Compax
Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2019
- Messages
- 61
- Points
- 87
Hello, my Grande Punto T-jet from 2008 with 195.xxxkm on it has had a very strange issue for over 6 months now, and I have been to a local garage and a dealer, which have both got back to me with no solution.
I bought the car back in August 2018, and when I brought the car around for a check at a friends garage and they noted that the rear brakes were almost done, and the front also needed to be changed, but was nothing serious yet.
October 2019 I was gonna go on a long drive (I study abroad) I got front discs and pads changed, as well as getting an oil change, etc. The next day I went on my way and on some occasions I would notice a very faint squeak when braking, at the time I thought nothing of it, and kept going. for the next few months the car was standing around and was only being driven once a week, which is why I did not notice that more and more often, the car would squeak when braking. I asked around and read on different forums that maybe it would pass after a little while, and that it would be fine.
February 2020 I get a new job, which ment that now I would drive around 120km everyday and now the squeaking had become more frequent and really started to annoy me. I had made an appointment to have my exhaust changed at a local garage abroad and I asked them what the issue could be. They looked into it, and came back saying they look new, and nothing was wrong. They lubricated everything and I went on my way with my new exhaust.
A couple of days later the squeaking came back and I was back to square one. I was determined to have the issue resolved as I was now gonna be more dependent on my car so an appointment was made to have the local garage fix they issue. They came back having diagnosed the issue saying I needed to mount different pads and discs, I was of course not agreeing with them, saying that would not fix anything, as this is how the problem started. After some back and forth they changed the pads on the car which made not really any difference. The discs were changed as well, and again squeaking.
The car went back and forth almost every week to the garage, and they kept trying different things, but with no luck. They said they had spent too much time trying to solve the issue for free and that the only solution they saw was to change the front brake calipers, as this was gonna cost me €500 I thought to myself that for that kind of money, I could get a lot of diagnosing done so I went off to a dealer thinking: who else would know the car better.
The dealer had a look at the car, and said that the pads on the car were the wrong size and they sat too far away from the disc, this would create a small rust build up and when the car would need to brake, it would squeak. They said the solution would be new OEM pads from Fiat and then I would be on my way! Sadly they did not have them in stock, so they kept the car.
A couple of days later they called back, saying they were baffled, they had mounted 4 different sets of pads, and all of them sat around 5mm away from the discs instead of the 1mm they said the pads needed to sit at. They had spent hours trying to diagnose the car, but had got no where. They had never seen this issue before. I explained my situation and they looked at the car again and came to the conclusion that what could have happened, was that someone and some point in time could have mounted the wrong brake caliper or brake pads holder. They said for them to fix the issue would be too expensive, and told me to try alternative repair methods. The dealer did however say that the calipers are not seized or anything like that, they function as they should, the car brakes perfect as they had it on a brake tester and the car was doing that without pulling to any side or anything. The car would also pass an MOT without any issues, it just squeaks.
I took the car back to the local garage yesterday, who had gotten a tip from a supplier that maybe the brake hoses where damaged, that was not the solution sadly.
The car gonna stay at the local garage until monday, so they can have a look at the calipers, and see what is what. my only worry is that if changing the calipers is the only way forward, what do I do if the issue is still there?
Has anyone ever had anything like this happen? Any ideas that I can share with the garage to check?
I asked if they could give me a part number on the calipers that are on the car already, but they have yet to give me that.
Open to ANY ideas, as I really just want this to be solved.
Attached is a picture that the dealer took, to show the issue.
I bought the car back in August 2018, and when I brought the car around for a check at a friends garage and they noted that the rear brakes were almost done, and the front also needed to be changed, but was nothing serious yet.
October 2019 I was gonna go on a long drive (I study abroad) I got front discs and pads changed, as well as getting an oil change, etc. The next day I went on my way and on some occasions I would notice a very faint squeak when braking, at the time I thought nothing of it, and kept going. for the next few months the car was standing around and was only being driven once a week, which is why I did not notice that more and more often, the car would squeak when braking. I asked around and read on different forums that maybe it would pass after a little while, and that it would be fine.
February 2020 I get a new job, which ment that now I would drive around 120km everyday and now the squeaking had become more frequent and really started to annoy me. I had made an appointment to have my exhaust changed at a local garage abroad and I asked them what the issue could be. They looked into it, and came back saying they look new, and nothing was wrong. They lubricated everything and I went on my way with my new exhaust.
A couple of days later the squeaking came back and I was back to square one. I was determined to have the issue resolved as I was now gonna be more dependent on my car so an appointment was made to have the local garage fix they issue. They came back having diagnosed the issue saying I needed to mount different pads and discs, I was of course not agreeing with them, saying that would not fix anything, as this is how the problem started. After some back and forth they changed the pads on the car which made not really any difference. The discs were changed as well, and again squeaking.
The car went back and forth almost every week to the garage, and they kept trying different things, but with no luck. They said they had spent too much time trying to solve the issue for free and that the only solution they saw was to change the front brake calipers, as this was gonna cost me €500 I thought to myself that for that kind of money, I could get a lot of diagnosing done so I went off to a dealer thinking: who else would know the car better.
The dealer had a look at the car, and said that the pads on the car were the wrong size and they sat too far away from the disc, this would create a small rust build up and when the car would need to brake, it would squeak. They said the solution would be new OEM pads from Fiat and then I would be on my way! Sadly they did not have them in stock, so they kept the car.
A couple of days later they called back, saying they were baffled, they had mounted 4 different sets of pads, and all of them sat around 5mm away from the discs instead of the 1mm they said the pads needed to sit at. They had spent hours trying to diagnose the car, but had got no where. They had never seen this issue before. I explained my situation and they looked at the car again and came to the conclusion that what could have happened, was that someone and some point in time could have mounted the wrong brake caliper or brake pads holder. They said for them to fix the issue would be too expensive, and told me to try alternative repair methods. The dealer did however say that the calipers are not seized or anything like that, they function as they should, the car brakes perfect as they had it on a brake tester and the car was doing that without pulling to any side or anything. The car would also pass an MOT without any issues, it just squeaks.
I took the car back to the local garage yesterday, who had gotten a tip from a supplier that maybe the brake hoses where damaged, that was not the solution sadly.
The car gonna stay at the local garage until monday, so they can have a look at the calipers, and see what is what. my only worry is that if changing the calipers is the only way forward, what do I do if the issue is still there?
Has anyone ever had anything like this happen? Any ideas that I can share with the garage to check?
I asked if they could give me a part number on the calipers that are on the car already, but they have yet to give me that.
Open to ANY ideas, as I really just want this to be solved.
Attached is a picture that the dealer took, to show the issue.
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