I will be changing rear discs and pads shortly and as such will need to have my VCDS plugged in for the duration so as to correctly re-set the parking brake limits.

I've read that there is a recommendation to have the battery hooked up to a charger, or similar, while doing this to ensure that It doesn't go flat while i'm doing it.

 

Is this battery charger requirement a bit excessive? My battery is only a couple of months old and would hope to be able to complete the disc & pad job in about an hour or hour & a half ( I'd crack off as many nuts & bolts before removing anything to ensure no unforeseen hold-ups ).

A bigger concern for me would be my laptop battery lasting the distance.

 

 

 

Your car battery would go flat if you left it on for that amount of time.

There's no need to leave the car switched on while you're working on the brakes, the park brake system will remember it's in service mode and allow you to reset it when you switch back on afterwards.

 

The important things are:

1. don't turn the piston to retract it, push it straight back
2. don't reset until the brakes are fully reassembled

I have done this a couple of times. As D402 says, you can just turn the ignition off after you’ve retracted the parking brake. Then once everything is replaced, turn ignition back on and reset the parking brake with VCDS.

Edited 9 January, 20233 yr by nicknorman

That is excellent news. I've read a few posts which indicated that the laptop should be in constant communication throughout the process and that a battery charger or similar was needed to ensure the car battery didn't go flat.

 

As & when the rain stops I'll investigate what's needed to complete the job and may post further questions if I get stuck.

 

Thanks

Put the car in service mode using a diagnostic tool.

Turn ignition off.

When done, ignition back on and take out of service mode.

 

No need to keep it on for this procedure.