Have I been ripped off?

[willman]

If you got the work done at a cheaper place then you should expect them to use cheaper parts. Hence why they only lasted one year this time.

 

its not rocket science.

 

It's not true either.

[top4718]

And independent garages are the salt of the earth. Don't trust any of them, I diagnose my own problems, if I have the tools to fix it myself I do it, if I need a garage to do it, I tell them exactly which parts I want replacing not what the symptoms are otherwise the end up changing parts at random.

 

Never said they were and not everybody is able to diagnose their own problems.

[Supertramp]

Never said they were and not everybody is able to diagnose their own problems.

 

I know that, i am just saying don't trust anyone!

[jm79]

Maybe going off at a tangent a little, but a few years ago I had a problem with my VW. Luckily, it was still under warranty but only for about 3 days. I took it to my local VW dealer and they couldn't identify what was causing the problem. They told me to bring it back in the following week if the problem continued...

 

...1 week later, I took it in and surprise, surprise, they found the problem..."£400 please as you are just out of warranty". I argued that I brought the car in to be looked at when it was under warranty but they refused to budge on it. They offered to go halves with me in the end after a huge argument with head office but it still was unfair I had to pay that.

 

I took it in for an MOT later on and they advised me the car needed £1000 of minor repairs. I had them checked out by a reputable local garage...none of the "repairs" were required. Needless to say, I never used the VW dealer after this.

[swordfish1]

Maybe going off at a tangent a little, but a few years ago I had a problem with my VW.

 

and

 

I took it in for an MOT later on and they advised me the car needed £1000 of minor repairs. I had them checked out by a reputable local garage...none of the "repairs" were required. Needless to say, I never used the VW dealer after this.

 

Strangely enough I've just had my VW into a main dealership for something that local garages said would take weeks to fix as it was complex. I'm still of the opinion that a major part that I was told had to be special order by VW hasn't been replaced as they managed to fix it the next morning. I got charged for the new part...but there is no way of telling if it has been replaced. At least it's fixed.

 

I also got told 6 other "faults" that would have cost me £900 to have corrected. I've since taken the car in for it's test and it sailed through. 4 of the faults would have been MOT failures. I told the MOT examiner (after I got the MOT pass!!) about these "faults". He has said it's utter cr*p.

[Star24*]

I took mine into a mian dealership for the mot and service yesterday, they said my brakes and pads needed doing, i said to wait until i had been paid. Have had a look on their website today and they have fixed prices for things that need doing, but my quote was way over? Rang them ask why and awaiting a call. I would say wait and ask another garage to check first.

[ryder8904]

Even a cheap set of discs and pads should last more than a year.

Unless there is a mechanical issue with the brakes causing them to stick on, or the OP has been driving with one foot covering the brake pedal at all times.

 

Depending on driving style. There is also the question of whether the cheaper garage even fitted new discs in the first place? Maybe they just put on a pair of cheap pads.

[Weigh-man]

I've done 58000 miles in 18 months and I've only needed one new set of front and rear pads, and that's carrying a full load of tools and equipment around with me, I would say Yes you were ripped off. That's in a Mondeo Estate by the way.

[muddywolf]

Depends on your driving-style, if you are on the M1 a lot, like me, you will know that there are plenty of emergency stops/slow-downs during rush hour, they are not kind to brakes. Also I had a similar situation some years ago, turned out the disc was damaged by something caught between the calliper and disc that had cut a groove in the disc over time.

 

I also believe that the balancing of the wheels can have an impact?

 

You have to do a lot of emergency stops on the motorway? Try and look far ahead rather than just the car infront.

 

13 thousand miles does not sound alot, but it should be pretty easy for you to visually look at the callipers and see how many mm there seems to be.

[Rob_1]

You have to do a lot of emergency stops on the motorway? Try and look far ahead rather than just the car infront.

 

13 thousand miles does not sound alot, but it should be pretty easy for you to visually look at the callipers and see how many mm there seems to be.

 

Exactly what I thought, you should rarely need to use brakes on the motorway and certainly only need to brake heavily once in a blue moon.

 

As for discs going in 13k miles, no way. They should last 3/4/5 times that unless they're abused on a track or something is wrong.