Hi. The other day, my wife told me her brakes didn`t feel right. I took the front wheels off, to discover the pads were seized and rusted in the calipers. The discs were starting to look a bit ridged and rusty. I cleaned up the discs, freed off the pads, cleaned them up, and put a bit of coppaslip on the lugs of the pads. While cleaning up the pads, I noticed three hairline cracks in the material on one pad. I then decided to get new discs and pads the next day, but put it back together till then. I gave it a quick test drive, and during the third hard stop, I saw a cloud of black dust in the mirror. The car pulled to the right, and, I then slowly drove home. On dismantling, I found that the pad with the hairline cracks in it had disintegrated! Now this car is a 56 plate, serviced by a main dealer, driven gently by my wife, and has done 26,000 miles. Moral to the story - brakes need maintenance. The brakes on this car had never been touched since it left the factory, three and a half years ago.

Seems a bit worrying really for discs/pads to fail to soon. The discs on the Fiesta had at least 40,000 miles on. I then ended up with the car and realised the brakes didn't work but it was just because the discs were so grooved.

The great thing about the Panda and my low milleage is its so cheap in four years time and 15k I can just forget all this worry and buy another brand new one but we will see.

The multijet is probably a bit heavier so I would guess the brakes are more prone to wear than the petrol ones.

pulhamdown said:

I took the front wheels off, to discover the pads were seized and rusted in the calipers.

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Here's most of the cause-

pulhamdown said:

driven gently by my wife.

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Regular cleaning of the wheels + gentle driving style that's easy on the brakes = one of the pads corroding in the slider, causing partial seizure and overheating of it's material (making it crumble/break-up) and the other pad in that caliper to wear twice as fast.

With a low mileage car, you really need to strip, clean and lube the brakes once every couple of years to prevent seizure.

They lasted real long in terms of Panda brake pads... I got 12K out of the first set of brake pads and 20K out of the second set. I replaced the front discs when I changed the second set of pads...

JD82 said:

Seems a bit worrying really for discs/pads to fail to soon..

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cars 4 years old, forget the mileage (less is often worse) that means little. I have seen pads/discs replaced on cars before the PDI was done!

Not sure if hard stops were the right thing to be doing!!

Did our discs and pads at 38000, they may have been the second set of pads as we got the car at 17k. (from a friend and the dealer had said the pads were looking low and should be done)

Lack of use and gentle use are not good for the brakes, instead of wearing them out you end up with this situation. Hard cornering also helps push the pads from the disc.

The lack of 'proper and poisonous' materials used in the plating of the calipers doesnt help with this on new cars.

Good job we have drums on the back, they are meant to be a nightmare on the 4x4/100

ivantate said:

Good job we have drums on the back, they are meant to be a nightmare on the 4x4/100

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Aren't both fitted with disc brakes on the rear?

D4nny8oy said:

Aren't both fitted with disc brakes on the rear?

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Rear disc brakes tend to be more problematic than rear drums, hence the comment.

The 100hp and 4x4 have rear disc brakes.

trackdayqueen said:

Rear disc brakes tend to be more problematic than rear drums, hence the comment.

The 100hp and 4x4 have rear disc brakes.

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I know- it's just his comment suggested they had drums.