Hi guys, put a previous 0ost on here about wanting to bleed my brakes. Just a follow up, I plan to change the rear discs and pads. I've only ever replaced front discs/pads as I've only ever had cars with rear drum brakes. Is doing rear brake discs and pads as straightforward as the front? I understand the pistons need winding in, so my plan was to:

 

Jack up the car,

leave in gear and the handbrake off,

Remove old rear discs/pads,

Wind back the pistons all the way (clockwise) on the rear calipers, 

Put new discs/pads on,

Pump brakes till the piston/pads are making contact with the new discs (as you'd do on the fronts),

Bleed each wheel accordingly afterward to remove any excess air. 

 

 

Does this sound good? Also some people open the bleed nipple when pushing pistons back but I've never done this; I've always pushed them back with the master cylinder cap off and bleed nipple closed. 

 

Also my plan was to start with the rear discs/pads and making my way to the fronts.

 

Btw am I right in assuming no disconnecting of the brake cables or adjustments of the handbrake is required, and that it'll adjust accordingly to the piston?

 

Any advice is appreciated. Cheers.

 

1 hour ago, CReese123 said:

I plan to change the rear discs and pads. Do they need doing then?

1 hour ago, CReese123 said:

Chock front wheels,

leave in gear and the handbrake off,

Jack up the car,

Remove Calipers, one side at at time.

Wind back the pistons all the way (clockwise) on the rear calipers, with a wind back tool.

Remove old rear discs/pads, one side at at time.

Clean and grease contact points on new pads. No slider pins on rear brakes.

Put new discs/pads on, one side at at time.

Refit Calipers one side at at time.

Pump brakes till the piston/pads are making contact with the new discs (as you'd do on the fronts),

Bleed each wheel accordingly afterward to remove any excess air. 

No air will have got in to the system.

 

 

1 hour ago, CReese123 said:

Btw am I right in assuming no disconnecting of the brake cables or adjustments of the handbrake is required, and that it'll adjust accordingly to the piston? Yes

 

 

Thanks. AG Falco

I have always removed the cable from each side, by just using a screwdriver as a lever, same to refit them afterwards but clean up the ball end of the cable and where it fits into and apply some grease.  Also I ease the rigid brake line up out of its clip on the rear beam, doing that and removing the cable will give you more freedom of movement to get the calliper out and cleaned up etc. I like making things easy, you will do a better job probably if you can move the calliper around a bit more, these rear callipers only have a rigid hydraulic pipe on them at that area so the less you need to force bend these pipes the batter.

 

Are you replacing the rear discs - they tend to get nasty and rusty quickly, if so maybe consider buying new calliper carrier bolts.  It has been a very long time since I have needed to replace rear discs on a Polo (same bits as Fabia)  12 years at least, so I've forgotten if you need to remove the rear calliper carriers to get enough room to fit new discs. I'll be doing that job maybe this coming summer!

 

I tend to clean up the old calliper to carrier bolts and apply blue Loctite to the threads every time I service the rear brakes - the new pads will come with new bolts that are already coated with blue Loctite paste.

 

For maybe a bit of overkill or smartness, consider buying and fitting external handbrake lever return springs, the ones from the original VW Sharan are the ones that I have always used.