Disc con so late
We bought a new Mk IV Golf in October 1988. At a service in early 2001 at 40,000 miles the VW garage said all 4 discs were worn and wanted lots of money for replacements. The pads were ok. We argued that these discs must be defective, but to no avail. We sent a pleading letter to the boss of VW UK, but eventually they replied scornfully, blaming my driving and the auto transmission being harder on brakes (this car actually has surprisingly and gratifyingly good engine-braking). We wrote to you, but you said we’d have to pay. In fact, at the time, I agreed with you. Two and half years of ‘wear’ was pushing it a bit. We paid for four new discs and new pads too. The car has since gone onto 155,000 miles, on these very replacement discs (assuming they were replaced). It’s had one set of front pads at 105,000 miles (as I’d expect). Possible conclusions? Either those discs in 2001 were defective, or the service technician was telling porkies – or both. Or it was fair-wear-and-tear. Certainly the ‘replacement’ set of discs were better made as they’ve lasted over 100,000 miles, versus the originals at 40,000.
That’s interesting. My family used to run Mk II Golfs and Jettas. Between years 2 and 5 they all tended to need rebuilding with new alternators, water pumps, discs (actually discs at 2 years), etc., etc., but the replacement components never wore out. Almost as if VW was building the cars with defective original equipment in order to make money out of replacing them. The joke at the time was that VW sold cars like Hewlett Packard sells printers. It made more money on replacement components/print cartridges than it made on selling the car/printer in the first place.
Answered by Honest John on
