On the 1st May, my June 2023 Karoq was booked in to the Skoda dealer as the brakes were juddering and vibration coming up the steering.

This had been going on for some time but had gradually got worse.

They diagnosed rust and pitted discs and recommended replacing the front discs and pads for £502.

 

So the car was 10 months old and, at the time of the booking had done 5,900 miles.

The dealer said it wasn't a warranty item as the car was over 6 months old and had done, at the time of the diagnostic, 6,010 miles.

So they refused to treat it as a warranty issue and I have raised a case with Skoda UK.

 

Has anyone had a similar problem and what was the outcome?

They are clearly using an inferior disc. Are they expecting me to pay out £500 every 10 months for new discs?

 

By the way, we have a 10 year old yeti with the original discs.

Hi and welcome.

 

I'd say that discs now need to be changed almost as often as the pads due to the change away from asbestos and other nasties in the pads. Almost all new cars just need to see some moisture in the air, and they'll show corrosion after a few hours on the discs.

15 hours ago, Richard9352 said:

On the 1st May, my June 2023 Karoq was booked in to the Skoda dealer as the brakes were juddering and vibration coming up the steering.

This had been going on for some time but had gradually got worse.

They diagnosed rust and pitted discs and recommended replacing the front discs and pads for £502.

 

So the car was 10 months old and, at the time of the booking had done 5,900 miles.

The dealer said it wasn't a warranty item as the car was over 6 months old and had done, at the time of the diagnostic, 6,010 miles.

So they refused to treat it as a warranty issue and I have raised a case with Skoda UK.

 

Has anyone had a similar problem and what was the outcome?

They are clearly using an inferior disc. Are they expecting me to pay out £500 every 10 months for new discs?

 

By the way, we have a 10 year old yeti with the original discs.

 

Had a similar issue with our Yeti.    

 

3 sets of discs in 4 years and 15k miles.

 

The car was only used at weekends and sometimes could be two weeks left stood so the discs would surface rust in between use. 

Sounds a bit like my use, but my car can be left unused for up to 4 or 5 months when off travelling.  When not being used she is in the garage on a CTEK charger.  Re brakes, also had bad juddering and needed front pads and discs changed at 3 1/2 years and shade over 20k miles, £406 at Guildford Skoda dealer.

They could stop this by using discs that are heat treated - GM did it in the US after so many customer complaints.

 

All you can do yourself is don't "baby" the brakes - whenever the opportunity arises and it's safe to do so, brake heavily, but ease off just before you stop. Don't do things like wash the car, hosing the life out of the wheels, then not use it for a week - I always take mine around the village to dry the brakes.

 

The trouble is, once rust sets in it rubs away the pad and so you can never clean the disc so you can end up braking on a thin strip of shiny disc.  The back of the disc is usually worse than the front.

At 10 months old the rust and pitting will not be severe enough to warrant changing the discs, take it out to a safe place ideally downhill and do a repeated series of full on ABS emergency stops from as high a speed as you can to deglaze the discs but ease off just before coming to a stop (credit to Rory for that!), the ABS may not even work initially if they are very bad, only stop when you feel the pedal becoming very spongy but dont stop driving, carry on to allow the brakes to cool, if you have to slow down do so gently allowing plenty of stopping distance, they will be so hot at that point as to be quite ineffective, when you get home dont apply the handbrake instead leave the car in gear and chock the wheels if you desire.

 

Do not drive it again for several hours better still leave overnight, the juddering will be gone and the braking transformed, when you feel it starting to return you can just do a much reduced version of the above or simply drive it like you stole it once in a while.

Edited 14 May, 20242 yr by J.R.

23 minutes ago, Rory said:

All you can do yourself is don't "baby" the brakes - whenever the opportunity arises and it's safe to do so, brake heavily, but ease off just before you stop. Don't do things like wash the car, hosing the life out of the wheels, then not use it for a week - I always take mine around the village to dry the brakes.

 

Very good advice for prevention and continued maintenance while driving, better explained than my "drive it like you stole it"

Many thanks for the replies and I will try to find a safe place to do the JR manouvers.

