Has anyone experienced brake wear problems?

At the weekend, I noticed that my brake fluid container was totally empty. It took almost half a litre of brake fluid to fill it. I thought there must be a leak so I took it to the dealership for them to check it out.

I got my car serviced at the end of May (first service - after one year of ownership from new) with almost 8000 miles on the clock. I was told that at this stage there was 5% wear on my brake pads.

My car now has just 11,800 miles on the clock, and despite me not changing my driving style, when the dealership checked out my brakes yesterday, I was told that the brake pads now have 85% wear and need changed. They couldn't find any leaks in the brake fluid.

I just don't understand how after a year's driving of 8000 miles with 5% wear, the next 4000 miles led to a further 80% wear. I would have expected to get 30,000 miles at least from brake pads under my normal use.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems, or can anyone suggest any likely problems which might have caused this excessive wear, so that I can get it checked out further?

Having just spent money on a second set of wheels for my car (I bought a good set of Winter tyres for my steelies and transfered my original tyres to my new set of alloys for Summer use), I now need to fork out for new brake pads. I'm gutted, and hoping that I won't need to be getting new brake pads every year.

Half a litre to fill? I don't understand how. On my Panda the brake fluid reservoir is the size of a thimble! Even on my Coupe (with the big Brembo front brakes) it wasn't that large.
I would have expected you to have no brakes at all if you'd lost 500ml. And the fluid must have gone somewhere. Unless you have a leak, you should only get a slight fall in fluid level as the pads wear.
I'd ask to see the pads - I'm confused as to what's going on here...
No issues on mine that I've noticed anyway.
H

Do the brakes share their fluid with anything else, like the clutch?

The brake fluid reservoir was totally empty. I just can't explain that... I've run much older cars and never had to touch the brake fluid. My previous car (a '92 Polo) only needed brake pads fitted once (while I was driving it), and that was at over 40,000 miles. It's still with us and still going strong.

Hi the brake callipers could be stuck on the steel carriers that hold them in place your disc's may have gone a light blue colour that would indicate possible over heating. You don't drop that amount of fluid without a leak I assume the garage checked the rear wheel drums etc? the other place I would look is inside the car under the brake pedal and see if its wet with brake fluid may or may not show here the servo could have sprung a leak and yer liquid is inside the big tank of the unit. It needs investigating properly asap

A bad workwoman allways blames her tools

You lot haven't seen how Dee drives. I blame the handbrake turns myself.

I'll get you back on Saturday night!

As the pads wear you should notice the brake fluid level dropping in the bottle, it's due to the extra travel on the calipers.

I can't say anything yet as the wifes Sporting is not yet a year old, but compared with other cars we have owned there always seems to be a lot of brake dust on the front alloys. Even after the car has just been washed, take it for a short run and when you come back the front wheels are black again.

It nay just be something to do with the size of the disk and the pads, I know that this used to be a prob with the older models in the Ford Ka range, if you got 16.000 miles out of a set of pads you had done well.

Tara Ian

I would be tempted to try a new set of good quality pads, and see whether they make a difference

Blackstuff or Greenstuff pads produce less dust and are much better for braking than normal pads.

I'm going to get some for mine, as the dust on the front alloy's is awful after travelling to work and back each week.