My car: 2014 Skoda Octavia SE Estate with the 1.6l diesel, 105hp engine and 5 speed manual

My problem: I'm fitting front pads and discs myself: my 1st try failed because the parts were wrong, and they may not even refund me.

My question: how do I discover, with 100% accuracy, what exact part I need for my car?

1. Please first just tell me exactly which parts I need, for front pads and discs, on the above car

2. Did you use your VIN number or some other part number hidden in your car or on the brakes to discover the correct part numbers?

3. How do I feed this number to online parts sellers, to return compatible parts?

4. Can I reliably repeat this process when buying other car parts in the future? E.g. when I need to do the rears?

So I'm new to fitting brake discs and pads: only done the pads on my mx5 before and bought EBC yellowstuff ones which just fitted and that was all; easy.

Decided to change my front brake pads and discs on my octavia myself but both parts were wrong: the discs were 288mm, not 276mm, and the brake pads were too big and did not have central metal clips to house them in the caliper carrier.

I only discovered this after getting the car on jackstands and stripping a corner down, old disc off, new one on and oh look, it touches the caliper mount points, so it'd rub on them when driving (if the carrier would even reseat...)

Then I found the pads didn't fit either, so the whole job was a failure; I had to put the old parts back on. Absolutely gutted.

I discovered this just before Euro Car Parts would close (with no car in 1 piece, I'd have not made it there anyway). Open again Monday, so discovered the error too late to be able to rectify it by buying the right bits.

So on 18th November I bought the parts off Euro Car Parts, collected 1 week later. - I entered my number plate and it confirmed "SKODA, Octavia, 2015, 1.6" (mine is a 2014 but when selecting "i don't know my number plate" and entering make and model, same results)

ECP then showed me compatible products; top entry was the 288mm discs, and I chose a Pagid one, part number 104441238. Same for the pads; I chose a Pagid set, part number 101442108

Between holidays and Christmas, I oonly got round to fitting yesterday; 60 days after...

ECP have a 60 day return period. I processed the return online last night and it went through okay, but of course I've opened the boxes and sat them on the wet ground, pulled them around etc.

So, I'm crossing everything tomorrow that they don't reject the return because Monday is Day 62 (though return was processed on day 60, and the collect-to-return day will be day 55), or reject because they're not in good enough condition due to boxes being opened, or because I "should have known they weren't right".

Edit: I still want to do this work myself; I'm not just giving up and taking it to a garage. I just want to make sure the 2nd try is the successful one.

You can probably sense my frustration with this: I'm seeing dozens of pads and discs, and 0 ways to be sure which ones are correct! when I search on other websites, AutoDOC, GSF, etc, I'm getting many different conflicting options and although some pads look like they'd fit, and some discs say they're 276mm, what if e.g. there are multiple types of pads with central clips? What if there's >>1 variant of the 276dia rotors? What if I get it wrong a 2nd time?

I'm sure this has been asked many times but I tried searching these forums and got 0 relevant results: searching "Octavia front brake pads 2014 diesel" returned 2 results from a "brake fluid change" thread, then a thread about the Skoda Superb, then one about "are factory fitted Octavia IV batteries OEM?". Google search was also fruitless (your search may well be influenced by your online activity e.g. use of this forum so please spare me the "I found this thread straight away" replies!)

Also the service manual says nothing either. Wish I'd bought the Haynes manual but would that even confirm it for me? I'm going mad, here. Please help.

Edited 18 January18 Jan by EpicFishFingers
to add the fact that I'm not gving up on this after 1 failure; I'm going to do this work myself.

Did you measure your old discs as I think 288mm looks too big in your picture as it is touching your brake carrier, which can't be right. I think you have FS3 Caliers which takes either 276mm or 280mm discs

FS is visible on the carrier in first pic, so they are an FSiii calibre and if you measured the diameter of your old disc at 276mm that’s what you want -

Discs and pads for 276mm FSiii calipers

I could look up the relevant part numbers and PR codes via VIN, but not before this evening.

I'm told that if you register (for free) with skoda-parts.com there is a facility to input VIN and then only be offered parts that fit that VIN, when searching.

Haven't tried it myself, but maybe try it and see what it shows?

ECP are infamous for the lack of specificity in their 'look up by reg' web searching. Very hit and miss.

I use https://brakesint.co.uk/ They have excellent info and pictures for you to compare. I then order them from https://www.partsinmotion.co.uk/ as they are usually a lot cheaper. By the looks of the old pad its from a caliper without the external spring so should have 280mm discs. Still measure the old ones as well.

There may be a PR code in boot sticker that will keep you right as well

Alasdair

Meant to add make sure slider pins are moving freely and use silicone grease on them. I had to clean mine as the previous owner had used copper grease which had dried out and they were seizing plus copper grease is bad for the rubber gators.

Alasdair

Front brake PR codes do not tend to appear on the boot sticker.

29 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Front brake PR codes do not tend to appear on the boot sticker.

That explains why all my skodas have brake pr codes missing.

Alasdair

I think/hope that when you go into an ECP branch to hand these parts back, and give them your reg or even VIN, they will find the correct parts for that car.

But yes, as said already, you really do need to do your homework before ordering online from ECP, also, it might also be smart to check the Halfords prices, as they can be cheaper than ECP - and it is ECP that supply parts to them on demand.

In an ideal world, I find that it is always "time well spent" finding out which versions of all service parts your car needs soon after buying it, one easy way to do that is to ask your main dealer for a print out of "CAR DATA" for every VW Group car you end up with, doing that gives you access to ALL the options (PR codes) for your car. Using that info along with manufacturer's parts catalogues online removes almost 100% of errors, plus checking the kit number on the boxes BEFORE walking away from the ECP counter removes the last small %age of error - I find that last bit a bit hard to do when I've stood waiting for ages while some "non car" person(s) have been trying to get the correct parts - and a few knowledgeable "car" people (maybe) are in a queue behind me!

The 60 days return thing can be annoying when you try to prepare early for some car work, it used to be 365 days.

My 1.6 tdi 2026 was 288mm but several variants and 253mm rear, with 2 variants on the depth for the rear disks. other thing to remember is the front pads can be directional, sometime marked with an arrow, other times not.... so chamfer on pad mounted on leading edge of caliper, otherwise very noisy.