My friend owns a pug 406glx 2.0 auto and is getting through a set of front discs every 10,000mls.
His wife uses the car most and does short journeys but she is a typical woman driver and never brakes hard ( unless in an emergency ).
He is getting a little fed up with having to have the front discs changed so often and would like to know if this is a common problem or has he just got a dodgy car.
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Have you or your friend seen the old discs or are just taking the garage's word for it?
Changing discs is a straightforward way to "add value" to a bill for service or MoT.
Darcy.
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Autos are much harder on brakes than manuals, lack of engine braking etc., but 10000 miles seems excessive. I reckon Darcy has it right, but if not is the wear on the discs even??
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The discs are definately warping as the brakes start to judder after a while and get progressively worse.
He doesn't know if the wear is even as he hasn't seen the discs.
Could it be that the garage is using cheap discs?
Would it be worth him going to a different garage next time?
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Marcos
Although discs are now a regular replacment item, 10,000 miles does seem a very short life. When you pal finds the brakes are starting to judder, suggest he goes out and gives them a good work out - bearing safety in mind of course.
A while back the brakes on my car started to judder, although visually they were fine. It hadn't had much hard braking and had been sat in the garage for a couple of weeks. To make matters worse I'd washed the car and only driven it a short distance before putting it in the garage. I drove along using left foot braking against the throttle on and off for a few miles. Sounds drastic, but it cleaned them up and solved the problem.
Regards
John S
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The 406 can be heavy on discs. My 2.0 LX tends to eat through rear discs every 25000 miles or so (although surprisingly the fronts last longer). You need to inspect them regularly. HJ told me that I wasn't braking sufficiently hard to clean off corrosion and that this was compounding the issue. Since then I make a point of braking hard at least once a week and it has improved matters. Get your friend to brake a bit harder and see if this helps.
Rich
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HJ had something in the Telegraph motoring supplement recently about 406 discs being a particular problem. His comment was that after heavy braking, keeping the foot on the brake and therefore the pads clamped to the disc, prevented the heat from dissipating in that region, resulting in the discs warping. One assumes that this problem is even more pronounced with an automatic than a manual as you have to hold the car on the brakes to keep it from creeping. Perhaps more of an argument to move it into \'park\' and release the brakes or neutral and hand brake? It would be interesting to know why this problem should particularly affect 406\'s though.
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Three main reasons to change a disc...
Worn thin, but often nice and shiny due to hard use.
Rusted braking surface due to underuse.
Warping leading to judder.
Sometimes there will be a combination of the above.
There is almost no acceptable reason for new discs to warp within 10K such that they have to be changed due to judder. It is quite likely that they are being fitted to hubs with excess runout due to dirty mating faces or worn wheel bearings.
Possibly the only circumstance where useage can drastically shorten disc life is (as mentioned above) where they are constantly heated and then brought to a halt with the pads hard in contact with the disc. This causes localised changes in the disc hardness and will lead to uneven wear. It doesn't sound like this car suffers such use. Even then I would expect this to reduce disc life from a normal 35-65K to 25-45K....not down to 10K though.
It is often easy for a decent fitter to "read" the likely cause of early failure by looking at the removed disc.
As a matter of interest just changed a front set on a Xantia (very similar setup to 406) at 71K..... original from new, evenly worn, no judder and only needed due to dipping under the makers min thickness.
MM
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Car by car breakdown on this site states that for the 406:
"Lots of problems with brake discs wearing rapidly or warping, so check these carefully before you buy."
I don't know why this should be such a problem on this model, but my own experience suggests that the main excessive wear issues concern the rear rather than the front discs. Whenever I park on flat ground now I leave the vehicle in gear and refrain from using the handbrake. Even an overnight park in damp conditions can see my parking brake bind.
Rich
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Years ago I used to have similar warping problems with Cortina front disks. It was cured when I had the disks skimmed instead of replaced, it seemed that the first hard brakings on new disks warped and heat treated the disks, after skimming all was well.
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MM - I believe it is possible to find discs made of uneven metal. You are probably tired of hearing about our succession of 205s, but one of them developed brake judder after about 8K, so I had the discs skimmed which cured it, but the problem reappeared after another 8-10K. Fitted new discs after that; the only 205 I have had with any brake problem (except flimsy rear cables, which is a generic fault).
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I have heard of problems with the 406 front discs, but mine, a 2.1td, is fine on the original discs appraching 50K. Having said that, I have had to replace the rears, and the handbrake (which works inside the rear disc)is very poor despite adjusting the shoes and the handbrake cable several times. It even includes roughing up the shoes and the drum with rough sandpaper.
Reggie
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