I am quite a light braker so maybe that's contributed.

I am currently waiting for Skoda and the dealer to get back to me.

They may well offer a compromise but I am really unhappy to have to pay anything for a 10 month old car.

If worst happens and they wont help, has anyone gone down the Small Claims Court route for something like this.

£500 is daylight robbery just for the front pair of pads and discs.
The discs should be around £50-60 / wheel, and a set of 4 pads should be around the £50 mark too.
The job is an hour worth roughly, especially just for the fronts.
We're looking around £150 for parts, not the cheapest but also not the most expensive options.
Paying a garage £350 for an hour worth of work is extortionate. Especially that you're not even paying the bloke who's sweating with your breaks, just some greasy haired guy in the office chair somewhere.
I didn't even pay that much for labour for a gearbox replacement on my older car...

Most other garages will do all 4 brakes for that much.

 

You don't need to take the car to the dealer to do the servicing to keep the warranty.

Yes, in the event that I don't get a satisfactory outcome with Skoda, I will go to a local garage for a quote.

 

Any recomendation for the Disc Manufacturer? Certainly not Skoda replacements.

Quite frankly, the whole issue has shaken my confidence in VW.

 

PS: I have tried the fierce braking solution and the car is sitting on the drive with the handbrake off.

 

I'm not sure what parts Skoda is using to replace the brakes, doubt that it's "Skoda" branded, but most likely it's the lower end of the choices as usual for cost savings.

I usually get Bosch discs and pads. Never failed me, and they don't squeak.

 

For thehandbrake bit: the car autoapplies the handbreak when you get turn the engine off, or open the driver side door with the engine running.

Not happy with my Kamiq front brakes (very worn down for 18k miles use) I've ordered a set of Brembo discs/pads. All in delivered £82 so they can't be much more for the Karoq, probably £100-£120 tops I reckon.

If you have a few tools and a jack it's easy enough.

Incidentally my rear brakes were replaced for the MOT, apparently the dealer said they were past their best, rusty/pitted. I've just sold a SEAT traded in to them, renewed the rears on that after 10 years and 36k miles, rusty not worn out though. The fronts were fine after 10 years (I bought the car new) but I would have changed them this year had I kept the car.

Yep cheapo materials like brake discs now being supplied when building these Skodas.

Our 1.5 SEL Manual is nearly 6 years old and 31000 miles and it is  still on its original brakes.

The car is often laid up for several weeks and we live on the Pennines ( 9 months of winter and 3 of bad weather) so every chance for derious rust to set in. A bit of surface rust is apparent that soon dissapears when driving.

 

Perhaps later models have inferior disc material?

 

 

Skoda UK have come back and are sticking to their 6 months consumable rule and will not contribute.

 

Karock: I think they certainly have inferior materials, the words "not fit for purpose" come to mind.

 

So what now?

1. I have contacted the supplying dealer to see whether they can do anything but even if they discounted the £500 in some way, i would be reluctant to put skoda replacement discs on.

2. Simply go to my local garage and get them to replace; it would certainly be cheaper.

3. Take legal action. I do feel strongly about this but I have never gone down the Small Claims Court route. Does anyone have any experience and would i win?

I would take it to my local independent to get the brakes replaced it will be far cheaper.

Dont forget that going the legal route you will be up against a major concern who will have unlimited legal resources and it will involve you in a lot of hassle with an uncertain outcome.

 

Having been involved in a different legal dispute ( boundary issues) it involved a lot of work and heartache and at the end of the day the only real winners were the solicitors.

 

As a local farmer once said to me " Solicitors benefit from other peoples misery!

Thanks Karock.

Although I don't want to go down the "Small Claims" route, I thought it was a relatively straight forward process.

23 hours ago, J.R. said:

At 10 months old the rust and pitting will not be severe enough to warrant changing the discs, take it out to a safe place ideally downhill and do a repeated series of full on ABS emergency stops from as high a speed....

