Brake pads

piaget

Hi all,
Got a full service done yesterday on my Nissan Tino (06 with 24,000kilometres), service done with Nissan Belgard. Rang me to say car needed front and rear brake pads at a cost of €250 fitted. Brakes felt fine to me and will stop dead with a minimal press of the pedal. No apparent squeaking from the discs either which i thought would be a sign. Anyway rang Fast Fit and they gave me a price of €145 fitted so I will get them to check them at the weekend as I declined Belgards advice. Felt like I was been scammed here.

Anybody any thoughts/advice.

BrianD3

Pads that are worn past the minimum allowable thickness (probably 2-4 mm) may still work fine and not cause any squealing or grinding noises - so just because your brakes work fine doesn't mean that the garage is wrong to replace the pads

However 24k kms is very poor life from a set of brake pads.

martinr5232

I would be very surprised if you need brake pads at this milage unless your driving around with your foot constantly on the brake.

Especially rear pads.

Stevie Dakota

Why not take a wheel off and check how much pad life you have left? A few minutes will answer your question.

Henry Ford III

24000km's? I'd get a 2nd opinion. That's way too few km's to consume a set of pads imho.

piaget

Thanks Guys,

As I suspected I was being gouged for unnecessary work to boost their profit margin, as it was the service was nearly €300.

I will deffo get Fast Fit to check the pads though at the weekend for safety sake. The wheels nuts were put on with an air pressure wrench, never get it off so cant check myself.
Cheers

Atomic Pineapple

piaget wrote: »

Thanks Guys,

As I suspected I was being gouged for unnecessary work to boost their profit margin, as it was the service was nearly €300.

I will deffo get Fast Fit to check the pads though at the weekend for safety sake. The wheels nuts were put on with an air pressure wrench, never get it off so cant check myself.
Cheers

How do you expect to get them off if you have a puncture?

They shouldn't be any harder to get off than if they were put on by hand, save yourself the cost of getting them checked, just take of one wheel and see whats left on the pads.

martinr5232

piaget wrote: »

Thanks Guys,

As I suspected I was being gouged for unnecessary work to boost their profit margin, as it was the service was nearly €300.

I will deffo get Fast Fit to check the pads though at the weekend for safety sake. The wheels nuts were put on with an air pressure wrench, never get it off so cant check myself.
Cheers

In all fairness would Fast Fit be any better.

My advice to you would be find a good independant and build up a good relationship with them and you wont have to ask questions like this.

El Guapo!

Thats mad money for a set of pads. They'll cost you no more than €50 and you'd have them fitted yourself in a half an hour or so.

mcmc

Dean09 wrote: »

Thats mad money for a set of pads. They'll cost you no more than €50 and you'd have them fitted yourself in a half an hour or so.

+1

poxx

Dean09 wrote: »

Thats mad money for a set of pads. They'll cost you no more than €50 and you'd have them fitted yourself in a half an hour or so.

yeh and if you do some thing wrong and your brakes fail, maby killing yourself or worse still someone else, at least you will have saved a few bob :mad::mad::mad:. As said earlier find a good independant garage (ask your mates who they use/recomend) and get it checked out by PROFESIONALS

artic

piaget wrote: »

Hi all,
Got a full service done yesterday on my Nissan Tino (06 with 24,000kilometres), service done with Nissan Belgard. Rang me to say car needed front and rear brake pads at a cost of €250 fitted. Brakes felt fine to me and will stop dead with a minimal press of the pedal. No apparent squeaking from the discs either which i thought would be a sign. Anyway rang Fast Fit and they gave me a price of €145 fitted so I will get them to check them at the weekend as I declined Belgards advice. Felt like I was been scammed here.

Anybody any thoughts/advice.

Is your car an ex rental ? that could explain the need for front pads, I am a mechanic of 20 years and 24 kms seems very low mileage to change front pads,and as for the rear pads you should get at least twice the mileage of the front pads, Deffo get a second opinion, there is no point in looking at the pads if you are inexperienced as brake disc wear will be a factor also.

sundodger5

artic wrote: »

Is your car an ex rental ? that could explain the need for front pads, I am a mechanic of 20 years and 24 kms seems very low mileage to change front pads,and as for the rear pads you should get at least twice the mileage of the front pads, Deffo get a second opinion, there is no point in looking at the pads if you are inexperienced as brake disc wear will be a factor also.

as above maybe front pads bit unlikely back pads at that mileage unless someone had there foot on the brake all the time.
as for the slagging of fast fit. they usually do a brake report (written) which gives all measurements taken and manufactures minimum spec. you get a copy of the report to take away.
nothing to lose

piaget

Quick update lads, car did indeed need new rears, fronts were down to about a third depth so changed them as well.

Car was bought as a pre-registered model at a year old, stored in Nissan compound and only had 30km when delivered on the clock so was'nt a hire car, mostly does short trips to school/shops and back and is never driven hard so dunno.

Manager in Fast Fit has a Tino in the family as well as a Scenic and he said both regularly go through pads so maybe its driving around with loads of crap in the back. Anyway back to my usual mechanic next year as the car is out of warranty.

Cheers and thanks for all the comments.

martinr5232

piaget wrote: »

Quick update lads, car did indeed need new rears, fronts were down to about a third depth so changed them as well.

Car was bought as a pre-registered model at a year old, stored in Nissan compound and only had 30km when delivered on the clock so was'nt a hire car, mostly does short trips to school/shops and back and is never driven hard so dunno.

Manager in Fast Fit has a Tino in the family as well as a Scenic and he said both regularly go through pads so maybe its driving around with loads of crap in the back. Anyway back to my usual mechanic next year as the car is out of warranty.

Cheers and thanks for all the comments.

On that point you made about going back to your own mechanic.

No main dealer can refuse to carry out warranty work just because you dont get your car serviced in the dealer network.

As long as OEM parts are used dealers are obliged to carry out repairs under warranty.

So the best thing for anyone to do if their car is under warranty and they want to save a few pound is get your local mechanic to do the work but insist on genuine parts.(non genuine parts are just as good but it cuts out the hassle if you do have a problem)

darragh o meara

A lot of dealers will check your pads and determine if they will last until the next due service as it save a lot of crying down the phone when your pads go midway between service and the poor aul lad answering the phone is being blamed for trying to rob a customer of more money, I know and I've been there and worn the whole box of f eckin t shirts.

With cars now lasting longer between services the pads might have had a bit of life left in them but maybe not enough to see you till the next service. Just my tuppence worth. In fairness though the only car I ever seen to have brake pads that dear was my Focus RS 275 euro for the pads alone from the main dealer!!!