General Brake Pad Prices

[oopsadaisy]

Hi All

On hearing an ominous grinding noise from the front end upon braking in our Uno Diesel I deduced that a new set of front pads were in order!

Went along to our local motor factors, and checked the price.

About £15 which sounded about right.

Got them home, and discovered the ones fitted to our car had wear indicator tabs. Odd, because there is no pad wear indicator warning as far as I know.

However, took them back and asked for the ones with the wear indicators.

"Hmmmmmm," says guy behind the counter. "Makes a difference to the price"

"How much and in which direction?" asks I.

"Roughly double" says he.

"What the :yuck: ?" says I.

OK - I know they are available on Ebay for about £15.00 but it needed doing urgently.

So off I trundles round to our local Halfrauds.

Same story there, nice lady says "Wow" (or words to that effect) "they are around £50.00"

"Hang on a sec," she says, and does a search of other suppliers.

"Ahhhh," she says, "here we go, genuine Bosch pads, and £16.42 to you mate. I'll have them here later this afternoon!"

and so she did........ and they fitted a treat!

So, loathed as I usually am to darken the doors of Halfrauds, this time they came up trumps, and excellent service to boot! :slayer:

 

[alexGS]

Thanks for that colourful report with all the smilies!

Was the pad wear sensor wire actually hooked up? I'm guessing so, otherwise you wouldn't bother to track down pads with the sensor wire.

I generally find that most pads come with small white plastic buttons that fit in the holes at the ends of the pad. The white plastic button has a brass pin inside it. Quite how you're supposed to connect the pin to the wiring I don't know, but the idea is that when the head of the plastic button wears through, the brass pin makes contact with the brake disc.

Generally, few people seem to bother with pad-sensor wiring, but it's good to know some people care Also, name-brand pads as you bought are often better in terms of reduced dust and improved actual braking performance. Cheapest is not necessarily best, but I'm sure you knew that all along...

I did type this post seven hours ago, but the forum suddenly went down for an upgrade :bang:

-Alex

 

[oopsadaisy]

No, there were no wires, just a couple of small spring clips that don't appear to do anything.

In fact, the springs on the ones I took off were actually inverted compared to the ones on the new pads.

I would have posted a picture but I have binned the old ones.

I thought it was strange too, but concluded that they are simply a visual guide to the pad wear. In other words, if the little springy things are almost touching each other, then the pads are badly worn!

Re the branded name, someone told me that the unbranded ones you buy off Ebay are made in China from compressed cow sh*t!

Probably not true, but hey..... it's a good tale!

 

[Ucof]

I think when it comes to brake pads, tyres and....well.. anything that involves stopping, it is well worth spending the extra couple of quid to get a good branded set.

 

[alexGS]

I think when it comes to brake pads, tyres and....well.. anything that involves stopping, it is well worth spending the extra couple of quid to get a good branded set.

:yeahthat: And kudos to oopsadaisy for telling us how to find them!

-Alex