Starting to hear a grinding noise when braking - but not all the time.

At the car's first service (around 15,000miles) the garage said that the pads should last to the next service. I did think at the time how they could guesstimate the life of the pads when the next service could be anything from another 9000miles to 20,000+ miles. The car is now at 23,500 miles, so it's done 8500ish miles since the service.

Does the Superb have brake pad wear warning lights? No idea if cars do these days (remember an old 1982 Sierra which did have this).

The car is booked in for some warranty issues in Rugby on Wednesday - I'll get them to have a look at the brakes too.

The Superb has wear indicators built into the front pads only. Not sure of the life of Superb pads, but I have changed mine at 60k miles. I would imagine they are the third set it's had, so I would guess at a new set every 30k miles or so.

Are the pads fitted, connected up to the warning system. Some pads come without the sensors, so the warning could be deactivated.

Look at the pads if possible and you will see if the sensor is connected. Inside pad IIRC.

The grinding could be from the worn pads, but could also be from glazing of the dics. I had this on my MR2. The garage skimmed the discs and this stopped my grinding noise.

The Superb is a bit of a dimbo design here - there are warning contacts on the front pads but not the rears. The rear pads wear faster than the fronts. Well done VAG.

GSF sell Textar pads which are identical to the OE pads but a lot cheaper and also sell the piston winding tool needed for the rears. The job is dead easy with the correct tools, Haynes manual 4279 (B5.5 Passat) explains.

rotodiesel.

The Superb is a bit of a dimbo design here - there are warning contacts on the front pads but not the rears. The rear pads wear faster than the fronts. Well done VAG.

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Spot on. The dealer had a look - the front brakes are fine, but the rears are metal on metal :eek: :(

New pads and disks needed :(

Bit cr4p that there are no sensors on the rears. Also highlights a big problem with these large service intervals.

Rotodiesel aint wrong, usually the rear pads aint far off at the first service on the Superbs.