# How long should disc brakes last?



## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

This relates to a problem with my son-in-laws car. (Peugeot 308 1.6HDi).
Bought new last November, covered 19,000 miles. Went in for a minor service (£50). Shock horror, dealer says needs new front disc pads & DISCS!!!! Bill is now close to £300!!!!
To me, at this age & this mileage, totally unacceptable. I could just about accept new pads at this mileage, but not the discs themselves. 
Peugeot refuse to honour the warranty on these parts as they say it is "wear & tear", caused by "Motorway use". Quite how Motorway cruising causes excessive wear of the brakes I'm not sure. Motorway usage results in less wear (than normal) on the brakes, not more than normal.
I went with daughter & son-in-law to collect the car after service & asked what was the minimum acceptable thickness of the discs. At first dealer said 23mm., later they changed this to 24mm. Does anyone know the correct figure?
We have retained the discs for evidence, they are anyway actually above 24mm., (checked with micrometer). There are no abnormal marks or scoring on the discs, just normal wear.
Any help or advice on this problem would be welcome.
S-i-L has written to Peugeot Customer care, they phoned him to say they won't do anything about it.

Sad thing is, they bought a new car to avoid this sort of bill, now they feel totally let down by Peugeot.


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## grumpyman (Sep 24, 2006)

On my first MOT carried out in May 2009 by Peugeot with 9000 miles on the clock Peugeot placed an advisory note Pads and Discs showing wear. Had another Mechanic look at them. He stated they was nothing wrong with them at all. :wink:


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## twinky (Aug 11, 2008)

Modern brake pads are designed to wear in conjunction with the discs.

The pads arent made of asbestos anymore and tend to be softer so the discs are also softer. Often the discs are cheaper than the pads to replace, but obviously if the discs need replacing the pads do too.

Its possible depending on your driving technique and whether the car is loaded all the time to wear them out at 19k miles. Autos tend to be harder on brakes.

Having said that we ran a fleet of Peugeot company cars until recently and I had a 307. It was permanently loaded and I was very heavy on the brakes. The car went back with over 60k miles on the original discs and 1 change of pads.

Can you see any wear indicators around the edge of the disc? Could you measure the new ones theyve fitted to see how thick they are when new? That might be more ammunition to go back at them.


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes (Jul 21, 2007)

Is there a pronounced lip on the edge of the discs showing how much they have worn?

Sounds a bit like a rip off to me.

Peter


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## Chausson (Oct 17, 2006)

emmbeedee said:


> This relates to a problem with my son-in-laws car. (Peugeot 308 1.6HDi).
> Bought new last November, covered 19,000 miles. Went in for a minor service (£50). Shock horror, dealer says needs new front disc pads & DISCS!!!! Bill is now close to £300!!!!
> To me, at this age & this mileage, totally unacceptable. I could just about accept new pads at this mileage, but not the discs themselves.
> Peugeot refuse to honour the warranty on these parts as they say it is "wear & tear", caused by "Motorway use". Quite how Motorway cruising causes excessive wear of the brakes I'm not sure. Motorway usage results in less wear (than normal) on the brakes, not more than normal.
> ...


Hi
I think that it's 24mm, however I would not expect to be putting new disc's at that mileage, new pads maybe this is down to driving style.


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## trek (May 1, 2005)

had my last car from new and got rid of it at 72,000 miles, mostly motorway mileage never had to change any pads or discs

current car at 65,000 miles discs & pads original & still look fine with loads of life left in them - again mostly motorway mileage

(both cars diesel ! )


Could the Peugeot have been standing for long periods and the discs corroded & pitted?


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## boxertwin69 (Apr 18, 2009)

I was trained to drive the IAM way & taught to use acceleration sense on the approach to hazards. The emphasis is on driving smoothly & being in the correct gear for the circumstances at all times. This obviously means far less use of the brakes, but unfortunately allows a build-up of surface rust on your discs. If this is not scrubbed off by periodically braking very hard (where safe!), it starts to eat into the discs & they fail prematurely (as I found to my cost with my Volvo V70!). 

Mark


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## exmusso (Jun 18, 2006)

*Disc Pads*

Hi Embedee,

It certainly sound a bit excessive at that mileage.

I recently traded in my May 2003 Kia Sorento 4x4 with just over 73000 miles on the clock and still on the original discs and pads.

The pads are 28mm to start with though.

This car weighs over 2 tonnes and for the first 3 years pulled a caravan and car trailer regularly with no special driving techniques to save the brakes.

If the discs removed are still ok, may be worth saving them for the future and refitting when the next ones are worn. If the car's done 19k in less than a year, it won't be long before the new ones require replacement.

Cheers,
Alan


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## twinky (Aug 11, 2008)

I would hazard a guess that the discs dont cost that much out of the £300 bill.

Its the labour to fit them that costs.


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

My company Honda CR-V required new pads and discs, back and front, at 2 years 54,000 miles. I said to the service centre manager "not very good life of the discs is it, I'm glad its not my own?"

He said if it was private they would have just issued a warning that the discs were wearing and would require changing sometime in the future.

