Front Discs and pads - anyone renewed?

[RSChief]

Hi all,

My car has just been for its first service at 11000 miles.

As part of the service they checked the brakes as usual and have now informed me that the front pads are pretty much on the wear sensor and will likely need renewing within the next 2000 miles or so. I was also told that I'd likely need new discs at the same time when the brake wear light comes on the dash.

As I said my car has done only 11000 miles so I was quite surprised to be told it needs front brakes considering my wife has driven probably more than half these miles with two kids in the back.

I drive the car hard on occasion as you'd expect but it doesn't get hammered that regular so wasn't expecting it to need new brakes so soon.

I can live with having to change the pads but I'm pretty disappointed to potentially be needing new discs as well. I would have expected the discs to last maybe at least until the end of the second set of pads considering the cost.

Have any of you guys renewed your discs or pads yet and at what mileage were they done if you have?

Also, am I being unreasonable to expect the discs to last longer than this?
It's a performance car and I'd expect the components to be fit for a fair amount of spirited driving befor needing replacing.

If it does indeed need discs when the time comes I was considering complaining a bit to see if I can get some contribution to the cost from Audi as I'd expect better durability from this so called performance RS model.

I love the car just a bit disappointed at the moment, comments welcome please gents

[S4WON]

Pads yes, disks no.. They are taking the piss, take it somewhere else, dont say anything, betcha no mention of disks

[Rs4spark]

Mines a March 14 Car, done 22K, just had first set of Pads, Audi say Discs may last another 5K,
so 11K is sounding a bit silly unless there sales are down !!

[Vodkaking77]

I had new pads at 14k. No discs yet, they said prob another 14k before discs

[rspj]

what they stringing you for disc and pads? must need to sell some stock I guess

[Graeme4130]

I guess it depends on how it's been driven
You can normally see for yourself how far gone the disks by the size of the lip on the outer edges of the waves

[HPsauce]

What's the wear on your tyres (and what type are they)?
I expect brake pads to last around as far as tyres, sometimes less, but discs to last much longer.

If you drive harder the tyres wear out more too, though fast cornering can kill tyres without affecting brakes.

[Noyjatat]

Recently stripped the brakes on mine to have a look at the wear and tear post a couple of charity track day. The front pad wear sensor is pretty big and the pad will still have a round 4-5mm left on it when it hits them. Might be worth looking into other options that don't have a wear sensor and getting another 3mm of pad before needing to change them. I wonder if the rear pads are the same size as the front but without the wear sensor recess? Anyone know?

[HPsauce]

Yes, I'd agree that Audi pads are pretty conservative as to when the wear sensors kick in.
On my S8 I started getting warnings a while back, yet the pads looked pretty thick and have done less than 10,000 miles since new.
But a mate of mine checked them more carefully (on a ramp) than I could and said they were indeed worn to the sensors, though still serviceable.

The reason in my case is that the front discs are pretty much shot and quite badly grooved - they've done about 80,000 miles.
At the last pad change I was warned that the discs would need replacing soon. I guess the grooves have just cut through in the best place to trigger the warning.
Anyway, the whole lot will be replaced soon.

[RSChief]

Cheers for the replies. General consensus seems to be that pads being due is fair wear but I should not really be needing discs. I'll find out soon enough the outcome when it does eventually go in when the wear light comes on.

Answers to some questions:

How hard is it driven - not hard in my opinion, mostly family transport with a few spirited drives by me on my own in between. Not enough to have wrecked the discs I reckon. Not much of a lip on the edge either.

Tyres - maybe half worn. I have Toyos on mine from Audi.

Interesting to hear about the position of the wear sensor compared to life of remaining pad material. Sounds like Audi are being very conservative.

[HYFR]

Discs my arse!

[johnnydog]

Most dealers generally say new discs are required at the second pad change, which to me is cobblers. It depends on the remaining disc thickness, and all manufacturers have a recommended minimum disc thickness. As said, the lip on the outer edge is an indication of the actual wear on the discs surface. Unless the discs are noticeably grooved, then I may be tempted to just go for pads. After all, you can fit new pads to lipped discs; the lip will cut into the new pads very quickly, but obviously only to the depth of the lip, and will then last for thousands of miles, although in fairness not quite as long as the previous set as theoretically the lip will reach the backing pad first, but I would like to think that you wouldn't let them get that low anyway!
On my daily driver, the pads actually contact the whole diameter of the disc so that there is never any lip. But then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from a set of front discs costing £60....incidentally, how much are they for the RS4.....? So why do some manufacturers make the pad narrower than the disc which then causes a lip....?
On my wife's car (a Honda) she was told that it would need discs and pads at the next service. When the time came, I changed the pads myself about a week before the service so that they would be nicely bedded in, and guess...the brakes got a clean bill of health with no mention of new discs bring required.
'Sell up' comes to mind.....

[carsarecool]

I think dealers tend to go with the "discs and pads" advice as it does make sense to them. I was talking to a guy at Porsche and he said it was pretty much standard to fit new front disks and pads before retailing a car. I know they aren't Audi.....but I can see why they'd recommend it as they are one of the 2 important wear and tear items on the car alongside tyres IMHO. My first RS4 came from Meridien in Lyndhurst and I asked them to replace both before I'd buy the car and they did. It's a fair ask when buying a car but not so much when in ownership of a car.

My brakes have started to squeal and slightly shudder when coming to a gentle stop....I am at 15600 miles and haven't tracked the car. Going to dealer tomorrow for "advice"/get them to have a look.

[johnnydog]

Audi are aware of a some customers complaining of squealing from steel brakes on the B8. I would say there is a TPI for the issue, which probably involves a strip down and cleaning initially. I think it may resolve the slight shudder you describe too.

[Brooner]

just had a poke about mine today as there was a small amount of squeak at very low speed so was going to take out the pads and apply some copper coat between the pad and plate but the plate look like i would destroy it if i tried to peal it off the pad so i will just live with the squeak until i need to change my pads
so i have down 15k and there is plenty of meat on the pads will hopefully get anouther 10k out of them going by the thickness
so i think Audi are take it Michael