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Rear pads and disc with electric handbrake?

Mar 15, 2021
18
1
Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has managed to change there rear disc and pads without a computer to wind back the electric hand brake? looking to change the pads and disc on my leon cupra 300.

The only way i could think of doing it is leaving the engine running and putting it into neutral?

I would be grateful for any other methods.

Thanks.
 

dronners

Active Member
Aug 18, 2014
23
18
soon as you open the door the handbrake will go on so unless you want to climb through a window…. its not worth doing without software anyway so many things to go wrong
 

mcspook

Active Member
Feb 11, 2020
81
29
soon as you open the door the handbrake will go on so unless you want to climb through a window…. its not worth doing without software anyway so many things to go wrong
First you open the door and then you release the handbrake
 

rafletcher

Active Member
Feb 18, 2021
531
214
Think you still have to wind the pistons back to allow room for the new - thicker - pads.
 

RUM4MO

Active Member
Jun 4, 2008
7,963
1,059
South Scotland
Round about the time I bought my slightly used Audi S4 I bought a "special for VW Group" adaptor for my Sykes-Pickavant brake calliper retractor, from memory the shape of the part that can engage with the end of the piston is maybe 3 sided. I do have VCDS and have used it to remove the rear pads to clean up the brakes every other year, but as far as I noticed, the VCDS piston retraction prog pulled the piston back far enough to replace - and so would other scan tools like Carista and ODB11.
I think that you can separate the motor from the calliper and screw the piston fully back in, but I'd always just use one of the scan tools that have the prog to retract these pistons fully
The calliper carrier to hub bolts, I think, should not be reused as they are maybe torqued to wield, if not torqued to yield, the bolts will have suffered from corrosion so much that getting a socket on to them the next time might be quite tricky in my mind and the serrated inner surface will not have survived the initial tightening and slackening. The calliper to calliper carrier bolts can be safely reused if cleaned up and recoated with blue Loctite paste which places like Halfords tend to sell quite cheaply - though most pad kits come with new coated bolts.