astra sport 06 brake discs

forestfruits

Any ideas how often I should have to replace brake discs on the back wheels? The garage tell me they will need replacing soon- I`ve never had to replace on any other car I`ve owned - all of which had much higher mileage and were older cars, only ever replaced pads.

Is it a newer car thing- or is just yet another crap thing about the astra?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated- Im at a loss

biko

You can feel the discs through the alloys, is there a significant lip on them?
Discs aren't very expensive and you can change them yourself if you're handy around cars.

reilig

A lot of newer cars have poor quality discs - they wear very fast. I have a 08 Toyota Auris with 135k km and they're gone. You could get 100k miles out of the discs on the older toyotas. Mechanic recommends replacing them with non-toyota discs which will last longer.

BostonB

A lot of people are driving harder and braking harder. Guy at work goes through discs and pads at a ridiculous rate. But you can see it in his driving. Hes like a elephant at riverdance on the brake pedal. Even in city driving people race up to red lights only to stand on the brakes.

C4Kid

My car is 10 years old, it has 140,000 Miles on it. I'm presuming the discs have been changed at some point but theres a shudder when braking. I'm not sure when or even if the discs were ever replaced, but I'm pretty sure the discs are warped. I'm bringing it in on friday to have it looked at, Anybody know how much they may cost for a VW.

biko

Braking shudder could be several things but changing pads and discs is a good start. You can get them on ebay for not much. I have some for sale on adverts.ie
Prob be about 250 if the garage supplies and does the job.
If you do it yourself less than 100 (just cost of material).

C4Kid

Is it possible to change the front two or would all 4 discs and pads need replacing? When braking the steering wheel shudders and it feels like the front two are the problem.

I have the haynes manual for the VW golf MK4 but I don't think I'd be confident enough to do a job on the brakes:(. Thats one thing I suppose I wouldn't mind paying extra for to be done by a professional.;)

biko

I would start by just change the fronts for a steering wheel shudder.
Warped discs could also feel like vibrations in the pedal, do you have that?

A lot of indy guys don't mind using your provided parts, but best ring and ask first.
Reason being that if it something happens it's hard to say if the work or the material is to blame. Mechanics can never stand over work with customer provided parts.

Before you do anything else make doubly sure your front tyres are properly inflated to the same PSI, this won't cost anything to check and fix.

C4Kid

Cheers for the advice Biko,

The tyres look ok but I'll definitly check the PSI later, as You said it's a cheap fix if it's the problem!

As for a vibration in the pedal, no I don't get that at all, just the car and steering wheel shuddering slightly.

It's also worth telling You, A previous owner damaged the right front wheel and when I got it the the wheel arch trim was 95% gone and there was a slight buckle in the wheel which I noticed when getting the wheel balanced.

There is also an ever so slight vibration around 85-95 KMH which may have something to do with it, to make sure I had the wheels balanced but I still get a shudder through the steering wheel. The car is going in tommorrow to get the steering re-aligned and I'm getting them to have a look the front end suspension,brakes etc. Funny thing is the car passed the NCT a week before I got it!

It rides like a dream but as I have some money, I'm going to get this work carried out now.:)

biko

You can try swapping the wheels back to front, even a slightly damaged/warped front alloy would also cause shudder/pulling to side.
On the back it'll still be noticeable but as it's always pointing straight it's less of a hassle.

This is what I would do:
So make sure both fronts are 30 PSI. Test brake.
Swap suspected wheel for the spare wheel (not space saver), 30PSI. Test brake.
Swap tyres back to front. Test brake.
Take it to a mechanic.

mathepac

Outside of accident damage, brake discs on road cars don't warp.

Likely causes of noticeable vibrations under braking are:

• bent or damaged road-wheel(s)
• worn or damaged suspension / steering components (incl rubber bushings)
• missing balance weights / unbalanced wheel(s)
• loose wheel-bolts
• mis-aligned steering geometry
• damaged tyres (bulges, missing tread, embedded foreign material)
• damaged / missing friction material on brake-pads
• sub-frame / chassis damage.

If you suspect there is any wear or component damage as listed above, get this repaired before having the tracking / alignment / steering geometry adjusted.

A "lip" on a brake disc is not a sign of excessive wear or necessarily bad - it is par for the course, the key measurement here is that the disc exceeds the manufacturer's minimum depth specification.

There is little doubt but that brake discs on modern road cars are now being treated as consumables by car manufacturers, with softer, lighter, cheaper material being used meaning they wear out sooner. This saves the manufacrturer both money and component / vehicle weight, but passes an additional maintenance burden on to the owner.