'used approved' Audi delivered with pitted front disks that

[James_33]

Bought a car a week ago and already having to look at paying out for discs or discs and pads?

Absolutely not, back to the dealership it goes, replace or hand the car back, but that's just me.

[wezzley]

James_33 said:

Bought a car a week ago and already having to look at paying out for discs or discs and pads?

Absolutely not, back to the dealership it goes, replace or hand the car back, but that's just me.

Thanks for the validation buddy

[J4CKO]

Have had this and its not on when its a high end car from a dealer, mine was a Saab, ten mins with a flap disk in an angle grinder to take the "crust" off the edge of the disk, popped the pads out and cleaned everything and all was well with the braking and was quiet again.

I bet your average mechanic could spend an hour on them and get them sorted, along with a few hard stops, all the bulk will scrub them nice an clean, wear off the pitted area and expose fresh metal whilst still being well within the thickness as its still low mileage.

"Pitting" sounds worse than it is, they exist in a very hostile environment and nowadays the metal seems to be particularly prone to corroding in no time but they are pretty solid things.

I would take the tack with Audi as "I bought this here big posh Audi Q8 from you for a healthy price, the brakes make a noise unbecoming of a luxury vehicle, it sounds like some old knacker, now sort it out please", wouldn't mention AA reports of pitting, just ring them, book it in and make it their problem, they sold it and you shouldn't have to listen to it sounding like an old bus.

[119]

James_33 said:

Bought a car a week ago and already having to look at paying out for discs or discs and pads?

Absolutely not, back to the dealership it goes, replace or hand the car back, but that's just me.

If the brakes are performing within the legal specified limits, i suspect they will just say, jog on.

I recommend he uses the 30 day return policy and use that as a reason.

I bet they will soon pay for them to be done at a more local dealer rather than the hassle of having the car back.


Anyway, we are going back and forth with this but we have no update from the OP as he was contacting the dealer an hour or so ago.

[skyebear]

popeyewhite said:

How has the OP been let down? The brakes are legal and a little bit of harsh braking will probably clean them off. I think people expect a little too much. It's disappointing yes but nothing untoward.

"Audi Approved Used: Disappointing but not untoward."

[wezzley]

skyebear said:

popeyewhite said:

How has the OP been let down? The brakes are legal and a little bit of harsh braking will probably clean them off. I think people expect a little too much. It's disappointing yes but nothing untoward.

"Audi Approved Used: Disappointing but not untoward."

I laughed out loud

[wezzley]

[redacted]

[wezzley]

J4CKO said:

Have had this and its not on when its a high end car from a dealer, mine was a Saab, ten mins with a flap disk in an angle grinder to take the "crust" off the edge of the disk, popped the pads out and cleaned everything and all was well with the braking and was quiet again.

I bet your average mechanic could spend an hour on them and get them sorted, along with a few hard stops, all the bulk will scrub them nice an clean, wear off the pitted area and expose fresh metal whilst still being well within the thickness as its still low mileage.

"Pitting" sounds worse than it is, they exist in a very hostile environment and nowadays the metal seems to be particularly prone to corroding in no time but they are pretty solid things.

I would take the tack with Audi as "I bought this here big posh Audi Q8 from you for a healthy price, the brakes make a noise unbecoming of a luxury vehicle, it sounds like some old knacker, now sort it out please", wouldn't mention AA reports of pitting, just ring them, book it in and make it their problem, they sold it and you shouldn't have to listen to it sounding like an old bus.

Thanks mate, all sounds very reasonable and level headed

[MustangGT]

wezzley said:

Hi buddy, just did at least ten hard brakes from 40 mph, has t fixed the grinding sound sadly

Braking from 40 is not hard braking, you need to get on a motorway in the small hours when it is practically deserted, cycle from 70-0 repeatedly.

Those photos do not appear to show pitting at all.

[wezzley]

MustangGT said:

wezzley said:

Hi buddy, just did at least ten hard brakes from 40 mph, has t fixed the grinding sound sadly

Braking from 40 is not hard braking, you need to get on a motorway in the small hours when it is practically deserted, cycle from 70-0 repeatedly.

Those photos do not appear to show pitting at all.

Hi friend, thanks for the 70mph tip. I didn't even know what pitting was until yesterday, I am going by the Audi roadside assistance, a professional and specialist, that reported pitting and showed me how uneven the surface is by running my finger over it. Also the MOT from less than 12 months ago has an advisory for pitting. So I think it's fair to say that there is pitting present here.

[loskie]

under normal driving are the affected wheels getting hot to the touch? If so sticky callipers which will cause premature and uneven wear. A common issue with VAG electric/auto handbrakes.

[popeyewhite]

skyebear said:

popeyewhite said:

How has the OP been let down? The brakes are legal and a little bit of harsh braking will probably clean them off. I think people expect a little too much. It's disappointing yes but nothing untoward.

"Audi Approved Used: Disappointing but not untoward."

No dealership on the planet is going to replace a part that doesn't need replacing. Audi has checked the car and it all works - what's the problem?

[Freddie Fitch]

Am I the only one who calls this scoring, not pitting?
I've had pits on discs caused by rust spots eating into the surface.
These concentric rings are scoring.

[J4CKO]

wezzley said:

MustangGT said:

wezzley said:

Hi buddy, just did at least ten hard brakes from 40 mph, has t fixed the grinding sound sadly

Braking from 40 is not hard braking, you need to get on a motorway in the small hours when it is practically deserted, cycle from 70-0 repeatedly.

Those photos do not appear to show pitting at all.

