Well, I've finally finished changing all the discs and pads on Fivey and it only took about 20 hours over 5 days.
The fronts weren't too difficult, the time consuming part was cleaning the area where the pad locating spring clips fit, my car is nearly 7 years old so there was a lot of dirt and corrosion to remove.
The rears were an absolute nightmare! To get the discs off you need to remove the calliper carrier and to get that off you need to take off the stub axle. The ABS sensor wouldn't come out of the backplate so the cable had to be disconnected where it joins the body.
The nuts securing the stub axle to the rear axle needed an impact wrench to loosen them and the only way to get enough room to get the wrench in was to remove the rear shock absorbers and springs.
Once I finally had the stub axle off the car I needed to use the impact wrench to loosen the Allen bolts securing the calliper carrier, three came out okay but one rounded off so I had to weld a nut on to it to free it off. I decided to replace all 4 bolts which caused a further delay while the dealer got them in.
Again there was a lot of dirt to clean off the callipers but once they were cleaned it all went back together easily enough.
So there you have it, if you don't have a well equipped workshop and loads of time to spare don't even consider changing the rear discs.

staffordmike said:

... if you don't have a well equipped workshop and loads of time to spare don't even consider changing the rear discs.

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Thanks for passing this on, Mike. I have neither, so my 1.4 Sport will be heading to my local independent for this job come the time. I've replaced front discs on earlier cars but have never done rears (all my previous cars have had rear drums, sad to say).

Out of interest, how many miles had your Sport done with the previous (presume original) discs?

I've done 50,500 miles on the original discs and pads.
I got quite a shock at the state of the discs, the outside surface was evenly worn but the inside was rusty and uneven. The pad with the wear sensor had about 4mm of friction material left but the opposing pad only about 2mm.
I'll post some photos tomorrow when it's light.

staffordmike said:

I've done 50,500 miles on the original discs and pads.
I got quite a shock at the state of the discs, the outside surface was evenly worn but the inside was rusty and uneven. The pad with the wear sensor had about 4mm of friction material left but the opposing pad only about 2mm.
I'll post some photos tomorrow when it's light.

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That's about the same mileage I changed my front discs.

staffordmike said:

I've done 50,500 miles on the original discs and pads.
I got quite a shock at the state of the discs, the outside surface was evenly worn but the inside was rusty and uneven. The pad with the wear sensor had about 4mm of friction material left but the opposing pad only about 2mm.
I'll post some photos tomorrow when it's light.

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I guess that suggests the calipers were sticking?
Also think I'll stick with drums on the back lol.

The Twins said:

I guess that suggests the calipers were sticking?

Also think I'll stick with drums on the back lol.

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To be honest I don't see any advantage having discs on the rear other than looks and pub bragging rights! I'd sooner have drums, they work fine and in all the years I've been driving I think I've only once needed to replace rear brake shoes.
Here's some photos of the discs and pads, the callipers didn't seem unduly stiff, the pistons all moved freely and the sliding pins slid okay and the car pulled up in a straight line. Looking at the discs it does look like the front drivers side in particular wasn't working properly.

ahmett said:

That's about the same mileage I changed my front discs.

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What state were your discs in, I guess they weren't as rusty, considering where you live.

staffordmike said:

What state were your discs in, I guess they weren't as rusty, considering where you live.

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they were ok they were just warped due to me wearing down the pads too much.

Those rear discs are quite dinky!

Mine has done 33k miles and the first owner drove the car like Miss Daisy, so I'm hoping to get another 20k out of the pads and discs. My discs look clean and evenly worn on the visible sides but I wonder what condition the inner rear discs are, as I had the common grinding/binding problem at the back when I acquired the car - friend who sold me the car said she'd had this problem for a long time. Rear brake assembly was duly stripped, cleaned and copper greased at 20k but the grinding noise has come back to bug me.

MarginWalker said:

Those rear discs are quite dinky!

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1.2 owners get those on the front .

I think the grinding is mainly due to rust forming on the discs, if I park with the handbrake on after washing the car or driving in the wet then the pads weld themselves to the disc and release with a right old jolt. I wonder if that was why the friction material on one of the rear pads separated from the backplate.

staffordmike said:

I think the grinding is mainly due to rust forming on the discs, if I park with the handbrake on after washing the car or driving in the wet then the pads weld themselves to the disc and release with a right old jolt. I wonder if that was why the friction material on one of the rear pads separated from the backplate.

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Sometimes water gets into tiny imperfections in the bonding between the pad material and the steel backing plate, which rusts the backing plate.

When ferrous materials rust, they also expand, and this further weakens the bond, allowing more water to enter, which causes more rust to form...

Once the joint becomes sufficiently weak, it then only takes a small amount of adhesion between pad & disc to rip the friction material from the pad.

I've seen quite a few pads fail that way - some with almost the entire pad thickness remaining.

That sounds plausible, the backing plate was rusty, here's a photo of the mating surfaces. You can see how the friction material was fretting against the plate.