Do my discs and pads need changing? Dealer says yes!

[Ellesbelles]

Globs said:

The appearance of the brakes is not good but I've seen worse. It looks like they've undergone a recent period of very low usage and the pads are a little low so if they work fine then I'd change them next year if it was me. I'm not seeing a need to rush unless they don't work, but I assume they do as you have a recent MOT.

The parts are not particularly expensive from Eurocarparts (ECP) but they do need to be fitted properly and I suspect the fluid may welcome a change too.

Forgot to mention the last owner didn't drive it for three months as he was out of the country. It's only done about 30miles since! Thanks for your input

[Ellesbelles]

Welshbeef said:

Free health check = hmm those brakes are utterly dangerous and lethal you must replace.
How many miles have been covered since the MOT? I'd push that back and say well 67miles ago it past it's MOT with flying colours how can it now be very dangerous given barely any distance travelled -- do I need to report that MOT test centre to trading standards for passing cars which it shouldn't?

Yes they said it was basically a death trap, which I found hard to believe when it had just passed the MOT. It's done about 30 miles since the MOT three weeks ago

[Sheepshanks]

Ellesbelles said:

Forgot to mention the last owner didn't drive it for three months as he was out of the country. It's only done about 30miles since!

I did wonder about that as the disc looks evenly rusty. They should clean up quite a bit as you use the car, although once the rust sets in it tends to rub the pad away so the rust can creep across the face of the disc.

One thing to be aware of is they're normally worse on the back of the disc - so if the outer face starts to look iffy the inside face will be worse.

[GreenV8S]

Ellesbelles said:

It had a full service in February and the brake pads are noted as having been changed.

I don't believe the pads shown in that picture were new six months ago.

[Welshbeef]

GreenV8S said:

I don't believe the pads shown in that picture were new six months ago.

Ditto that would need some huge miles on very few months and in so doing the discs wouldn't look like that - plus the pads wouldn't look that colour either. Ours were changed on the S Max in Feb too done maybe 4K miles since if you look at them they are black just like the day they were fitted.

Did old owner give you receipts of the pads being changed or simply state it without evidence?

[ShampooEfficient]

Welshbeef said:

Ditto that would need some huge miles on very few months and in so doing the discs wouldn't look like that - plus the pads wouldn't look that colour either. Ours were changed on the S Max in Feb too done maybe 4K miles since if you look at them they are black just like the day they were fitted.

Did old owner give you receipts of the pads being changed or simply state it without evidence?

Possible that the fronts have been changed and the screenshot shows the rear.

[Welshbeef]

ShampooEfficient said:

Possible that the fronts have been changed and the screenshot shows the rear.

Fair point.

[davidexige]

Ellesbelles said:

Great, thanks. Just been having a look around and Euro car parts have 30% off so I can get the parts for £100, which I can just about do

Unfortunately you've just missed a 50% off offer at Euro car parts, however if you create an account with them you should get regular emails about their various offers, there's usually 30-35% off every weekend and occasionally 50% off.

[Ellesbelles]

Thanks everyone for your input, really appreciate it. My dad is going to take the wheels off so we can have a proper look and take it from there. Inclined to wait a little bit to see if the rust comes off the discs while I'm driving.
He didn't say brake pads had been done, I was going by the service book which said they'd been done. Unless they changed just the front and not the back?

[CrutyRammers]

A bit rusty but will be fine with a bit of use. There's plenty of life left in there. If in doubt, quiet bit of road, do a few emergency stops to check it all works. Start saving now and change the pads at next service and see what the discs look like then.

[sidgolf]

As said above,the discs should clean up nicely on their own with use.

It's common for just the front brake-pads to be changed and not the rears,'cos the fronts do more work and so wear at a much faster rate than the rears.

[Sheepshanks]

Ellesbelles said:

Unless they changed just the front and not the back?

Be quite normal to just change the fronts. The backs do very little braking on many cars so will last a long time, but often the discs look rusty as the lack of work they do means they don't clean up. My wife used to have a Honda Jazz and the dealer changed the rear discs under warranty as they looked so bad, but the replacements went just the same.

[PurpleTurtle]

OP - those discs look like they have surface rust through recent lack of use which will (should) all scrub off with some regular use.

My concern would be a partially or fully seized caliper through lack of use; you will know if this is the case if, when you give them some use, the oxidization comes off the surface of the disc cleanly (good) or in an uneven way (bad).

If you are worried about the brakes take it to a deserted road, get to a decent speed and emergency stop it. Does it pull up cleanly, in a straight line, within acceptable distance? If so you are OK. These 'health checks' are generally a marketing ploy to deceive the mechanically unaware, althought they will of course highlight dangers to those running paper thin pads and discs, as some are wont to do.

If it is a seized caliper I had same problem a few months back on on my low usage BMW M3; local indy (who I trust) wanted £400+ to replace the seized front caliper with an exchange item. I rebuilt it with a rebuild kit from Brakeparts for less than 30 quid, putting new pads in at the same time.

https://brakeparts.co.uk/pages/caliperkits

There are loads of good 'How To' vids on YouTube, this is the one I followed, it really isn't complicated for the DIY-er with some basic tools, common sense and patience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFW1_zIEybY

However, looking at the Brakeparts website you can get a Zafira caliper for just over 60 quid so probably worth replacing the entire thing rather than going to the effort of rebuilding.

Edited by PurpleTurtle on Friday 8th September 10:03

[Ellesbelles]

So I've got some pics for you all!

Front left



Front right



Back left



Back right




To my amateur eye the front pads look ok?

[PurpleTurtle]

Pads still have a bit of life but discs looking worn IMHO, there's a ridge worn in at the edge there.

You are probably at or close to their minimum thickness threshold. Should be able to Google to find out what that is and check with a micrometer or ruler.

[WinstonWolf]

Personally I'd do a few stops from high speed to clean up the discs then replace just the pads for now. The discs look lipped but not worn out although it's hard to tell without measuring them.

My daughters tell me this is what dads are for...

[Ahbefive]

I'd replace all the discs, pads and fluid if it was me. The pads still have material left but if you are replacing thr discs then really you should do the pads too.

Driving it for a bit and using the brakes a fair amount may clean the discs up somewhat. I'd try that for now and then post back pics if I were you. That should show if the calipers have any issues too.

[Jazoli]

There's nothing wrong with them as I suspected that a bit of use won't solve, garage in taking the piss shocker.

[GreenV8S]

Ahbefive said:

I'd replace all the discs, pads and fluid if it was me.

Me too. None of them look great. The pads look very low, the rotors are noticeably worn and one of them had heavy ridges on. The components are not expensive, the work to replace them is easy and should be cheap, and brakes are IMO not an area that you want to cut corners on. £600 sounds excessive to me, unless they are proposing to rebuild/replace calipers too - nothing shown here indicates that would be necessary.

[Sheepshanks]

I'm amazed they didn't get mentioned as an advisory on the MOT.