DIY Rear Discs and Pads Changed Today.

[gianthotdog]

Decided to change the rear discs and pads today on my superb.

 

Bought the parts a few weeks back and been putting it off.

 

Jacked the car up one side at a time, used two axle stands along with the Jack to create a stable and safe car to work under.

 

All went smoothly after nearly giving up with the caliper carrier bolts. They are a real pain to get off. 

 

The two bolts are are not only hard to get to but so tight they felt like they were welded on!! They require an M14 triple square  bit to remove them, they are not HEX bolts. 

 

My 18v impact wrench was having no use. Had to use penetrating spray and lots of elbow grease. I actually used my foot to press on my ratchet to get enough force onto the bolts on the near side. I lay down and pushed until I heard the sound of the bolt cracking loose. It sounded so good.

 

On the the off side I got the top one loose with a hammer and my wratchet. The bottom one need my wratchet with a cheater bar which consisted of my jack handle over the wratchet handle. All sounds fairly straightforward however access is very limited when using just a trolley Jack and stands. With a car lift I think it would be a very easy job. It would remove all the access problem and allow a long beaker bar to be used.

 

Defo also need a caliper wind back tool to get the piston back in to the caliper. I've heard of people making tools etc but I can't see how they would work efficiently after doing it myself today. It requires quite a bit of turning force to get the piston back in.

 

Re greased the slider pins, cleaned the hub, put a tiny amount of copper slip on rear of pads and all is good.

 

I would definitely do it again myself. 

 

If if one person reading this decides to have ago themselves I will be happy!! 

[gav_is_con]

6 hours ago, gianthotdog said:

Decided to change the rear discs and pads today on my superb.

 

Bought the parts a few weeks back and been putting it off.

 

Jacked the car up one side at a time, used two axle stands along with the Jack to create a stable and safe car to work under.

 

All went smoothly after nearly giving up with the caliper carrier bolts. They are a real pain to get off. 

 

The two bolts are are not only hard to get to but so tight they felt like they were welded on!! They require an M14 triple square  bit to remove them, they are not HEX bolts. 

 

My 18v impact wrench was having no use. Had to use penetrating spray and lots of elbow grease. I actually used my foot to press on my ratchet to get enough force onto the bolts on the near side. I lay down and pushed until I heard the sound of the bolt cracking loose. It sounded so good.

 

On the the off side I got the top one loose with a hammer and my wratchet. The bottom one need my wratchet with a cheater bar which consisted of my jack handle over the wratchet handle. All sounds fairly straightforward however access is very limited when using just a trolley Jack and stands. With a car lift I think it would be a very easy job. It would remove all the access problem and allow a long beaker bar to be used.

 

Defo also need a caliper wind back tool to get the piston back in to the caliper. I've heard of people making tools etc but I can't see how they would work efficiently after doing it myself today. It requires quite a bit of turning force to get the piston back in.

 

Re greased the slider pins, cleaned the hub, put a tiny amount of copper slip on rear of pads and all is good.

 

I would definitely do it again myself. 

 

If if one person reading this decides to have ago themselves I will be happy!! 

I did the pads on SWMBO's Golf at the weekend and usually get away with not having to remove the calliper carriers to pop the old disks off  as in the Octy. This time no good, carriers had to come off. 

These bolts were 21mm ones. After some tries with a rachet no good. Some googling later found a suggestion to jack up the rachet/bar. As I had a spare trolley jack. Lowered the car right down with main jack and used the other jack against my breaker bar and socket to crack open the 2 nuts. The opposite side of car was different as they needed to be opened towards the ground. However the bar and hammer was enough on both of these. 

Thanks to the post on golfmkv.com who summed it up as "work smart not hard"

 

[psycholist]

I used a ratchet strap from my ratchet handle to the tow hitch to break the bolt loose on one side. Definitely a job that takes way longer if you don't have a car lift :(. Also annoying that most 12 point driver sets only go to M12, so I had to buy a new set just to get the M14. Whether it was cheaper than paying the garage to do it depends on how much per hour you're willing to pay to have the time free to do something else :P.

 

The first rule of dealing with fasteners like this is that you don't swing your weight off them - plenty of nasty injuries to be had from hauling full force on something that lets go suddenly.

[silver1011]

I was where you were a few years ago. I too couldn't get anywhere near enough leverage on the caliper bolts, even with a breaker bar. I just couldn't get the car high enough (whilst still been safe) to get enough movement on the breaker bar.

 

Gave up and got a local garage to do it on their ramps. My tail of woe...