Having bought a winder tool to help replace the rear disks I now wonder if its ok to use it on the front ones. The 'teeth' fit inside the hollow of the piston so the tool can be wound without actually rotating the piston, so it seems ok to me.

Looks like I'll need to get an 18mm socket for the carrier bolts though. Does anyone know the recommended torque for these?

Any other gotchas to look out for? I'll need to remove some brake fluid from the reservoir I think.

Thanks in advance,

Stuart.

PS. I measured the front ARB thickness and its 23mm - on an Elegance!

don't suppose you know how thick the rear is?

Also does anyone know what wether the standard ones on a TDi are the same as the 1.8T elegance

There isn't a rear one! Or at least not in additon to the rear beam, which has some anti-roll properties I guess.

Searching other threads reveals that the vRS front ARB was upgraded in '02 to 23mm, and it looks like the other models may have gained the same upgrade. The thinner one would probably be have been better suited to the Elegance suspension though!

ETKA lists two rear axle beams with stabilizer - one 18 mm and the other 21.5 mm. The 4X4 has a completely different rear suspension with a 13 mm stabilizer.

What is the caliper 'winder' tool?

Is it a glorified G-clamp? That would do the job on many calipers.

A g clamp wont do the rears are they need to be turned as they are pushed back.

Watch out for the rear caliper mount bolts seizing, they are a complete Biatch to do, they seize and you will have to grind the Head off as Skoda in their wisdom saw to put cap head screws in to hold the calipers on.....pretty stupid on suspension mounts under the car......mine Will be cahnge out for Hex head screws!

You will need an angle grinder to grind the lip on the discs off to get them past the pads prior to winding the piston back.

On the fronts, the winding tool, a G-clamp, finger pressure, or a screwdriver (depending on which parts you are replacing) will do just fine. As Lummox has said, the rears need a proper winding tool.

If the level in the reservoir rises above the MAX level you should siphon some fluid off, otherwise it will get blown out of the cap during braking, potentially spilling on your engine bay paintwork and doing it a power of no good :thumbdwn:

A screw driver inbetween the caliper and the carrier will pull the caliper off and leave the pads where they are. No need to remove the lip at all.

Never had one of the caliper bolts seize up to be honest. Allways replace the caliper bolts, usually get new ones with pads anyhow.

A toffee hammer works quite well on removing the lip, if you need to.

A screw driver inbetween the caliper and the carrier will pull the caliper off and leave the pads where they are. No need to remove the lip at all.

Never had one of the caliper bolts seize up to be honest. Allways replace the caliper bolts' date=' usually get new ones with pads anyhow.[/quote']

You referring to the rears? they can't be opened as far as I can see without removing the lip, done this a couple of times now and had to remove the lip both times the fronts are a doddle, tried everything to remove tyhe rear caliper bolt until the wrench slipped and implaed my hand on the corner of the brake shield......believe me that hurts.....a lot especially when you still have to re-assemble it all to clear the drive way!!

Dave, next time don't bother with the grinder - get a little hammer and chip the lip off by tapping it radially (towards the hub). Takes only a very few minutes.

You can get a little movement of the pistons with a screwdriver but on the rears it's not unusual to have to remove the lip before sliding the caliper off.

I have run DS2500's on these discs and they EAT discs when driven hard, the lip was a more like on of Frank Bruno's lips after his fight with Mike Tyson!!!! needed to get the grinder on it as there was no way it was coming off otherwise:) :eek:

You referring to the rears? they can't be opened as far as I can see without removing the lip, done this a couple of times now and had to remove the lip both times the fronts are a doddle, tried everything to remove tyhe rear caliper bolt until the wrench slipped and implaed my hand on the corner of the brake shield......believe me that hurts.....a lot especially when you still have to re-assemble it all to clear the drive way!!

The pads arent held in the caliper. So if you take the two 13mm bolts out the caliper comes off and leaves the pads where they are, there isnt anything for the lip to catch on. Then just lever the pads out,

All done now, and I did use the winding tool to ease the front pistons back - far easier than the levering with makeshift tools I've done in the past on other cars.

Despite significant lips on all the disks (the reason for replacing them) no grinding was required to get the calipers off.

I use a large set of water pump pliers to push the pistons back.