TonyOB

Hi Jane, sorry for my late reply, the car is a 2007 Octavia 1.6 FSI and the mechanical high pressure fuel pump didn’t need coding. Just replace it and it works straight away. Three garages were unable to fix it.

A misunderstanding has occured - The penetrating fluid, applyed daily for a week, was necessary in order to make the bolts easier to undo. The timescale was unimportant as we had leant my wifes Fabio to our daughter. These carrier bolts are well known to be difficult to remove without air tools. Reason for Brake overhaul - Daughter's 2007 Octavia was noted as "All brake discs worn to minimum thiskness", front brake pads were well worn but rear brake pads were still nearly new. but rear discs were at a minimum thickness. At 93000 miles, I had a feeling that these were original rear discs and that previously, only the pads had been replaced. I decided to replace discs and pads all round and overhaul the calipers at the same time, yes, things you do for your daughters. It wasn't a weekend job so we provided our daughter with another car. I found the whole job interesting with several challenges. I'm only hoping my experience may help someone else carrying out these tasks for the first time, as I was.

Hi Aj77, I had done much research on-line and found that most mechanics report that they always reuse these bolts. If you have access to an air tool, these carrier bolts do come out easilly. I'm pleased that I managed it with limited facilities and I did clean the threads and reused the bolts with a little blue Loctite on the threads and tightened them using a torque wrench. This was a simple but prolonged job which took me a week of daily spraying K2 Vulcan penetrating oil, My biggest worry was if the splines stripped, what do I do then, so I will keep your method in mind for when I do my own Octavia in the summer.

This brake overhaul was on our daughter's 2007 Octavia with 93000 miles, the rubber boots are locked into the caliper groove and the piston groove, the rubber was age hardened and would'nt compress and attempts to wind the piston back resulted in a bent wind back tool handle. With regard to the piston seal, the overhaul kit I got from EBay, the seal had a square profile so it could be fitted either way. If the seal has an angled profile then the thicker edge should face inwards.

No, you can't replace the springs, but you can replace the inner O Ring and the spline seal on the actuating rod. One of the inner spring assemblys went back ok, the other didn't, I couldn't get the circlip back in. I didn't give up until I discovered the reason, and fixed it. Replacing the piston seal and boot is the same as using a repair kit. On my daughter's caliper it was the boot which was aged, 93000 miles. A new repair kit fixed it, but I had to make sure that the piston would wind back without any seizure before fitting the kit, which I did by winding the piston back with the boot removed

I tried to remove the bolts dry but they were too tight, I got several different length socket tool and sprayed daily. I have a trolley jack so could the car really hight. In total, I had about 3 feet extension and the bolts gave in. I'm 74 years old and was determined to beat this task, not easy but you have to make sure the socket is well home and never kinked at an angle

If your car is a TSI or a FSI engine with a HIGH PRESSURE FUEL PUMP (HPFP), there is an engine performance issue related to the HPFP plunger cam follower wearing thus causing the HPFP to deliver a lesser amount of fuel at lower revs, causing an engine stall. Or daughter's 2007 Octavia 1.6 FSI had similar problem. Three garages were happy to replace several sensors at considerable cost but could not cure the fault. I got the car to find out whatwas the problem, I removed the HPFP and was startled to see the amount of wear on the cam follower and end of the pump plunger. £25.00 for a new cam follower and £60.00 for a second user HPFP, all from Ebay, cured the fault comepletely.

A bit of a late reply but heres what I did. Jack the veh up as high as you can get it safely and using axle stands, put the wheels under the car forextra protection. The veh needs to be high enough to allow the use of a 24" breaker bar together with a long helper tube, then brute force will do it. Oh, I had sprayed the bolts wherever I could with penetrating fluid, each day for a week beforehand. I know the spray treatment worked because I couldn't budge them beforehand.

I bought an Information saver cable off Ebay which plugs into the test socket above the pedals. I also have a small 12v battery which I have for odd jobs. Connect the cable clips to the battery and the veh battery may be disconnected without loss of coding

Rear Caliper Overhaul - When carrying out a full overhaul of the rear calipers, sometimes it is difficult to re-fit the internal spring assembly circlip, nay impossible. The metal fingers of the assemby can become weakened over time, allowing the assemble to expand slightly when removed from the caliper making it impossible to replace the assembly. Remedy- the spring assemble must be compressed in a vice and the metal fingers need to tightened with a hammer and a punch, this will allow the spring assembly to be refitted.

The rubber boot is age hardened and is therefore preventing your piston winding back, it happened to me. Remove the piston and try it without the boot and it will wind back with ease. A new repair kit will sort ir out