Hi friend, thanks for the 70mph tip. I didn't even know what pitting was until yesterday, I am going by the Audi roadside assistance, a professional and specialist, that reported pitting and showed me how uneven the surface is by running my finger over it. Also the MOT from less than 12 months ago has an advisory for pitting. So I think it's fair to say that there is pitting present here.

I think pitting sounds worse than it is, its a big hefty steel disk, gripped by powerful hydraulic brakes with huge friction pads to slow down 2.5 tons of Q8, steel does rust but I doubt its gone that far in to render the disk unserviceable.

It is worth trying the hard braking, and most folk never get anywhere near the capabilities and capacity of the braking of their car, most of the time light braking wont do much to the braking surfaces, they basically dont wear much at all in gentle braking, you need to get them working hard and abrading the pad, and more importantly the surface of the disk to remove the pitting and rough surface, sacrificing some pad and disk to clean them up.

I just fitted some high performance brakes to my car, new calipers, lines, pads etc, and the bed in procedure was quite vigorous , you wont do it any harm if you do a few hard stops from high speed (where safe to do so !) and then see how it is, its worth doing occasionally in gently driven vehicles anyway as the pads can "glaze", i.e. get too shiny and hard and not give optimum braking. Should see the abuse brakes get on track, I melted my wheel centres and had smoke billowing out of the fronts. A few stops from 70 mph repeated a few times in quick succession and then see what it looks like.

[Pica-Pica]

wezzley said:

Hi friend, thanks for the 70mph tip. I didn't even know what pitting was until yesterday, I am going by the Audi roadside assistance, a professional and specialist, that reported pitting and showed me how uneven the surface is by running my finger over it. Also the MOT from less than 12 months ago has an advisory for pitting. So I think it's fair to say that there is pitting present here.

The MOT advisory will say something like:

Nearside Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))

It will not specifically say pitted, pitting is small individual marks, I don’t recall those on the picture.
Also, I would not brake to a standstill, hot pad on a hot disc will make things worse by transferring material, you need to brake hard to about 20mph from 60mph (you will not find many empty dual carriageways where you can safely brake from 70mph !)

[wezzley]

loskie said:

under normal driving are the affected wheels getting hot to the touch? If so sticky callipers which will cause premature and uneven wear. A common issue with VAG electric/auto handbrakes.

Thanks buddy, I will check. When you say 'do the wheels get hot' do you mean do the disks get hot? Thanks again

[wezzley]

popeyewhite said:

skyebear said:

popeyewhite said:

How has the OP been let down? The brakes are legal and a little bit of harsh braking will probably clean them off. I think people expect a little too much. It's disappointing yes but nothing untoward.

"Audi Approved Used: Disappointing but not untoward."

No dealership on the planet is going to replace a part that doesn't need replacing. Audi has checked the car and it all works - what's the problem?

The problem is the noise

[wezzley]

J4CKO said:

wezzley said:

MustangGT said:

wezzley said:

Hi buddy, just did at least ten hard brakes from 40 mph, has t fixed the grinding sound sadly

Braking from 40 is not hard braking, you need to get on a motorway in the small hours when it is practically deserted, cycle from 70-0 repeatedly.

Those photos do not appear to show pitting at all.

Hi friend, thanks for the 70mph tip. I didn't even know what pitting was until yesterday, I am going by the Audi roadside assistance, a professional and specialist, that reported pitting and showed me how uneven the surface is by running my finger over it. Also the MOT from less than 12 months ago has an advisory for pitting. So I think it's fair to say that there is pitting present here.

I think pitting sounds worse than it is, its a big hefty steel disk, gripped by powerful hydraulic brakes with huge friction pads to slow down 2.5 tons of Q8, steel does rust but I doubt its gone that far in to render the disk unserviceable.

It is worth trying the hard braking, and most folk never get anywhere near the capabilities and capacity of the braking of their car, most of the time light braking wont do much to the braking surfaces, they basically dont wear much at all in gentle braking, you need to get them working hard and abrading the pad, and more importantly the surface of the disk to remove the pitting and rough surface, sacrificing some pad and disk to clean them up.

I just fitted some high performance brakes to my car, new calipers, lines, pads etc, and the bed in procedure was quite vigorous , you wont do it any harm if you do a few hard stops from high speed (where safe to do so !) and then see how it is, its worth doing occasionally in gently driven vehicles anyway as the pads can "glaze", i.e. get too shiny and hard and not give optimum braking. Should see the abuse brakes get on track, I melted my wheel centres and had smoke billowing out of the fronts. A few stops from 70 mph repeated a few times in quick succession and then see what it looks like.

Thanks for sharing buddy

[popeyewhite]

wezzley said:

popeyewhite said:

skyebear said:

popeyewhite said:

How has the OP been let down? The brakes are legal and a little bit of harsh braking will probably clean them off. I think people expect a little too much. It's disappointing yes but nothing untoward.

"Audi Approved Used: Disappointing but not untoward."

No dealership on the planet is going to replace a part that doesn't need replacing. Audi has checked the car and it all works - what's the problem?

The problem is the noise

Yes you've said. Generally people don't replace brakes because of squeal. 'Grinding' is probably just rust scraping off.

[wezzley]

Hi all OP here, Audi salesman has called back and told me to take to my local Audi dealership (I purchased from a dealership 3 hours away) and to ask them to inspect the brakes and ask them report back to his dealership.

Booked in for aug 5.

This seems like a positive development to me.

By the way Audi UK were highly sympathetic and seemed to imply to me that if the dealer won't play friendly then they will apply pressure for me.

I'll report back, but I'm feeling looked after now.

Thank you all for the lively discussion, it's a thriving community you have here, congrats.