Hi guys

During a service or any other Fiat dealership/garage appointment, has anyone had any workshop recommendations to replace brake discs after 30,000 miles?

I was told in April that my discs had a slight lip, but no scoring or warping and the pads were at 50%. A few thousand miles later last month, I was told they were at 20.3mm and that was only 0.3mm above the absolutely minimum.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Jas

jasfiona said:

Hi guys

During a service or any other Fiat dealership/garage appointment, has anyone had any workshop recommendations to replace brake discs after 30,000 miles?

I was told in April that my discs had a slight lip, but no scoring or warping and the pads were at 50%. A few thousand miles later last month, I was told they were at 20.3mm and that was only 0.3mm above the absolutely minimum.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Jas

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I'm assuming you have a TA, since that model does indeed have a 22mm wear limit on the front discs.

Are the pads original? If so, I'd expect they too will be getting close to their wear limits.

If your discs are down to 22.3mm, then effectively it means you'll need to replace them next time you replace the pads.

You can buy better than OEM discs & pads for much less money in the aftermarket than you'll pay at a Fiat dealer. ECP are selling Pagid front discs (these are good quality) for the TA for £53.99 a pair during the Black Friday sale - see attached screen grab. Any decent independent garage should be able to change both discs & pads in less than an hour.

Discs & pads for the 1.2 are significantly cheaper; if you do the job yourself, you can change both together for about the price of a tank of fuel.

You should be do lucky, my wife's TA 4x4 needed new front discs and pads at 12.500 miles
Still trying to price out fitting costs for the rears since they have a complication that requires the hubs being removed.
I can however heartily recommend the Pagid discs and pads, work great and the coating keeps them looking nice too.

gullyfoyle said:

I can however heartily recommend the Pagid discs and pads, work great and the coating keeps them looking nice too.

Click to expand...

It also means you don't have the faff of needing to degrease them before fitting .

gullyfoyle said:

You should be do lucky, my wife's TA 4x4 needed new front discs and pads at 12.500 miles

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My panda was good for 55k (but I did dismantle and lubricate the brakes properly the first week I got the car new). Discs were about 2/3 worn, so likely wouldn't have made it to the next pad change. Replaced both together with Pagid parts for not much more than £40.

IIRC someone once posted they'd been quoted not far shy of £500 by a franchised dealer for a disc & pad change on a 500 .

What about a upgrade over stock.



Brake disc: Brakemax € 101,62
Brake pads: Brembo € 46,80

I like the look of those upgraded discs - likely on my list for when my fronts need changing.

Hi, had the same issue, main dealer quoting nearly £500 for the job. I sourced Brembo parts and got my local chap to fit them, total cost approx £120. When main dealer said they weren't fiat original parts I replied, yes I know, but they are better and will probably last longer than the 20k mikes of the original. They went quiet....Cheers John B

How long they last, and how well they work, may depend as much on how they are fitted as on what you fit.

Anyone doing the job for themselves might want to read this thread before you start.

Thanks for all your input guys. Sorry to be dim, but I'm not sure what TA is an abbreviation for!

So, 35,000 wasn't too bad then?

To clarify, I'm told the minimum is 20, and they were 20.3, not 22. Apparently, the brand new ones are 24.5 when new. This doesn't seem much, but if I don't know what TA means, you can tell I don't know much.

I was informed that you have to replace pads if you replace discs. Far enough. They were 60% worn, so from 50% to 60% was about 5,000 miles.

We were quoted around £450 for OEM (I know what that means), L+R Front discs and pads.

We went for non Fiat, which cost £220 all in. I'm not sure what make they are, sorry, but they arrived from the motor factors in 30 minutes, so they must have been in stock!

Thanks again guys.

TA means: TwinAir.

jasfiona said:

To clarify, I'm told the minimum is 20, and they were 20.3, not 22. Apparently, the brand new ones are 24.5 when new.

I was informed that you have to replace pads if you replace discs. Far enough. They were 60% worn, so from 50% to 60% was about 5,000 miles.

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Personally on those numbers I'd have continued to run it until the existing pads wore out and then changed both together, but I'm glad to hear you've got it sorted for a reasonable price.

Thanks.

I had no choice. The dealership really put the pressure on my wife before we agreed to have them changed.

My Grande Punto, (which I had 9 years) went to at least 75,000

Fiat use a lot of Ferodo discs. I recently bought a set of coated discs and pads from a local Ferodo agnet. They actually re-line commercial vehicle discs but got me the parts for £64 all in. This is over £200 less than the identical arts from Fiat. A small lip on the disc is not really a problem. It can be easily removed with a file before fitting new pads. I am a stickler for staying within the guidelines and so replace the discs as soon as they are worn to the minimum thickness. I am pretty sure however that you could safely allow more disc wear providing you replace the second set of pads before they are totally worn down. I had a 1.4 Panda and it was used moderately but with occasional hard use of the brakes the discs seemed to last about 45000 miles so 30000 seems a bit off to me. Wear rates depend on many things though. See the Ferodo web site for dealers and seek a price from them locally. By the way I tried Brembo discs and did not find them any better in any way.

The Bravo 1.6D we also have did over 60000 on the front discs and would ahve gone further if I had gone to the limit, probably at least 75000 and the rears look likely to last around 100000 miles. I will change them at 80K whatever.