Brake Service ?

Anybody else notice the length of time betweens break pad changes? Im at 108k with the original pads. No squeaks or grinding. Any suggestions?

That pretty common with more hwy miles than city miles 150K isn't un heard of.

As long as you're flushing the fluid and verifying sliders aren't bound up causing uneven wear on the pads. Ii would keep on motoring on and be prepared for pads and rotors when need be.

I'm in the same boat. 95k and stock rotors and pads. Obviously the MT has something to do with brake life enhancement.

105k kms when I finally had to replace rotors and pads on 2010 Golf I hope to squeeze another 100K on the new set... time will tell.

You may have noticed that the rear pads wear twice s fast as the fronts, thats because the rear rotor/caliper combo is skimpy. The 2019 jetta beam axle is quite similar and uses 288mm rotors as well as pads with double the friction area. Its not difficult to upgrade our cars to the larger, far better rear brake setup. It involves using 15-18 gti calipers, 288mm rotors, longer brake hoses, and modding splash shields or replacing them with 2019 jetta shields. The braking power increases and feels much more balanced. If you like that idea, doing the fronts to 312mm rotors/calipers is even better.

If I didn't get 100k miles out of a set of brakes, I'd think something was wrong.

Most of these cars go much longer, but it obviously depends a lot on the type of driving you do. I drive mostly highway, rarely ever use the brakes. Our 2004 Passat TDI was still rocking all its original brakes at 200k miles and I decided to go ahead and change them out (I normally clean and lube everything at 40k mile intervals, but at 200k the rears were thin enough to not be worth going through the effort to do that and instead I just changed them). Went ahead and did the fronts too, but they probably had 50% lining left.

if your ever in a Upull they are just Mk4 pads in the rear. not sure what all interchanges with the front,but 15-17 Golf Calipers seem to be the same.

Brian, its probably cause VAG went cheap on the 2015 beam axle golf tdi's. I agree with you on other models.

thundershorts said:

Brian, its probably cause VAG went cheap on the 2015 beam axle golf tdi's. I agree with you on other models.

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I do not feel it is "cheap", after all, many FWD VAG products used twist beam type rear suspension, as well as many other cars. And I really do not think 99% of Golf buyers worldwide even know nor care what type of rear suspension their car has. I also do not feel there is some huge difference in the way the car drives under most normal day to day operations people need their cars for. The Golf is not a performance car, the GTI is a performance version of an economy/family car (which even those in the A1, A2, A3, and A4 trim made do with a twist beam rear axle... and arguably those are probably some of the most loved GTIs of all... I know I favor the early A2 8v GTI more than any of the rest).

Time will ultimately tell how the A7 Golf platform holds up. Unfortunately for us diesel enthusiasts on this side of the world, that means 2015 cars only. Which sucks, because we will never get to have enjoyed whatever minor changes the platform got during its tenure, although I do not think there is a whole lot.

I drove a 2017 Golf (with the 1.8L) last week for quite a bit, had to verify the water pump was bad (typical). It had IRS, and I do not think it rode or drove any different. I bet if you placed 100 people behind the wheel of that 1.8L gas + Aisin 6sp slushbox IRS A7 Golf and had them drive it back to back with a 2.0L TDI + 6sp DSG beam axle A7 Golf the ONLY difference ANYONE would have noted would be how much better the TDI RUNS and how much crisper the DSG shifts, and how much more passing power the TDI has on the highway. I suspect anyone who was given the choice of those two cars based on the driving experience alone would have wanted the TDI, with the exception of someone who is always cold and maybe drives short trips and would whine about the slow warm up time. I doubt anyone would say "man, this TDI just rides weird, and handles awful, and...."

I wasn't knocking the beam as it's quite satisfactory running mich 18" pilot as3+ tires. I'm just saying that when the 2019 Jetta was designed, they used 10.7" rotors with the larger calipers and pads because someone thought it was better. The braking feels much better. At 22k miles , the small rear pads were half gone wheras the front were 90%. Using akebono ceramic rear pads with the larger gti calipers may also make some of the difference. When I bought it new, I made the dealer put new rotors on it all around, Rear rotors were scored, front were in good shape. Did two different cars at same time, one upgraded only fronts, other upgraded only rears. Biggest difference was the one with rears upgraded.

I'm just shy of 150k miles in my JSW on the original brakes.

My last 2015 had the front rotors replaced at 40k miles. Our current 2015 has just under 54k miles with the original pads and rotors. I changed the brake fluid last weekend.

I had fluid flushed last year. Changed out the rear pads/rotors on the '15. The rotors were horrible, all pitted up. Pads were all about 50% or less. Only have 43k on it. Fronts look ok....

BarryT82 said:

My last 2015 had the front rotors replaced at 40k miles. Our current 2015 has just under 54k miles with the original pads and rotors. I changed the brake fluid last weekend.

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I think I am in the same boat. Haven't pulled out the micrometer just yet but they are squeaking something fierce... only 35k though.

MK7 TDI DSG 80,050 miles on original brakes and they look great. They will probably see 130k plus miles with no problem. I like twist beam rear axle cars. The suspension seems to last forever in them. IRS usually wants struts every 70ish thousand miles and if you dont they chew tires off.