brakes and discs on a 2018 Subaru XV 2.0 SE Premium

[stevengregory]

My Subaru XV 2.0  SE Premium was bought new by me in October 2018 from Europa Sheffield and has covered 15000 miles from new. last week i could hear a scraping noise coming from the front brakes. I took it to my local Subaru dealer Europa in Sheffield and they told me it needed new discs and pads as they were badly worn down at a cost of £368. I queried this as i don't brake hard and have taken my advanced test and have been driving over 40 years and previously had 2 Mitsubishi ASX' s one did 37000 miles before new pads were needed! Europa said it was normal to see wear like this from 15000 miles! i disagreed. They contacted Subaru who after some deliberation agreed to supply and fit the front discs fee of charge but i would have to pay £139 for 2 pads fitted which i had no choice to pay. The only thing is now when i do a short journey i.e 6 miles when i feel at the front discs they are extremely hot! Has anyone come across any of these issues before?

Regards Steve.

[Judd]

Japanese cars though they arn't alone suffer from the annual UK salt bath affecting the brakes, causing seizing of sliders and pistons and/or pads sticking in place, it sounds like the calipers could do with a proper clean and lube service with the correct brake grease, sadly main dealers of all makes don't do this any more, relying increasingly on spraying brake cleaner around the items instead which only helps to dry out any present lube.

Whether your existing brakes were worn down that much you won't ever know, my gut feeling is not but glad you didn't have to pay the full cost involved, if they do actually wear down rapidly again i have found Brembo friction materials superb in terms of feel, stopping power and wear rate.

Don't forget the rear brakes need the same service attention, arguably more attention due to the less amount of work they do, if they arn't performing fully then the front brakes will be working overtime.

Every now and again ( i do this in my cars and lorries) after travelling some distance i'll slow down and stop where possible, eg motorway service area or layby on uphill dual carriageway, without using the brakes except to bring the vehicle to a final rest, then walk round feeling the hubs and brakes for any excess heat, handy early warning that something isn't right with the brakes or wheel bearings, might be an interesting thing to try.

Our Forester brakes were fine this year when i did the annual lube service, but the same one of the 4 pistons in each front caliper on my Landcruiser was seizing up, salt is the problem.

[stevengregory]

Thanks for the advice Judd! I'm going to take it back to Europa tommorrow as the cars nearly new and tell them to clean and lubricate them.

Regards Steve.