Had my Superb 1.8t a Fortnight now, 02 reg with 37000 on the clock. I bought it 2nd hand from an independant dealer 75 miles away for

There are no wear sensors in the rear pads - only the fronts. The rear pads usually wear faster than the fronts, so be careful. Textar pads which match the OE pads and come with new slider bolts are available from GSF. You will also need a piston winding tool for the rear calipers (GSF again).

You were asking about other jobs. Top of the list is to clear the plenum chamber of debris to minimise the chance of rainwater leaks which will wreck the CCM electronics. The most important drains are under the battery tray (remove) and under the brake servo.

I would then remove the front suspension upper arm balljoint pinch bolts - visible just above the wheel. These rust solidly in the housing and make an overhaul of the front suspension a very expensive job. As your vehicle is quite old, I hope they haven't rusted in yet. Replace with lots of anti-seize and do this every year. The track rod end pinch bolts should be done at the same time. All of these cars will require a front suspension rebuild at some time due to poor design and seized pinch bolts are a real complication.

The only other design fault I can think of right now is the wiper arm spindles - these rust solid. Remove the arms annually and oil the bearings.

rotodiesel.

My car is a November 2005 - so when should I consider carrying out the preventative anti sieze jobs listed above. How would this affect warranty if I need to do it before the car is 3 yrs old? I can see what you mean about the upper arm balljoint as this is showing signs of rusting now.

Thanks

You will just have to use your own judgement over the warranty. The front suspension is such a crappy design that the pinch bolts will all be rusted solid unless freed off early in the car's life and kept free.

I am not one to be held over a barrel by VAG - if my car needed warranty attention in an area other than the front suspension and they refused on the grounds that the suspension had been disturbed, I'd take them to the Small Claims Court.

rotodiesel.

Just as a point to add in the last five years or so I have only changed a handfull of the suspension arms and have never seen a Superb ball joint worn like the earlier Passat and A4 arms do, something they seemed to have improved on.

Klann make an excellent tool for removing the top bolts should they seize up and its now workshop equipment in most dealers. Means you can just air gun the old bolts out should they seize up and makes the job a doddle.

It's worth remembering two things: Superbs are on average, much younger than Passats, and that the upper control arms are identical (same GSF part No.) for the two cars. It's pretty well a dead cert that there will be trouble in this area when the cars get older.

It took me 5 minutes to take the upper arm pinch bolt out and another 5 to get out the one for the track rod end. Both can be done easily without even taking off the road wheel or jacking up the car. The "special tool" is a no-brainer when it's so easy to keep these bolts free. I once borrowed the VW tool to do this job on an old Passat and it wasn't strong enough to break the rust.

rotodiesel.

Agreed prevention is far better than cure and its something i would do on a new car, like you say takes minutes.

Also agree on the Superb but I have worked on a fair few Superb taxis having done 100k+ miles and an older A4/Passat at that mileage would be knackered.

Got car back today, new cambelt, tensioners, water pump(metal) and brake pads. Guess what, the plastic impellar had broken and there was half of it missing. Been lucky I think to catch it but only thanks to you guys on the forum. Only trouble is the Engine Electronics warning light has now come on, back to local independant garage tomorrow to see whats wrong, it came on after been stood a while running, they may have dislodged something. Any suggestions?.

I would be looking for a camshaft and crankshaft correlation fault myself. Odds on they have got the cambelt a tooth out.

Put it on their diagnostics and turns out that it is running lean, found small hole in pipe just under coolant reservoir and so it is sucking air in. It was doing it before I had all the work done as we could hear hissing when we turned the engine off and thought it was probably something to do with the climate control. Glad it was just a pipe!.