals just let the shadow of my shoes fall on them and until the front callipers were changed (about 18 months ag IIRC)  the brakes remained as sharp, only the aftermarket replacements of callipers took a little of the sharpness away still excellent brakes.

 

I found that cheap little car more fun and better to drive than my wife's 2015 (creak, creak underside, various engine noises) Fabia Mk3 and my other neighbour's car that I drive a (5k-mile) 23 plate Ren-No! Nissan.  I've been 'invited' to continue look after it (I've done a few little bits on it and gave it another good external and doors/bonnet shuts polish last week) at it's new home three-miles away (I went to school with the son) but I turned down the 'invitation'.

 

Another 71 plate neighbourhood car that had been standing for 6-weeks, I asked my wife to drive round the block to clear the rust off the disc as I wasn't insured for it.  It started fine and the lights were bright. 😄  Stupid electronic handbrake fitted, manual gears luckily, so heavy foot breaking only, 20 times round and nowhere near enough, 15m/gallon use and only half a gallon left in the tank so a fuel top up and night time empty dual-carriageway driving required to possibly clear some more (but it's been standing more since then) .   I tried fully charging the battery on the car with my 4-amp "smart" charger but after a long time still not full joy so the next week I took the battery off the car to try in the shed with a secret weapon but still no full joy and the battery is fully glued shut so it's a knackered cell at least.  Did mean I could refit the battery hold clamp and terminal connector better than the Dealership that had last messed with them but one post was badly scored so the clamp had to remain over closed up.  Proof that the car has only been touched by the Dealership.  😞

 

Be interesting when the Dealership comes up to collect it for the MoT (and perhaps annual service) particularly if my wife isn't able to take it for a cleaning run of the rusty brakes, I think an Advisory might be optimistic then, definitely be a quote for new brake parts regardless from the Dealership which might embolden them to quote for other things as yet unknown.  Well see mid-April (earliest booking from a couple of weeks ago, what cost of living crisis).

 

Edited 29 March by nta16
spelling

[Ootohere]

@nta16 The fronts are, but then they were only on a matter of weeks.

As to the rears, you should not go to Spec Savers, get a proper optician.     3 sets in 3 years,  and the car will have got a 4th set before the new owner got the car. 

 

They were the worst i have had in decades, the only ones near as bad have been on Fabias. 

 

PS

My Picanto automatic only did 26,000 in 7 years and on the original discs.

There was an advisory at 3 years old that they were pitted. @17,429 miles.

 

Edited 29 March by Rooted

[nta16]

41 minutes ago, Rooted said:

My Picanto automatic only did 26,000 in 7 years and on the original discs.

There was an advisory at 3 years old that they were pitted. @17,429 miles.

It's rough at the Pole.  SpecSavers or not I can see your problem with your Picanto - it's those flash wheels.  😁

 

My Suzuki Cappuccino would need clearing after only a week of standing sometimes (proper 3-pot turbo engine). 

 

If I remember I'll put up the neglected Ren-No! brake discs, if they don't fog up the camera (not phone) lens, they're mountain road automatic handbrake and downhill assist, never mind Schodder the French are so "simply clever". 😆

 

[kodiaqsportline]

10 hours ago, ianjohnston said:

At my last MOT Skoda West End advised I need my rear brake discs replaced. I had the rear brake discs, pads, etc replaced 2 years ago and have since done 22k miles.
I have read brake-pads-replaced-after-50k-reasonable-distance and surface-of-brake-discs-rust-quickly and people seem to suggest some of it could be down to the ACC, which I do use a lot. 

However, I struggle to see how a brand new set of disks would need replaced just after 2 years ... again and again!

* Its a 5 year old Skoda Kodiaq with 36k miles on the clock

From the MOT 

• Nearside Rear Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))
• Offside Rear Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))

Wonder what to do now? 
Chance it for another year? or get Autohaus to have a look?

 

Discs and pads must be about the most common subject on all VW group platforms. 'Made of cheese' is a popular description.

 

The ACC itheory is rubbish. The only common denominator is vehicles with electronic handbrakes. I'd suggest that's the culprit.

 

Don't know if you've seen any of my posts about the subject but at just over 13k miles, my Kodiaq failed it's 1st MOT.  It was taken for a brake check at ATS prior to the MOT, I was advised the brakes would need to be changed within the year. I then took the car for a service at Skoda and they said much the same. The car then went for an MOT elsewhere and failed due to the brakes.

 

I accepted they needed changing but as I've said many times on this forum, if we're disappointed in the longevity of the original parts, what's the sense in replacing them with the same OEM parts?  So with that in mind, if you've covered 36k and have gone thru 2 sets of OEM discs and pads then it comes as no surprise to me that they're an advisory.

 

What did I do? Well I accepted what the MOT tester said.  (It was only when the car was put on a rolling road that the problem was found to be worse than they first thought). Even if they were replacing them at half price there was no way I was going to replace the originals with the same parts.

 

What I did was go to EuroCarParts, select branded discs and pads, and used their fitting service - all for a fraction of the price quoted by Skoda, cheaper than the fast-fit centres wanted, and cheaper than my local indi's wanted.

 

Forums?  Forums are full of armchair experts telling you everyone is wrong and what not to do. Few people ever say what you should do, or where you should go to have work carried out. Aparently dealers only exist to screw you and you should never trust a thing they say.

 

Despite the above saga, and without even a photo,  I actually had people on here telling me that my original brakes were perfectly OK and that the three different people who examined my brakes were all lying.     That's armchair experts for you.

 

I replaced them with Bosch discs and pads so there's some ammunition for the armchair experts to tell me they're crap too.

 

The parts came to around £110 and fitting was something like £70 using a garage from EuroCarParts ' Fit it for me' facility.

 

As soon as they were replaced it was a different car. I hadn't realised just how much of a noise the old OEM rust buckets were making - I'd just grown used to it over time.

 

Hope that helps.

 

https://www.eurocarparts.com/brake-discs

Edited 29 March by kodiaqsportline

[nta16]

3 hours ago, nta16 said:

SpecSavers or not I can see your problem with your Picanto - it's those flash wheels.  😁

@Rooted just seen why you were confused, I've just noticed the Vauxhall badge on the wheel, I thought they were wheels on the Picanto.  😄  Perhaps I should go to SpecSaver instead of the expensive local independent optician but I do have wonky eyes so need extra care with lenses, even if I got less expensive frame (easily possible) lenses are still expensive, few people see me in my glasses as I can't afford to wear them out.  😆

[nta16]

Good points about the (to me PITA) electronic handbrakes which I had forgot about (or blank from my mind) and about judging things by photos and over the internet, better made than my clumsy attempt at the same.

 

Up to Ian to decide if and what work, if any, he needs/wants done, could be either end of what's been suggested or something in the middle.  On our own cars we might do as we've suggested or we might do differently, perhaps as others have suggested, none of us are the other person, what might be right for one person may be less suitable for another person.  If my wife has any concerns about something on her car that she drives it's of no matter if that something doesn't cause me concern.