 

That might seem harsh on tyres but if you're doing low mileage the next thing that'll happen after rusty brakes is the garage will be wanting you to change the tyres due to cracking.

23 minutes ago, Richard9352 said:

So what now?

1. I have contacted the supplying dealer to see whether they can do anything but even if they discounted the £500 in some way, i would be reluctant to put skoda replacement discs on.

2. Simply go to my local garage and get them to replace; it would certainly be cheaper.

3. Take legal action. I do feel strongly about this but I have never gone down the Small Claims Court route. Does anyone have any experience and would i win?

 

None of the above, get outside and use your MK1 eyeballs to decide whether these 10 month old discs really are so corroded that they need replacing, I very very much doubt it and think you are being taken for a ride, granted they rust just by looking at them but not in such a short space of time to render them unserviceable.

 

Have you looked at them or tried driving since giving them the good news yesterday?

13 minutes ago, Karock said:

I would take it to my local independent to get the brakes replaced it will be far cheaper.

Dont forget that going the legal route you will be up against a major concern who will have unlimited legal resources and it will involve you in a lot of hassle with an uncertain outcome.

 

Having been involved in a different legal dispute ( boundary issues) it involved a lot of work and heartache and at the end of the day the only real winners were the solicitors.

 

As a local farmer once said to me " Solicitors benefit from other peoples misery!

 

Small Claims is nothing like that - pay a small fee and that's it.  For this kind of dispute you could be asked to provide an independent technical report.   Boundary disputes are well known for being off the scale in terms of costs.

 

Small Claims outcomes can be pretty random but often they're won by default as the other party doesn't defend.

 

You;d have to sue the supplying dealer though - so it's a bit of a nuclear option as it won't be feasible to ever use them again.

 

I got very annoyed at Honda and the local dealer when a inner rear pad stuck on daughter's Jazz - particularly because she'd taken the car in due to the noise the acoustic wear indicator was making and they sent her away and said it was fine.   Got absolutely no where with the dealer, dealer group or Honda.  Honda where particualry hard faced, yet on a previous Jazz they'd agreed to replace the rear discs at 3yrs old due to them looking tatty as they rusted.

&FREEDOMLite We are just going out so i will report back later today if the sudden braking has helped.

Not sure if I am off track here but I was viewing rust and pitting as two separate issues, the rust presumably leading to pitting.

Looking at the discs from outside, they look no different, as a lay man, to what I would expect. Shiney and no visable rust.

9 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

None of the above, get outside and use your MK1 eyeballs to decide whether these 10 month old discs really are so corroded that they need replacing, I very very much doubt it and think you are being taken for a ride, granted they rust just by looking at them but not in such a short space of time to render them unserviceable.

 

Have you looked at them or tried driving since giving them the good news yesterday?

 

Yes - try and clean them up and then if you're still concerned ask the garage to put them on the MOT brake tester.  It takes a lot to fail that.

You have no grounds for a court case unless you can prove your brake discs are no longer fit for purpose, I am 100% certain they are.

 

On 13/05/2024 at 18:05, Richard9352 said:

They diagnosed rust and pitted discs and recommended replacing the front discs and pads for £502.

 

That is not a diagnosis but a shakedown, I am surprised that so many people on here are believing it without question and recommending that you have the work done elsewhere, just a reminder in bold to them:

 

On 13/05/2024 at 18:05, Richard9352 said:

the car was 10 months old and, at the time of the booking had done 5,900 miles.

 

Pictures of offending discs would give us a clue as to condition.

Had my car serviced recently, and stated that wiper blades were worn, BUT, as Skoda replacements were just as bad from new, they had deleted the finding and I should get some elsewhere. I wonder if they would do that with the brakes?? (A very good dealer, by the way)

&Choclan thanks for your comment.

If you are refering to the dealer local to you Rainworth's then I completely agree. They are one of the best.

Unfortunately, the dealer local to me isn't very good at all.

Skoda UK and Marshalls Northampton have refused to help in any way and fall back on their 6 months or 6,500 miles warranty for "wear and tear" items, whichever comes first. They consider discs as a wear and tear item.