I think I have completely run out of pads on the rear , so thought I'd give it a go myself.

A skoda dealer would want about

Well you posted almost an hour ago Alex and your still online so either you've been out and done it nice and quickly or you've decided to leave it a while!!!

Failing that you could be franticly searching for a 'how to' or Ross's phone number!!

It started raining the minute I got the wheel off , so I'd been sat inside looking at a three wheeled car.

Now I'm just off outside again to figure out how to detach the caliper from the rest of the car.

IIRC you'll need a 7mm Allen key. Remove the upper and lower black dust cap. Undo the two allen bolts inside and the caliper should come of in your hands.

Included a picture if you need it.

fabiarearbrakes.pdf

No 7mm allen keys to remove on the rear.

Just undo the two 13mm bolts (you will also need to hold the inner part with a thin 15mm spanner to stop it turning). You may need to gently lever off the caliper and prise out the pads. Replace the metal shims and rebuild using the new 13mm bolts.

Well , thats the one side done and re-assembled with new bolts and copper grease on the back of the pads.

There was no smoke and flames after a quick trip down the road and back so it's looking promising.

Removing the wheel in the other side is proving to be a bit of a problem though.

It's welded on solidly! :grumpy:

No 7mm allen keys to remove on the rear.

Silly me, getting confused with the fronts!! :P

Well , I've finished , packed everything away and been for a road test.

The squeaky noise has gone and the brakes seem to still be capable of stopping the car so on the whole it's a success.

The brake winding tool may cost £20 but it's money very well spent. It would be possible to fabricate something yourself but it will be a lot of hard work. Even with the right tool it takes a lot of strength to find the calipers back in if they haven't been touched for a long time (78000 miles )

Once I'd carefully applied WD40 to the wheel hub and left it to soak in for ten minutes or so the wheel came off with a good kicking.

After that , the thing that slowed me down on the drivers side wheel was caused by the pads being more worn than the passenger side. As a result the caliper had closed up so much that I couldn't get the metal plate of the winding tool in place and I had to use a screwdriver as a lever instead which wasn't easy.

Once that was done it was just a case of fitting the new pads and reassembling carefully.

All in all a relatively straightforward job that I'm happy I did myself.