Technical Brake pad and disc replacement

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Technical Brake pad and disc replacement

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Jan 5, 2011
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I've had a problem with the drivers side rear wheel for a couple of days: there's a screeching metallic sound when I've been driving for a couple of miles, and the wheel gets very hot.

I took into a dealer today and they said the pads and discs need replacing. The pad is very low apparently and the disc has been "heat damaged". The car is a 14 plate and has done 24,000 miles (serviced at 18,000 miles).

Does this sound possible? I've never had to replace the discs on a car before - just the pads.

They're quoting £380 for Fiat parts and £190 for generic

Thanks
 
It sounds like you've been suffering a binding caliper.

For some reason the brake has stuck on and worn the pads down and cause damage to the disc.

There are various reasons why a cailper binds and it's probably one or a mixture of the following.

Handbrake mech or cable could be jammed.
Pistons siezed due to rust or muck.
Pins the caliper "floats" on jammed.
Or rather more likely the pads haven't been changed on time and gone below the minimun wear level.
This causes the pistons to hang out of the body too far and cause them to jam as they're not supported enough in the bores.

Apart from the obvious replacements of pads and discs, you want the cause of the binding found and sorted, which may mean replacing the caliper, if that if found to be a fault.

Also, as the caliper has been getting very hot, I would want the fluid replaced as it's more than likely boiled or worse, burnt.

After tackling Fiat brakes for 30 years, I've alway felt standard Fiat pads and discs have never been great, so I would consider fitting a better, "after market" parts, some German quality stuff like Pagid are very easy to get hold of from Eurocarparts and are leaps and bounds better.
 
I've got the 500L trekking 2014 plate and last year I too had the same problem on the same wheel (very coincidental?) high pitched squealing noise sometimes on braking and other times continuous. I took mine to the dealer who said the caliper was sticking, so they freed it, it has been trouble free until this month! I will be taking mine in again soon.
If your pads are geniunely worn I expect it would be cheaper to go to kwikfit or similar?
 
Same thing happened on mine 2013 TwinAir.

But I noticed something was wrong way earlier, and got away with only brake pads. They got stuck in the calipper. Probably because of corrosion.

Terje
 
It doesn't make sense that the rear pads would wear more quickly than the front, so this sounds like a problem with the caliper - in which case they should fix it for nothing under the warranty.
 
Guys, guys don't be gullible! Its just pad squeal, take them off, put some copper grease on the back of the pads, replace. Done
 
Had the same on mine. It's more than just pad squeal , the offside rear disc would on occasion get red hot. New discs, pads and stripped and cleaned calipers. Also had the brake fluid changed as chances are it will have boiled
 
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