I've just had new discs and pads fitted to my '97 Passat

Does this look right to you - only the inner few mm look as though they're touching.



off side



near side

You can see the reflection of the pad in the disc.

I've sent it back to the garage, but the mechanic (?) is telling me it's coz the pads are chamfered!

What do you guys reckon?

Neil

WTF!

How can any mechanic fit that... NEVER go back to him!

I have never seen shamfered brake pads... they are deffinately not the right part!!! Thats lethal like that!

what muppet did that?
ive seen chamfered pads before,normally on rears tho but the passat should have normal straight ones

what a thing to cock up!

I bet he used lashings of wd40 to squeeze them on too!

bodge alert!

By the looks of it your calipers are the same as my SAAB rears. Replaced the pads yesterday and they deffo were not chamfered. I reckon he's fitted the wrong pads and is giving you a load of horlicks.
A call to your local GSF or Euro Car Parts to see if they have them in stock and "by the way are they chamfered?" should answer that one.
HTH
Cheers, Pewe

[Edited on 27/2/09 by pewe]

I think the pad looking tappered is an optical illustion of thpictures.

Its only touching on the edge because the discs are worn. As they wear they get hollow/concaved. Either you should have had new discs fitted with the pads (sorry not at work today or I could have given you the minimum thickness). Or you have to wait for the pads to bed-in (wear to fit the disc). Given the picture that could take a while and there's a lot of presure/energy going through a small area untill they do bed-in.

Given a border line case I'd explain it to the customer and try and sell them the discs as well. If they go for sticking with the old discs (cost concerns?) then, I'd chamfer the edges to match the disc profile and speed up bedding in. I'd also warn them of spongy brakes for the first few miles.

If your going to have new discs do it now before they wear the pads. Otherwise its another set of pads.

adrian

[Edited on 27/2/09 by adithorp]

Hi Adithorp

They are new discs!

Neil

The pads look OK, changed front and rear on my Octavia (which are same VAG parts)
both sets have champfers on them.
Main thing is, do they WORK.

Sorry, thought I saw rust on them. Must take more notice

Is it just at the ends of the pads? In that case it's just the chamfer on the ends of the pads (not all pads have it - depends on the manufacurer of the pads). This is normal and helps stop squeeling.

adrian

http://www.brakeparts.co.uk/index.html

have a look on here,pics of the pads show no chamfers,they would be on the leading and trailing edges only if they had them

I have found these



Looks like I might have a bit of apologising to do

Thanks anyway guys - glad I'm not the only one who was fooled.

Neil

To test if what you are seeing is just a chamfer, as on the above photo, try pushing a feeler gauge into the gap. If it is just a chamfer the gauge will not go very far along the pad before resistance is felt.