Just had my van serviced at a VW main dealer and was told that my ‘rear pads are 90% gone and the discs are scoured’

The van’s only done 50K from new and I’m a bit suspicious here, especially as it flew through an MOT recently.

Any similar tales of early pad wear or am I right to suspect foul play?

Also, if they are shot, are there any independent van servicing guys in the Herfordshire area that you’d like to recommend?

There’s no minimum life to brakes – it depends how much you use them.

However, on my T5 the front pads were replaced at around 35k (by the 1st owner) and I replaced pads and discs all round at 65k. This wasn’t desperate, but the discs were looking corroded. Total cost (doing it myself) was £200.

You are stopping a 2.5 ton van – it takes a bit of energy to do that – unfortunately this is all managed by your little brake pads!

I know they tend to go through front pads as that’s where all the braking force is but rear pads and discs going in 50K seemed a a bit rich.

If this had been mentioned when I had my MOT I’d probably be accepting it but they fact that my pads & discs were fine 2 months ago and apparently shafted now has got my spidey senses tingling.

i had the same from a dealer… seventy quid later and when presented with the old ones i was not happy. i could have put them back on for a load more miles.

get under the van and look for yourself…

That means there is 10% wear left before they are at their minimum depth so at least another 6k miles left in them! Always check for yourself as it seems to be a common main dealer trait.

i have never worn out a set of rear brake pads under normal conditions ….

i wore a set out on the golf when a piston went sticky(98k)

i wore a set out on the frontera when the sliders siezed (120k)

my vans at 100k on original rear brakes.

suspicious id be – unless you do alot of heavily laden load lugging. (load compensator will put more bias to the rear)

73k original discs here but not driven very loaded

Like trail rat says, rear brakes not doing much unless laden or towing. A heavy trailer or caravan will make them work hard.

I’ve had a dealer try and do me over for brakes, they were hardly worn. I think they were trying to cream off some profit as I’d got them to price match a competing dealer and got almost 50% off.

I was advised at my last service that the rear pads on my mk4 Mondeo were 80% worn at 32k. I declined to have them changed, had a look myself and you know what, they will need doing sooner rather than later. On the upside if your pads disappear at a rate of knots then your discs should be good!

The van’s never really fully laden, it’s generally just a bike/family wagon.

Hmmm, guess I’ll go for a scrabble under the old girl later.

If they are worn I’m leaning towards working out how to do it myself, new pads I mean, what could possibly go wrong…………

Has anyone on here actually changed the rear pads & discs on a T5? Any special tools I’ll need or things I should watch out for?

Rear discs just needed replaced on mine, 2004 T5 with 90k. They were flagged up as “advisory” on MOT last year but lasted pretty much another year before needing done. The van hasn’t done much heavy work so 50K isn’t unreasonable, but worth checking how far gone they are.

After changing wheels for winters, don’t use the flimsy jack thats in the van, especially if the wheels are a bit stuck on the hubs. Find a trolly jack at least, better with axle stands. The jack that comes with the van is very flakey….

jacks that come with most cars are for emergencys – combined with chucking the which ever wheels off the car under the sill…. wouldnt ever go under the car though

having had a propper jack colapse on me – not even a pishy jack either.

trolly jack and axel stands for working with the car suspended.

I changed the rear discs and pads on mine this week, first did them at 65k, and now at 125k. Cost me £115 all inc from tps. Didnt take long to change, get a caliper wind back tool as it makes the job a lot easier.
I could probably have got away with not changing the discs but wasnt much more to do them.