During servicing last month main dealer advised that I need to change brake discs. My car has done just 31,000 miles.
Is this normal to change at this mileage?
Brake pads were changed at 24,000 miles following recommendation of same dealer.
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Only if you are commuting at high speeds over alpine roads. With a bit of judicious servicing with a hammer, old screwdriver and a Black & Decker carburundum wheel my discs have all lasted well over 100,000 miles.
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What sort of driving do you do? Short, stop start journeys for instance?
What environment does the car live in when parked up? Garage, street?
How long on average is it parked up before being used again?
Any other environmental info based on your location, such as by the coast for example?
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It is used daily in motorway - 30 miles roundtrip.
Parked on road. My nearest coast is 100 miles away!
I am bit worried about this dealership. They wanted £310 to fit new discs where as I spoke with another Suzuki dealer and they agreed to do it for £200.
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My goodness , unless you have a foot of absolute lead and practice drifting around you local streets, or use the car for high speed chases the disks shouldn't have gone.
Often when you get unusual disc wear is where high performance or sintered pads have been used, different to the normal manufacturers fitment. At 31,000 mile I would imagine this is the first set of pads you are having fitted.
If they were warped you would feel it on braking. Have a front wheel off and have a look at the disks, spin the wheel and see if there is any runout. It's normal to have a bit of a ridge on the disc as they do wear thinner over time. This ridge can be 1mm or more...it's also normal to have the surface with the odd slight groove. In all probability the car is still going to stop fine, the breaks are not going to fall off, shatter or do anything else unusual. There is no way it would pass an MOT is the balance of the brakes each side and the force was not within the required specification.
If you don't know what you are looking at, get a free brake check at a couple of centres like Kwikfit etc.. and see what they say. Unfortunately new brake discs seems to be quite a common scam in recent years, simply because it's a really profitable job, fast and easy to do....plus the motorist rarely argues.
It's your life, your brakes, so you have to make your own decision. All I can say is if it was me I would look at them, if there are no fluid leaks, more than 5mm left on the pads, no runout on the discs (which you would hear and feel as you rotate the wheel and under breaking)....I would't worry about it.
P.S. It's possibly because they got you for new PADs at 24,000 (which is a very low mileage for the type of driving you say you do)......perhaps they figure you are ripe to cough for a new pair of discs. By splitting the jobs they can of course charge even more. My wifes Honda had new front pads after about 33K but they still had 5-6mm left on em and could have happily done another 5-6K...and that car had a much harder life than yours and no, it doesn't need new disks!
I also had a Vauxhall Omega 53K same pads, Jag S type 52K same pads.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/09/2009 at 01:48
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Another thought on this, some garages work on the principle that the pads/discs won't last until the next service interval and make out they're doing the customer a favour by not having to book the car in again in 6 to 9 months time for a pad/disc change.
2 years running the local Vauxhall garage told my dad that his brake pads and discs were low on the front of his Astra. I asked how low and they told me that they operate on the rule that if the pads/discs won't last another 10,000 miles they then advise the customer to have them changed to save time by not having to book the car in again before the next service is due.
My reply was "That's alright, my dad only does approx 5,000 miles a year so the pads/discs won't have worn out before the next service interval"
In short, basically what I'm saying is find out how many miles they estimate the discs/pads have got left to run before they are worn down to the minimum thicknesses.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/09/2009 at 01:58
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Discs will normally have a "minimum thickness" dimension stamped on them.Modern discs will frequently wear out before the pads because of the harder materials pads are now made of(no asbestos in them).A change of disc is normally as quick if not quicker than a change of pads tho' it is good practice to fit new pads along with the new disc.
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If you have alloy wheels, regularly wash them and leave the car after washing, you will get rust on the disks.. but it will wear away when the brakes are applied.
As I have changed disks after 30k miles and 3 years due to corrosion your case is not surprising.
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A lot of stuff about premature brake disk wear seems to be being spread around by one company, {8< snip counts as naming/shaming}. Of course I am sure they have an impartial unbiased view.
If indeed disks have to be changed at the same time as pads....then something has to be seriously wrong about the whole situation. I find it difficult to believe that this has become commonplace and have never had to replace the discs on any car I have ever owned....have replaced pads plenty of times though.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 11/09/2009 at 13:34
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My Passat had several changes of pads and discs in its 140,000 miles.
Annoying and the pads never wore out before the discs neded replacing.
Never actually checked the disc thicknesses but the surfaces did look rather groovy.
Yeah baby.
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My Passat had several changes of pads and discs in its 140 000 miles.
But surely not 11 changes, a new set of disks every 30K?
I have never had to change pads before 40K and then I changed em 6K early, I just find this all hard to believe.
Edited by davecuk on 11/09/2009 at 14:32
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davecuk, what car do you own?
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Not far off those intervals. Think I'd two replacement sets on rears and three on fronts?
Current cars discs are covered with little corrosion pits at under 3000 miles from new. Long way from the sea and not run car through a winter yet.
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davecuk what car do you own?
Earlier typo I meant 5 not 11 sets.
I own a Honda Civic (just put pads in at 35K, disks were fine and pads had 5-6K left on them, I had a Honda Insight, but regen braking so not representative).
Previous manual cars
Vauxhall Omega (65K miles
Escort 1600i Cabrio (70K miles)
Escort Diesel (70K miles)
All of the above (with the exception of the Escort Diesel) was after asbestos for brakes was banned by law in the UK. None of them required new disks or ever had an advisory to that effect, Pads were usually at around 40K miles.
I do have quite a light foot and an anticipatory driving style. I am by no means an aggressive driver, perhaps that has something to do with it.
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I have just experienced a similar issue. I have a Quashai 1.5 DCi. Have just dropped it into approved Nissan garage for a service (the same garage I bought it from and who have done all the services) and been told that I need the pads and disks replaced. It is on it's first set of pads (high mileage - 83k kilometers - as its all motorway driving and I barely use the brakes) but they are good - nowhere need the metal. Cannot understand how factory fitted disks can wear at the same speed as factory filled brake pads.
Think Nissan either have used inferior metal in the disks or did not set up the brakes correctly. Raised the issue with Nissan and was told that it was up to the garage to decide - not under warranty as they are a replacable item!. Thanks Nissan for the customer service. Really annoyed at this.
Previous car was Audi A6 and got over 130k miles before sold it - never needed to replace the disks!!
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Cannot understand how factory fitted disks can wear at the same speed as factory filled brake pads.
Because since pads are no longer made from asbestos, they are as hard as the discs.
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