Busy day today on the rear brakes, but first, a post that will probably infuriate a certain someone. So something that has been on the list of things for this car: Some Audi TTS calipers to replace the fronts. The aim was to scour for these until they were at a price I couldn't refuse. This was the case, as not only was it a good price, it was also all 4 calipers, front and rear. Came to £409 with a discount. I did reduce the delivery cost by picking them up myself, so a 3 hour round trip if I remember correctly. This was mid February, and from there, was a case of sourcing the other bits. So things like: Caliper bolts front and rear, and the rear caliper gubbins, like slide pins and those clips that were buggered. Front bolts probably don't need replacing as they're not TTY, and I'm sure they would fit the Audi TTS calipers, but got them anyway, N 910 84 901 at £10.87. The rears are TTY, got Febi Bilstein 48817 from eBay, £12.78. Not pictured are bits for the front calipers, 8W0 698 231 are some clips to keep the pads in place and for the pad contact area to the caliper, £28.87. A pad wear sensor for the Audi TTS caliper, 8S0 615 121 A from eBay at £19.49. The slide pins for the rear (£10.83) and the clips (£6.89) were from eBay, just aftermarket bits, notable that the 7mm socket is now a T40 torx on these pins. I'll have to make a note of that somewhere for future work (probably scribble it on the brake disc or something). Some other random bits like brake hose clips (£3.23) and brake retaining bolts (£3.25), stainless ones, and probably really for the new wheel bearings once those are ever in place. Just random bits from eBay, as it'd be mad to use genuine retaining bolts and risk them seizing. Also a set of brake shields front and rear: Obviously the bits on the left side. The rears need replacing as seen on previous posts, and the Audi TTS ones have these air vent bits, which I suppose is for cooling, yet, feels like it defeats the purpose of shields. Fronts are 8S0 615 311 D and 8S0 615 312 D at £57.20 for the two from lllparts, and the rears are from eBay apparently parts 5Q0 615 611 K and 5Q0 615 612 K at £40.70. All the other bits are for my Honda Insight, basically in a state of disassembly, with a huge amount of rust, in such a way that means I'm not worried about the Skoda. All the bits are being sent to be coated, to something hopefully more corrosion and scratch resistant. Lest the rear shields disintegrate away again. The grand irony being the Insight is aluminium, so it's the rest of the bits that have really rotted away. Anyways, brake discs: I've used MTec for brake discs for a lot of my cars, mainly because they do coatings which seem to help keep the unbraked surfaces hold up reasonably well. Sometimes not perfect though, but the price of the discs make it hard to argue. Set of 4 large discs for £228.48 seems hard to beat. One has to start chasing big money for lighter discs or "better", whatever that may mean. Whilst the wallet was being emptied: Set of HEL brake hoses. Picked purple for reasons to be revealed later. Given the state of the rear hoses, and the fact the Audi TTS ones need to be a tiny bit longer than the standard ones, meant this was a decent chance for fancy braided ones. These were from Progressive Parts at £108. So whilst the calipers were sat there, with these shiny bits alongside, the general grottiness of the calipers meant this was probably the best time to get them refurbed and rebuilt, and I guess be repainted before they were fitted. So dropped them off the Brake Caliper Specialists at Long Eaton, and a week later: So all in purple. Bit much perhaps, but all looking nice and fresh. If the calipers were to stick after this, I'll put the car into a ditch or something. Divert your eyes: this cost £697, where £50 was added because the pistons in the rear calipers were buggered and needed replacing. The TTS calipers are using the same pistons originally, shame they weren't spruced up, but hey ho. They'll probably get dirty quickish once actually used. In spare moments, the calipers were all fitted up, electronic parking brake and stuff like that, in addition to: EBC RedStuffs. I don't anticipate tracking this car, so no YellowStuffs. The Reds spit out less brake dust, so hopefully good news for the shiny calipers and wheels. The fronts are DP32256C and were £116.87 and the rears are DP32173C at £53.84. The rears were ordered circa a year ago, just sitting happily waiting for disaster. Continue to divert eyes: Stahlbus bleeders have been fitted throughout. The rears have the bleed screw in frankly a stupid place, difficult to get any spanners in there. So the idea is that the Stahlbus bleeders stick out a bit more due to it being two separate pieces, so an even longer one means it sticks out even prouder. Hopefully this makes future bleeding even easier. Annoyingly, the TTS caliper does 2 bleeders each, and these bleeders are not cheap! The rears are M10 x 20mm lengths at £52.31 and the fronts are M10 x 16mm lengths at £96.19! Those and the painting of the calipers were certainly not necessary, so a moment of madness. This looks like madness, almost two grand, but is essentially a full brake refresh, and the procurement of parts was pretty much over the course of a year and a bit rather than all purchased in one lump. One can easily spend more once things like big brake kits or more exotic friction materials are involved, so it could have been worse. Been a long post, I'll need a break before I post what I actually did today! I guess the maintenance bits really boil down to the brake disc, pads, and I suppose the rear brake shields. Maintenance: £2860.27 (+£439.89) Upgrades: £4515.82 (+£1515.91) Miscellaneous: £820.07