At the latest MOT, my trusty B6 disgraced itself badly. It failed the brake performance test under heavy braking only (not noticeable under light braking), so the technician investigated the cause.
He discovered both front brake discs had odd wear - both 'outboard' faces (ie those that can be seen through the wheel) were perfectly shiny, pads well worn, all tickety boo. The 'inboard' faces, were very dull, pads hardly worn, as if they were barely making contact with the disc face under braking.
The rear brakes were not nearly as bad, but one caliper needed replaced, exacerbated by moisture in the brake fluid - I'll come back to this.
The front pad linkages and holders were heavily caked in crud, which impeded the movement of the sliders, which may explain why the inboard pads weren't touching the disc. But, for BOTH front discs to suffer the exact same problem? Bit fishy to me. The rears were not as bad, but bad enough to fail the brake test also.
Bit of history now: in September 2014, all four corners received new brake discs and pads, by a franchised dealer, using OEM parts. Why then, after 13 months and 13,000 miles, are they so badly corroded on one side and fine on the other?
The bloke who carried out the MOT reckons its impossible to say if some of the dirt had been there since before the new discs were fitted in September '14, and I find it hard to believe a main dealer would cut corners by not clearing up the pad carriers and moving parts during the disc and pad renewal. Am I the only one who's had this problem of dirt ingress into the brake system, that's caused severe enough damage to prematurely ruin all four discs?
Given the time elapsed, I have zero recourse or evidence to do anything about the quality of the work carried out by the dealer, if indeed it is partly to blame for the defect.
Now, the brake fluid. Water content was found in the brake fluid, suggesting it is very old. Again, my Passat had a major service late last year. I dug out the service paperwork, lo and behold - next to the line 'Brake Fluid Change' was scrawled N/A, with a caveat that it is a separately invoiced item. I don't second-guess the reasoning behind making it separate, but it would have been nice to have been told that while I was booking the service, rather than completely ignored? It was serviced at the very same dealer with the previous owner, so they would have known that its last brake fluid change was in 2011(!).
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I'd bothered to check the history properly, and the service paperwork, I'd have realised it myself and arranged a brake fluid change - on this count I accept some blame.
If any other Passat B6 owners have had similar horror stories with brake discs, I and my empty wallet would love to hear it.
