I know this is now an old and well covered topic, but I've just replaced the front and rear brake discs on my 2009 (Pre FL) Octavia vRS CR170 Limited Edition that's covered 74,000 miles. The fronts were an advisory on the recent MOT so I decided to change the rears too. I must say, that after reading numerous posts on here about replacing the rear discs (or, more accurately, removing the rear caliper carriers) I wasn't exactly looking forward to the job in hand. However, I have a fairly good box of tools and really hate paying for jobs that I can do myself.

I tackled the rears first to get the worst job out the way. Once the wheel was removed the caliper and pads came off easily, as expected. I then got under the car (with axle stand in place) to have a look at the access to the dreaded M14 multi spline bolt heads. The bottom bolt isn't too bad to get at but its the top one that's a little awkward and access is tight for the M14 spline tool - even though I used a short/stubby M14 tool . I found that once i got the M14 spline tool squarely onto the bolt head I had no room to apply sufficient leverage - especially from the top of the disc/hub. Working from the bottom was better but the shock absorber and coil spring pan were still  .getting in the way of my breaker bar.

 

So, here's how I did it....

 

Working on one side of the car at a time, I jacked the car up really high - so much so, that the other side rear wheel also came off the ground!. I then secured the car with an axle stand. I have a large 3 Ton, low profile, high lift trolley jack - and I doubt a typical £20 trolley jack from Halfords will have anywhere near enough lift?. I then removed the bottom nut and bolt for the coil spring pan and then pulled down on the pan to remove the coil spring. I then removed the bottom bolt and the two top bolts securing the shock absorber and removed that too. Doing this little extra work (that literally only took an extra 4 or 5 minutes using an air gun) gives much better access to both the top and bottom M14 caliper carrier bolts.

On the top carrier bolt I used a 17" long breaker bar (hence, the height the car needs to be jacked up) with 2" long 'wobble' extension fitted to the spline tool - and yes, the spline bolt was very tight, but it cracked loose straight away with just a bit of brute force and room for leverage. On the bottom carrier bolt I just used the breaker bar on the spline tool as the wobble extension wasn't required. There is no way a normal size wratchet would crack the carrier bolts as there's just wouldn't be enough leverage (unless you've got arms like Popeye, I suppose  ;). Once the carrier bolts were off the rest of the job was a piece of cake!

I gave the carrier bolts a good clean with the wire brush wheel on my bench grinder and then coated the threads in copper slip (for next time?  :dull: ). As for refitting, the Haynes manual states the bolts should be torqued to 90NM and then further tightened another 90 degrees. However, I just torqued them to 90NM as I felt that was plenty tight enough. With the shock and spring already removed and out of the way there was enough room to get my torque wrench in the available space, and again, I used the 2" wobble extension on the top bolt. 

I realise now, as i'm writing this up, that I should have taken a few pics of the different stages as I went along as they might have been helpful to someone - but honestly, if you're already thinking of changing the brakes yourself then, believe me, removing the shock and spring is no more taxing.

 

DISC SIZES!!!!

 

Another much discussed topic and prior to starting this job I contacted my local branch of Euro Car Parts and gave them my registration number. They assured me that my disc sizes would be 312mm front and 282mm rear, and as they had access to a VAG database I had no reason to doubt them. I'm pretty certain that the sales chap on the phone quoted me £94.00 INCLUDING VAT (I always ask about VAT when i get quotes from my 3 local Motor Factors) for front and rear Pagid discs (I already had some new pads to fit) so, thinking 'That's a bargain' I headed straight down to ECP. However, when i went to pay the chap on the shop counter told me the actual price was £94.00 PLUS VAT.......but I insisted I was quoted £94 including vat so they 'reluctantly' honoured the quote!.

 

I set about replacing the discs the following day and when I had eventually removed the rears I managed to accurately measure them and discovered that my OE rear discs were 286mm not 282mm. I contacted ECP who then checked and double checked their database and confirmed that my car should be fitted with 282mm rear discs. I enquired about exchanging my new 282's for 286's but was told 'NO' as they didn't have a 'reference' for 286mm discs for my car/model. I therefore decided that an overall diameter of minus 4mm is neither here nor there and duly fitted the 282's - and........all is fine. I have since read somewhere that 282mm rear discs are now a Skoda recommendation so the discs avoid getting a 4mm rusty edge on the outer circumference where the pads don't touch.........which sort of makes sense??

 

Incidentally, when originally getting quotes, all 3 motor factors stated my car should be fitted with 282mm rear discs - but the 286's that I removed were definitely OE items.

 

Hope this helps some Briskodians, 

 

Regards,

Mothy.

Edited 24 December, 20169 yr by Mothy

Great info buddy that lot will come in handy for a lot of people. Having had experience with those carrier bolts myself every little bit of advice is useful. Both my mk1 and mk2 Octavias were a pain to remove. Lastly, £94 for front and rear discs is a great price. Even with vat that's a decent deal.

hi

  when i chaanged my rear discs on 2009 1.9tdi estate i did not need to remove the carriers

  the discs slotted in with them in place.

hi

when i chaanged my rear discs on 2009 1.9tdi estate i did not need to remove the carriers

the discs slotted in with them in place.

The lower powered ones have smaller rear discs and you can do that.