Have you done a rear pad replacement before Matt? If not you may find retracting the caliper piston is the most difficult part of the job. It can be done without the tool but is much easier with. They are for sale at lots of places like Halfords, Machine mart, and others and are not too pricey. The caliper piston needs to be "screwed" back into the caliper at the same time as a linear force is applied to force it back in - much easier with the tool but can still be awkward. Copa slip (a mixture of ground copper and high melting point grease) has been used for many many years by mechanics to lube the metal mounting points on brake pads and calipers - Use very sparingly and DO NOT get it on any of the friction faces. However in recent years because there was some question about copper/metallic based greases interfering with ABS sensors the recommendation is now to use Ceramic grease on brakes (Ceratec is a common brand). Your new caliper bolts will often be precoated with blue thread lock compound. If not I'd buy some (I'm a big believer in applying thread lock to suspension nuts and bolts) A wee tube of it goes a long way. I wouldn't usually use a torque wrench on these bolts - but I would on caliper carrier to hub bolts - Just snug them up "nice 'n tite". But then I'm now in my 70's and I've been doing this since my late teens.
Ha, my copper grease actually has Copaslip on the tin, bought maybe almost 40 years ago - a large tin, I'm probably converting to Ceratec slowly - well on my car anyway!
OP, sorry I missed commenting on how you are going to get these pistons back in, I agree, without a piston windback tool you are going to have/make trouble, maybe add ECP into where you can buy one as I noticed they were selling them earlier this week when I was out buying stuff. VW Group and some others use Right Handed ones on both sides, so only one tool needed.
If you find that these callipers are not releasing fully always, after cleaning them up, you could always fit external return springs from a MK1 Sharan etc - earlier small VW Group needed them so I fitted them to my wife's Polo when it was brand new, really to avoid any future dragging rear brakes.
Cheers. I was wondering if they were both the same thread.Ha, my copper grease actually has Copaslip on the tin, bought maybe almost 40 years ago - a large tin, I'm probably converting to Ceratec slowly - well on my car anyway!
OP, sorry I missed commenting on how you are going to get these pistons back in, I agree, without a piston windback tool you are going to have/make trouble, maybe add ECP into where you can buy one as I noticed they were selling them earlier this week when I was out buying stuff. VW Group and some others use Right Handed ones on both sides, so only one tool needed.
If you find that these callipers are not releasing fully always, after cleaning them up, you could always fit external return springs from a MK1 Sharan etc - earlier small VW Group needed them so I fitted them to my wife's Polo when it was brand new, really to avoid any future dragging rear brakes.
So far all the VAG ones I've come across have been right hand thread on both sides. I "mess about" with small Fiats quite a bit too and the ones that have rear calipers are reputed to be left hand thread on the N/S and right hand on the O/S - although so far all the Pandas (4 off) and my boy's Punto have all had drums on the rear.Cheers. I was wondering if they were both the same thread.
Hopefully I'll be ok, I've done oil changes, my heater matrix and put new bearings in the washing machine.
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So, "Crossthreaded" seems particularly apt in this context?Ah "same thread" I just interpreted that to mean, "are we still talking about the same subject/thread" - dual use of words can mess up the English language!
Yes VW Group is still all RH thread for rear pistons on all sides!
Hum, unfortunately my 2011 Audi S4 has one of these, I've got use to it but would rather have a handbrake that used Bowden cables. That car also has proper "hill hold" so if you enable "auto hill hold" it works as a parking brake when you have stopped, it does this the same way as all other cars with hill hold, by closing the valves in the ABS control block - and holds the car for ever, or until you unclip the driver's seat belt/open the driver's door/switch the ignition off at which point it applies the electric handbrake. The system fitted to cars without electric handbrakes only holds for a few seconds and is always active, with that S4, you can chose to have it active after starting the car or chose to leave it deactivated - I like having that choice as sometimes I want it to be on and sometimes I don't. The thing about using the hill hold is, some people think that for cars with electric handbrakes, using hill hold can extend the life of the electric block on the rear callipers - which does not sound clever if you need to consider that!
I've had the rear pads out for cleaning up - I have VCDS so use its built in function to fully retract the handbrake actuators, you would not want any part of your body to get clamped by these actuators as they are beasts!
You are right to be confused as they would have needed to be fully retracted to fit the new pads and that involves rewinding AND pressing back in, I’d think that your rear callipers are now a bit “stuffed”!I'm confused. None of the calipers on my 1.6TDI ST were wind back, they just pushed back in (no special tool, but make sure the res cap is lose). All working fine here. Wind back calipers is very late 90s.![]()