It s worth noting that since asbestos is no longer used in the pads the discs wear quicker than they used to.

e bay £110 delivered
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PEUGEOT-307-2...temQQimsxq20091014?IMSfp=TL091014154001r22968

PS: How do you think they can afford to give a 3 year warranty? 3 years servicing and exorbitant labour costs is how.


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## SpeedyDux (Jul 13, 2007)

boxertwin69 said:


> I was trained to drive the IAM way & taught to use acceleration sense on the approach to hazards. The emphasis is on driving smoothly & being in the correct gear for the circumstances at all times. This obviously means far less use of the brakes, but unfortunately allows a build-up of surface rust on your discs. If this is not scrubbed off by periodically braking very hard (where safe!), it starts to eat into the discs & they fail prematurely (as I found to my cost with my Volvo V70!).
> 
> Mark


I have only recently become aware of this problem, having had to replace the front disks on my car and rear disks on the Westy, basically because they were under-used. :?

I now have to consciously alter my driving style from economy (very little use of brakes) to checking from time to time that nobody is following then do a hard stop. This is to clean off the surface rust and reduce pitting on the disks.

So, if you try to be green and save fuel you get penalised by more frequent brake disk replacement costs. :roll:

SD


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

how long is a piece of string ? Is it not down to how you drive ? if you brake and accelerate hard .if you were taught to use the engine and gear box to slow you down instead of the brakes etc etc.If you drive 20k on a motor way in the correct manner ie no harsh and sudden breaking,we call it hazard perception ,awareness and forward planning then your brakes will last much longer than someone that drives on the brakes around town.


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## nipperdin (Oct 28, 2007)

*Disc Brakes*

I recently had new front pads and discs fitted to our 2.8td Peugeot Starspirit.(2003)
Mileage 46347.
Cost was £97.50 labour and £157.15 parts.plus £38.20 vat.
Total £292.85.
That was at a Peugeot garage.


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## Tezmcd (Aug 3, 2009)

Were the brakes working fine?

If your engine pulled like a train and someone said you needed a new engine would you question it?

I suspect that a lot of items on a car do need regular replacement - I also suspect that a few "scarey" items like brakes / tyres / steering etc are used as levers on the mind to generate cash for a garage!

If your brakes are starting to fade you will be the first to know it - not the spotty 17 year old who is trained to say "your discs need replacing" as well as the next 17 year old is trained to say "would like like fries with that?"


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

trek said:


> Could the Peugeot have been standing for long periods and the discs corroded & pitted?


The car certainly hasn't been standing for long periods - it would have hardly managed 19,000 miles in 11 months if it had, would it? :? 
Car is driven perfectly normally, most of that mileage is up & down the M6, on a very frequent basis.
Brakes were absolutely fine before the service, no indication of any problem with them whatsoever. 
From past experience I know there was a similar, but not so blatant, scam in the USA some years ago.
They did give him an advisory about his tyres as well, but that was genuine enough & of course quite obvious.


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

Gee, duplicate post again!
This seems to happen if I try to return to the forum by using the "back" spot on my touchpad. It doesn't immediately return but instead double posts.
Have to try & remember not to use that function after posting!


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## grouch (Oct 1, 2005)

Purchased my Fiesta new 2001. Original discs lasted 36,000 miles. Their replacement lasted 9000 miles (one disc having warped and being out of the 12 month warranty). Their replacement after 3000 miles also warped and had to be replaced. The problem we are told is due to the fact that these ventilated brake discs by reason of the ventilation gap have very thin actual disc bearing surfaces. This seems to be another part of the rubbish we have to put up with today. My motoring consists almost 100% in a 30 and 40 mph local area with a very lightly loaded vehicle. We are also told by a friend in the garage trade that this rubbish affliction now extends t having to replace broken coil springs on a regular basis. Such is progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

grouch said:


> We are also told by a friend in the garage trade that this rubbish affliction now extends t having to replace broken coil springs on a regular basis. Such is progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yes, agree with that!
Had to replace both rear coil springs on my Seat Alhambra to pass the MOT earlier this year. But that vehicle is now 10 years old, so although still an expensive pain, at least more understandable.


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

reminds me of years ago I had a ford sierra ( told you it was years ago ) I had a new exhaust fitted and 2 weeks later I took it in to well known garage chain,cant remember the name but the song went something like "you cant get thicker than a q---- fit fitter" for a puncture repair and they offered me a free vehicle check .Yes you guessed it ,they said that the exhaust needed replacing as it was showing signs of rust.Is that correct I said as I reached into the glove box and pulled out the invoice for the 2 week old exhaust.


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## twinky (Aug 11, 2008)

I agree with the previous posts regarding brake and suspension life in modern cars but have you parked next to a 70s car recently and noticed how much smaller they were?

I saw an early mini clubman yesterday and it looked like a toy car in the traffic. Modern cars are so much heavier and larger but so much better and safer than old cars.

It reminds me of a Suzuki Swift GTI we used to have when the exhaust rotted through at 13 months old. I priced up a spurious replacement before going back to the supplying dealer to see whether it could be replaced under warranty. 

No way was the reply, so I checked the price of a genuine which was twice the price of the spurious one.

How much? I asked, I'll buy a spurious one.

Ahh, the parts man said, but it wont last as long as the genuine one!

I cant remember the last time someone I know had to have a new exhaust. Are they all stainless now?


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