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-   -   Stones getting trapped in the disk brakes of Skoda Fabia (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/101915-stones-getting-trapped-disk-brakes-skoda-fabia.html)

My friend has purchased a Skoda Fabia petrol last month. He is facing an issue with stones getting trapped in the disk brakes and is detailed below in his own words.

“The moment my Fabia makes a metal-like music from one of the front wheels now I am reasonably certain that a small stone has gone inside my disk brakes, specifically between those two disc plates which has 5 mm gap between them. That's because this is the second time that the same problem has occurred and first time the Skoda helpline guys came over to rectify that and promptly collected Rs 700 as service charges. First time this was with the right side front wheel and this time last week it was on the left side front wheel. Of course both back side wheels of Fabia is drum brakes so unlikely to have this problem there. I did drive my car through some newly tarred road stretches and may be there is a small chance that might be the reason, but too tough to believe that this happened twice already and worries looming for the third.

All I need to remove the stone is to remove the wheel and pluck that stone out from between the disc plates by some tool, maybe a screwdriver. By the way there was a piece of advice (from skoda) to reverse the vehicle the moment you hear that noise, but the second time I tried that with no difference. The vehicle still made that loud shrieking metal-rubbing noise and that will never stop till you get that out.”

I have never experience something similar with my Elantra disk brakes, would appreciate your inputs whether this an issue with the make or the particular vehicle

Never had this problem in my Baleno for last 5+ years, but someone in the apartment complex did tell me about this issue when i spoke to him about his new Fabia while both of us were cleaning our cars. Will ask him this week what exactly he did to fix this and update.

Sounds like a design/manufacturing issue with the new Fabia, I have couple of colleagues with old Fabia but had never heard similar complaints. Skoda service engineer also mentioned it as a one-off case but it repeated. Will wait for update from your friend, may have to take it up with Skoda if it is happening again

Would be the simplest to remove. If your friend is not mechanically inclined, he can visit a (good) local independent mechanic. Shouldn't cost more than a 100 bucks.

What alloy wheels is he running? I'm wondering if alloy designs with large empty space (between spokes) can lead to this problem. I haven't experienced it myself, but have heard of some off & on. Also, does he frequently drive on gravel / broken roads?

This has happened in our 1996 Maruti 800 couple of times. First time the service guys came and removed it. The second time, we poured some water and reversed the car and the stone came out. It happened only twice in 13 years of ownership. Has not happened in any other car that we owned/own.

Happened to my Spark when it was just 3 months old. On our way to Shimla and above, I heard this screeching sounds from one of the front wheels. But the sound was coming on and off. I opened the front right wheel but could not figure out anything.

Back to Delhi I visited the GM workshop. They cleaned the discs and removed the stone trapped between the pad and the disc,and also adjusted some metal part behind the disc. They blamed it on my newly put alloys for this stating that the gaps in those were quite big. However, they did not charge me anything unlike your Skoda guys.

Three years and 47000kms on, the problem has not surfaced again. Touchwood.

It happened with my fabia a year back when i was on a trip. Intially i couldnt understand what was causing metallic cling later called up the skoda a.s.s and the service manager said just jump a couple of speedbraker at speed (he claimed this was a common problem).and it worked, was relieved bcoz i was atleast 500 kms away from skoda after sales service and had to cover another 1000kms in that day itself.

Indeed it seems to be a common problem in fabia.. Mine also had a stone trapped on the front left wheel a year back. .intially didnt paid much attention to as i was on a trip with the car but after fee km the sound became unbearable and called the a.s.s for assistance. They claimed it to be common and said jump the car a couple of times on speedbreaker at speed.. And it actually solved the problem.. I was worried as i had to travel around 1000km that day itself and with that screeching sound it would be impossible. Never had the problem again and didnt had to even pay money..

Thanks GTO, he has become a master of fixing it after 2 incidents, so that is not a worry

This has happened on normal roads and not on bad roads.

I am almost sure he is running on the stock alloys, will confirm soon

Does that mean that there is too much of gap between the disc and pads?
And will not the stone between the pad and the disc damage the disc cutting in a deep groove?

It happened once in our M800. The tiny stone got trapped between the disc and the metal cover behind the disc. The stone has to enter through a gap that is wide only at certain location. So the probability of stone going in are pretty less. Maybe the fabia has a wider gap which increases the chances. Could be fixed by closing in the gap.

I checked with him this morning, again meet while cleaning our rides. He said it has happened only once and the Skoda guys took the wheel off and did some checks and settings (That he does not know off) and it hasn't happened since then. Just an FYI he is running stock alloys.

It happened twice to our fabia. First time, I called a.s.s claiming they gave a car with insufficient brake fluid and the brake got jammed :-) They came promptly and found that it was just a trapped stone. Reversing helped. 2nd time it happened after a year, reversing worked again. Road has lot of small stones left after tarring, etc. Doesn't happen with other cars though, I guess the gap between disk and pad is a bit more in fabia.

Reversing always helps - in my case 100% success with my Esteem,my boss' Baleno,a friend's 800 - and foreign objects ranging from stones to thin wires

The only thing is the reversing distance varies based on how stubborn the object is:D ;in the Baleno,for instance I had to reverse almost 300m

Thanks all.. My friend is also running on stock alloys. Seems like a problem specific to Fabia and has got to do with gap between alloy and disc. He is planning to see whether it happens again and then take it up with Skoda.

Thanks to this thread I sorted out this issue in a friend's wagon r. Had called maruti on road service which diagnosed it as a wheel bearing issue and said the vehicle is drivable, but fix it asap. Stumbled onto this thread, thought I'd give it a shot, and problem solved. Two laps in reverse around my flat, and the noise is gone