The short life of disc brakes...

[ADunn]

My MB Wagon has just gone in for it's 2nd annual service, it has just under 25,000kms under it's belt. My Ford dealer has just told me that my rear disc pads are down to 10% and the discs themselves are badly scored and need replacing. The cost will be in the order of $1,000. When I asked is this unusual I was told they normally only last 20,000 to 30,000kms on the rear and 30,000 to 40,000 on the front and that the discs on all their european cars (and all european cars as far as they know) are soft and not machinable. Suddenly, after 10 years of owning a camry wagon which I used to get the wobbles when a service cost $600, it seems I can look forward to many more of these horribly expensive services? Should I be getting the pads checked more frequently in an attempt to change them before the discs get damaged? Are there alternative discs I can get to reduce the problem and get longer life? If so, I dare say I would have to take my car elsewhere to get them...

[AlanD]

Hi,

One of the things that has annoyed me with our dealership (and probably the only thing) is their tendency to exagerate wear on consumable components such as tyres, brake pads and rotors. In one case they claimed that a set of new tyres (less than 500 km) were 30% worn, currently they have half the tread depth left with 30,000 km on them. Brake pad wear similarly. I don't find this a problem as I can judge the actual wear myself and make decisions accordingly.

On our MA Mondeo Sedan which has covered 38,000 km I estimate that the wear on brake pads is about 50% front and slightly less at the rear. You can see the pad depth on the backing plate without taking the wheel off on our car. You can also see the rotor face and judge whether or not it is "badly scored". I can measure the rotor thickness with a vernier caplier wthout wheel removal too and, again, on our car there is some wear, but insufficient to require replacement at this time.

The brake pad material has a chamfer on the leading/trailing edge, and I would say that if any part of this is visible then you have sufficient pad material for a little while longer. Based on the wear on our car I estimate at least 50,000 km before a pad change is required and probably 100,000 before the rotors will need to be replaced, but we live in regional Victoria and neither my wife nor I use the brakes vigorously - being a diesel engined car we find that engine braking does most of the work.

If it turns out you do need pads and rotors many members here have sourced them from the UK and they turn out much less expensive than they are from a dealership. To get an idea about the cost of Brake pads go here http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Genuine-F...item4159989bee . You can also search for other items - remember that in the UK the MA, MB, MC series cars are all Mk 4 vehicles . A search for Mondeo Mk4 Brake pads shows a lot of options. One of the vendors in the UK will provide a full set of four rotors and pads for about $330.00 delivered, see here http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-MOND...item1e6beb968a.

Once you have the parts, it's a pretty trivial job to fit them, providing you have some degree of mechanical expertise. The main thing to watch out for is to avoid the brake Master Cylinder overflowing brake fluid as you push the pistons back into the caliper cylinder.

Good luck

[Riksta]

Great post AlanD.

My front rotors look a fair bit scored, 20,000 odd k's on the clock. Must have got some crap stuck somewhere and gouged them a bit, damn roadworks creating dirt roads near my place. My only concern with the DIY replacement would be if there was to be something wrong down the track would it be grounds to have Ford Australia deny or void a warranty claim?

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by Riksta

Great post AlanD.

My front rotors look a fair bit scored, 20,000 odd k's on the clock. Must have got some crap stuck somewhere and gouged them a bit, damn roadworks creating dirt roads near my place. My only concern with the DIY replacement would be if there was to be something wrong down the track would it be grounds to have Ford Australia deny or void a warranty claim?

As far as I was aware, I thought a qualified mechanic who is MTA approved can do warranty work on your car and not necessarily use OEM factory materials to do it without voiding warranty as long as he stamps your book.

Correct me if Im wrong.

[Dusty1]

In my MA I got the rears replaced for $150 from an independent brake shop. I asked about the front, and he said they were fine. This was after the dealer telling me they were bad and both in need of replacement. This would have been at the 45 or 50k service (around that time).

I sold it to my brother at 65k and they have since done about another 15k, and they are still on the same set of fronts.

Just my $0.02.

[Papug]

Just replaced rear pads and rotors $400 with labour, brand RDA.
Car has 118.000 km. Look for the local RDA distributor.
OEM from Ford UK (front and rear sets) $567, including shipping.

Cheers Greg

[DRU842]

Had the pads down at 60,000kn service on the XR5 and still on original discs at 100,00km. It's true the European pads & discs wear faster. The price for better performance & higher metallics as an asbestos replacement in the pads.

[XtRmn8]

Originally Posted by Papug

Just replaced rear pads and rotors $400 with labour, brand RDA.
Car has 118.000 km. Look for the local RDA distributor.
OEM from Ford UK (front and rear sets) $567, including shipping.

Cheers Greg

+1

On our MA the rear brakes I had done at 75000kms. New RDA pads and machine rotors. Cost me $50 for pads and $200 for machine and fit of new rotors.

Fronts lasted to about 110000kms. Bought new rotors and pads from an RDA distributor for about $250 from memory and fitted them myself. You could source the parts and take it to any local mechanic to fit, they take about 1hr to fit up.

[Lord Viykor]

I got my rears replaced at 105k and the fronts a little while later.

I replaced pads and rotors with EBC ones from the UK, they are great compared to the OEM ones.

[fonfe]

Before I moved to Australia to work for the RS shop I worked in a uk ford main dealer. I can tell you now that ALL European ford models run brake discs that can be machined by use of a brake disc lathe. Which is very usefull if your discs have also warped as a disc brake lathe will machine them straight again as the discs are not removed from the car but stay on the hub and the lathe is fitted to the vehicle. Your dealer has told you that they can not be for one of 3 reasons:
-They are just trying to sell you some brand new discs so they make more money.
-They do not have a brake disc lathe in house and are not willing to subcontract the work out.
-the discs have worn too close to the minimum thickness to be machined.

Because they have straight out told you that the discs can not be machined it will be because of either one of the first 2 reasons which is quite a dishonest thing for them to have done.
OEM discs and pads are indeed softer than aftermarket "sports" replacements but this is due to them being quieter under braking. I have fitted ebc parts to many hot hatch vehicles that do the occasional track day and they perform very well but are slightly louder than the OEM brakes.
If you are after ebc, any other aftermarket or OEM parts do give me a call at the RS shop and I will be happy to quote you for a set delivered to your door or if you are local I would be happy to fit them for you at a much lesser labour rate than your ford dealership (I do also have the ford dealer diagnostic software in house too so I can cover anything if not more than the dealers here)

One thing to also remember concerning the rate of wear for your brakes is that if your vehicle is an auto this will be far quicker than if you had a manual due to more braking effort in urban driving.

As far as warranty is concerned fitting non genuine parts will VOID warranty on that particular area of the vehicle.