I’m just about to buy a 2nd hand9 ND. First registered on 30th September 2019. It had its first MOT at 2 1/2 years old with just over 7700 miles on the clock. I see that it had the following advisories on the MOT…
Front Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))
Rear Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened (1.1.14 (a) (ii))
Front Brake pad(s) wearing thin (1.1.13 (a) (ii))
Rear Brake pad(s) wearing thin (1.1.13 (a) (ii))
Is this normal for a car with such low mileage and only almost 3 years old?! Or has it been driven hard and should I stay away? Any thoughts would be appreciated…
Probably the discs have always had a coating of rust on the surfaces when stationary. Given the mileage over 3 years and the period we had just come through it’s not been far in that time. Thinking that’s the reason for the pitted discs and the pads wearing much quicker.
A bargaining point if the brakes haven’t been touched since the last MOT.
It could be that the car sits unused for weeks and the discs get rusty. Then when it’s driven the pads have to clean off the rust from the the discs which wears them faster than normal. The discs also wear and often don’t clean up that well. A close inspection would tell you you what the discs look like.
Get an independent inspection on the car, AA, RAC etc. long term it could save you money! Any decent seller will not refuse you access to have the car inspected!
discs are consumables… and they are cheap. if the car otherwise is sound why would changing brake disks put you off?
i bought my nc November last year with 75k and I’m now on 90k, I’d say probably only 2k were on track
Are the tyres the O/E ones?
Check the tyres manufacturing date, which is a code moulded into the sidewall of the tyre.ie (0519 is week 5 2019)
I would expect at this age and mileage the tyres would be the original ones.
Photos of the discs would help, but to be honest if you’ve got any doubts as to whether the mileage has been tampered with (surprisingly easy on modern cars) or the cars been driven hard, or it’s spent half its life on track just walk away.
There’s plenty out there and prices of MX5’s, and in general across the used car industry continue to fall from the silly levels they’ve been at for the last 18months.
Not discounting anything already said but it is worth considering that depending on who has done the MOT I have seen many instances where franchised dealers have condemned perfectly good brakes.
They are obviously taking the mick and looking for business. My daughters Clio 1.4 turbo had the rear drum brakes highlighted as worn at around 50K during an MOT by a Renault dealer. I looked at them and they were fine. It was serviced by an independent Renault specialist annually and sold with 240K miles on the clock on the original rear brakes.
This may not be the case with this car but an independent inspection RAC style inspection is always advisable worthwhile(and relatively cheap) if you have little or no mechanical knowledge.
That’s a point, how would an MOT inspection pick up worn brake shoes?
Ok if they didn’t work efficiently yes a mention or fail on the sheet, they can’t actually see them.
Exactly. Another acquaintance bought his new car with a 3 year servicing deal and guess what, 2 years in and 14K on the clock all four discs and pads were reported as needing replacement. As a savvy bloke he didn’t have the work done and they looked fine when we checked them out, at least 5 mm left on the pads and the discs were fine.
I have a 2016 ND which was not moved for a few months during the various lockdowns. Both the front and rear discs got pretty rusty. Unfortunately these did not clean up completely when I started driving the car regularly again. A year ago the front pads had 6mm depth left on them. They were the original pads. After a further 10,000 miles in the last year the front pads went from 6mm depth to the metal and I had to have both the front pads and discs replaced. The cause of this was not my driving but the fact that both of the front brake pistons were ‘sticking’ meaning the pads were in contact with the discs most of the time. Not too sure why this happened but it may be worth having the pistons checked to make sure that the pads aren’t staying in contact with the discs. If the car makes a scraping sound, after braking, it may be that the pistons are sticking causing the pads to be in contact most of the time.
It’s back to what I’ve said in the past on here, look after your brakes, inspect, strip/clean/lube annually and they should be fine. Mazda seem a bit prone for seizing easily.
Some places won’t even touch them each service (only visually) because it’s not on the schedule to do so.
I’d want a chunk off the screen price if bought a car as described by the OP, that’s if everything else checks out ok with it. Or of course renewed discs+pads all round.
