...brakes, exhaust and clutch?

Prior to getting my vRS in March/April 2005 I'd never had a brand new car before, so I have no idea how long the OEM parts are likely to last.

My car has done 48k miles now & I haven't needed to replace any of the brake pads, exhaust or clutch yet.

I know it's definitely not an exact science, but realistically how much longer are these things likely to last? I drive the car pretty hard most of the time, so tbh I'm quite surprised the brakes have lasted this long.

I'm most likely going to look at not going for OEM when I do need to replace these, but the last thing I want for them to all go at once... I don't think my bank balance would survive!

Brakes are down to how you drive the car - I usually expect the front pads to last 30k and discs 60k. Rears generally last longer as they're not really used that much. Exhaust - depends on the conditions you drive in, but mine last over 5 years easily. Clutch - I've never replaced one but if you're doing full-bore starts or slipping it when changing gear, it will need doing sooner.

Chris

Well I would consider my driving to be pretty brake-intensive. I spend a lot of time in traffic driving to work through the Blackwall Tunnel every day and most of the rest of my mileage is done on the M25.

I guess I should consider myself lucky to not have had to replace the brakes already....

Well I would consider my driving to be pretty brake-intensive. I spend a lot of time in traffic driving to work through the Blackwall Tunnel every day and most of the rest of my mileage is done on the M25.

All motorways?! No wonder your brakes last so long :P:rofl:

Chris

Well I'd hardly class the M25 as a "Motorway" these days. My time on there tends to be more like : Blast to 70-80, brake heavily, sit in traffic for 15 minutes, blast to 70-80, rinse & repeat.

I had a vRS from new to 80k (in 20 months), used as a driving school car, here's what wore on mine....

Clutch: No problems, still felt like new when I got rid, but I made sure it was driven properly, no pulling away from standstill in 2nd, or pointlessly edging up in traffic cues ect, if you have a remap the general advice is not to boot it below 2.5k to preserve the clutch.

Tyres: fronts every 13-16k rears changed once at 50k...

brakes: front pads at 33k, at 70k new front pads AND discs. rears: new rear pads at 40k... no other work on the rears, but the rear pads and discs were in need of replacement at 80k... (NOTE: if you dont use your brakes well, and only pottle around to the shops occasionally, you may find corrosion on the discs can cause need for new disks before I did... )

exhast: no work done in two years and 80k...

suspension: control arm bushes wore out at 60k and needed replacing... I had to pay,wasn't done under warranty, as SUK claimed this was natural wear and tear (*sharky AGAIN points SUK to the fact that this issue caused me to change manufacturers.)

servicing: just normal dealer service (though I had to go through three dealers before I found one I trusted)

oil: I never had to top up even once.... but I didn't baby it as I ran it in, I drove it as normal, general consensus is, people who take alot of care running in , seem to have engines that drink more oil.....

thats about it... (had a gearbox, mounting frame, driveshafts, EGR valve all replaced under warranty during this time.....)

hope that helps

Agreed, the rear discs don't wear out through use, they corrode through underuse and so it's a vicious circle there.

That's great Sharkrider, thanks for the detailed breakdown.

So far I've had to replace 6 tyres. 2 for punctures & the other 4 from wear. I rotated them to match the wear when I had to replace the punctures.

The only other thing that's been a problem for me so far was when the turbo died & was replaced under warranty.

Rule of thumb when it drops off it's usually time

thats about it... (had a gearbox, mounting frame, driveshafts, EGR valve all replaced under warranty during this time.....)

Maybe it's just me but when I hear all the reports of all thses parts needing replacing and tubos blowing and clutch pedals falling off and steering pumps failing and goodness knows what else does noone else think it seems a bit rubbish.

The amount of warranty work people have to get done and the amount of common problems seems astonshing to me.

I know all cars have their niggles but skodas common problem list must read like an A-Z.

the only cars I see (in my industry) that tend to have almost no faults are Toyota's.... the yaris seems pretty much indestructable, but the only one I'd like is the 1.8 hot version, and its WAY too expensive :(

Granted all cars have faults but with the skodas it just seems bad parts were used when building them if all the problems were one off for the odd person fair enough but when the same parts (and some been major parts) start failing on a number of cars it seems rather odd.

Anyway thats just my 2pence worth from my short experience of Skodas.

ok so your worried about these parts all failing at the same time and you not being able to afford the cost of replacement parts.

Well why not open an internet savings account with any bank/building society and set up a standing order from your current account on the day you are paid to pay into the savings account.

You need to pay into it 1/12th of your insurance premium, 1/12th MOT cost, Assume tyres last 3 years so whats the cost of a set of 4 then divide this amount by 36, MOT cost divide by 12, annual service cost

Maybe it's just me but when I hear all the reports of all thses parts needing replacing and tubos blowing and clutch pedals falling off and steering pumps failing and goodness knows what else does noone else think it seems a bit rubbish.

I did and jumped ship

Chris

and then finally you need to add together the cost of a new exhaust brakes discs & clutch incl labour and divide it by 24

So then you'll always have a pot of money for car costs - Oh an add on the raod tax

I don't have a problem with replacing wear and tear items such as exhausts and brakes thats what having a car is all about but should engines really be having problems at 30k miles, should powersteering pumps be going at 20 - 30k etc

If something has worn out fair enough but if it had failed after not much use thats what annoys me.

Why should we have to fork out for steering angle sensors when skoda admit they could have made a better part? who do all our cars leak? why does the suspension crack so easily?

People I know think I am having a laugh when I tell them about all my problems and say I must have bought a lemon of a car but thankfully a women at work has a Fabia with all the same problems as me so they knew I wasn't making it up

I don't have a problem with replacing wear and tear items such as exhausts and brakes thats what having a car is all about but should engines really be having problems at 30k miles, should powersteering pumps be going at 20 - 30k etc

If something has worn out fair enough but if it had failed after not much use thats what annoys me.

Why should we have to fork out for steering angle sensors when skoda admit they could have made a better part? who do all our cars leak? why does the suspension crack so easily?

People I know think I am having a laugh when I tell them about all my problems and say I must have bought a lemon of a car but thankfully a women at work has a Fabia with all the same problems as me so they knew I wasn't making it up

I'm affraid I totally agree with you, but to be fair while it is definately a Skoda problem, it is also a similar story with the other VAG marques using this platform ie Volkswagen and Seat. Remember they are all using the same running gear - to escape from this you (we) need to just ship from any Skoda derived product - that's life - experience is a great thing!!

I'm affraid I totally agree with you, but to be fair while it is definately a Skoda problem, it is also a similar story with the other VAG marques using this platform ie Volkswagen and Seat. Remember they are all using the same running gear - to escape from this you (we) need to just ship from any Skoda derived product - that's life - experience is a great thing!!

I am coming to that conclusion but my options are somewhat limited at the moment I can't trade in as I will loose to much on it and I can't put it up for private sale at the moment due to a mystrey power steering problem that needs resolving. I am hoping the steering sensor packs in soon can get it replaced under warranty then put it up for sale.