General Disc and Brake Pad Wear??

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General Disc and Brake Pad Wear??

Ophio

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Sep 2, 2007
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I recently had my car serviced and they told me that I needed to replace my front pads and disks. The car has done 36000 miles and find it amazing that the disks have worn down to the point of needing replacing already.

Has anyone had a similar experiance? what mileage should I be expecting?

My other question is what have people been paying for this:

Quotes so far with labour included:
Gloucester (Wessex Fiat) - £263.33
Chippenham (Pewsham Fiat) - £174.28

A whopping difference! I will be ringing the gloucester branch to tell them what I think of their quote shortly!

Panda's rule!
 
My Panda is a Multijet, so will probably be a bit harder on front brakes, and it's done 60 miles round the Nurburgring. However most of the time it gets driven pretty gently. It's just had its 36k service and it's on the original disks and pads.
 
Many of the guys in the stilo section had a similar grip with the stilo oem discs they were warping ..inferior quality or your very hard on the brakes :devil:
 
Dealers seem to always say the brakes need replacing. I think this line item is printed on service notes by default... :)

Can you see the discs through the wheels? Do they look badly scored or rusty where the pad makes contact? (check or feel the inside of the disc too). If not then they're probably fine. Your pads could be ready for changing, something which should be easy enough to see on the fronts at least. Brakes are really simple - I'd go to an independent garage and ask them to take a look.

I can't remember the number of times I've been told my brakes would only last a few more k miles...
 
I don't think my brakes are quite right... My first set of brake pads only lasted 12K miles, and I was told at my last service (only 3K miles after the brake pads being replaced) that the second set were well worn... I've driven other Pandas and I felt that their brakes were more effective than mine. I'll be looking to get the whole braking system checked out and replaced if the second set wear out quicker than the first set. I'm not the type who stands on the brakes.
 
I think 36,000 miles from a set of pads is good. Modern pads without asbestos are much more abrasive so it is normal to need to replace discs with pads. On my 4x4 the pads are not far off worn and the discs will definitely need replacing with them.
 
I did a visual inspection this morning and it did seem that the disks had worn down. There were no marks at all but you could see a lip around the edge where it has worn down. Probably gone down by about 2mm looking at the lip.

The pads looked like they had about 3mm left on them. If you change discs is it wise to change pads as well?

Apart from the rust in the center of the disk it looked in very good shape.

I got another quote from an independent and they quoted about £130 half the price of the dealer in Gloucester. I am appalled! I will be going anywhere but there next time!

Even better this morning when I was out doing my visual inspection a neighbor offered to fit it all for me if I got the parts :) All I need to do now is find some parts!

Thanks guys for you help! I have a 55 plate fiat Panda MJ by the way. Forgot to mention that :cool:
 
YES, YES, YES,

Yes, you must change the pads when you change the disc's - otherwise the old pads will score the new disc's.

Also, 3mm of braking material on car pads is lethal ! Change them quick.

As to the worn disc's - there is no formula for working out how long they should last as everyone has a different driving / braking style. But if there is a noticeable lip on the edge of the disc, then it is time to change.
 
I don't believe an independent can change MJ front discs and pads for £130. Decent discs alone for this model are over £100 per pair. I suspect he has priced up for the 1.1 or 1.2 where the discs are about £ 30 per pair. BTW, disc wear limit for your car is 18mm, original disc thickness 20mm, so not much of a margin for wear there.
 
Disc and pad wear is a lot down to where you drive and what your style is..
around town is death to brakes as all the stop start..
long hill decents dragging the brakes also wears them out quickly...

stopping hard from high speed every now and then doesnt increase the wear... and in fact most modern cas have such good brakes that you need to do a high speed hard stop to "clean" up the the discs and remove glazing from the pads....
 
Best thing you can ever do is get uprated brakes! (Warranty permitting & if they do them for Panda's :) )

Brembo Sport disc's outlast normal manufacture brakes by over 30% while offering unmatched stopping potential! If the Sports are out of your price range Id recommend Brembo Max, although going on your quotes Id say avoid labour by fitting them yourself or someone else and spend what you would of spent by getting Brembo Sports (y)

Cheers
 
I think 36,000 miles from a set of pads is good.

I did a complete pad change on my so-in-laws Mitsi people carrier yesterday [deep joy the rears were wind back] and on the box it said these pads are only good for 15,000 :confused: now how they came to that conclusion is beond my comprihension TBO as know one has the same driving style and some people are harder on their brakes than others ..
 
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