[Closed] Changing rear discs and pads on a car?

you can do it.

you'll end up buying a few special tools, and it'll take you about 3* days, but you can do it.

(*bitter experience)

and be careful, those little wires get quite brittle but without them all sorts of sensors won't work / will set of warnings.

Slow. steady. lots of lube.

😯

Doesnt look to be anything unusual on the Touran going on this: http://robyco.hubpages.com/hub/VWTouranBrakePad

I've only had a skim read but I wouldn't follow that guide from what I saw, just used as reference to see what calipers it has.

Not particularly handy at all

It's a VW Touran

What could possibly go wrong!

Not handy? I will point out then, use axle stands. Put the wheel under the sill. Chock the other wheels. And don't put body parts under the car when wrestling bolts.

Relatively easy job, but my local garage did my van for £40 so I don't bother any more.

As per the last time this came up, if you're not sure leave it well alone.

In an ideal world it's a simple case of unclipping the handbrake cable, undoing a couple of screws, removing the caliper and carrier then removing the disc retaiing screw and taking that off. Reverse operation, jobs a good un.

In reality you will have 0000's of miles of corrosion and brake dust to deal with, seized screws, seized pins, metal on metal bonding, brittle wires, seized calipers and god knows what else. It's a ballache of a job and unless you have the tools (impact driver & breaker bar at minimum) and know how to use them then save yourself the heartache.

For the marginal amount you're saving in labour costs you might as well send it to someone who knows what they're doing and will replace what they break in a fraction of the time you would take. First time I did it was with someone who had done it before and it was still an all day job to do both ends. Still ended up needing done again since a caliper ended up seizing in no time flat (pins were pitted and corroded). The guy at the garage took about an hour to do the back end.

You'll probably need a caliper wind-back tool, I think. The pistons rotate as they come out, so can't be pushed straight back in, they have to rotate as they go back in (I think most VAG group cars are like this).

You will probably also find you'll need a 7mm hex key to get the disc off.

Best to check both of the above before you start. There'll be a website called Tourantrackworld or something similar with a guide.

I'll consider myself warned off. If anyone can **** things up then that'd be me.

Cheers chaps.

You will probably also find you'll need a 7mm hex key to get the disc off.

I wouldnt have thought it would be 7mm for the disc screws. 7mm for a lot of caliper slide bolts (eg ATE IIRC) but normally a pozidrive, small hex or small torx for disc screws.

OP probably the best choice. If you have someone competent to show you then crack on, if not it doesnt cost that much, or shouldn't.

I used to do them on my Triumph Acclaim using the Haynes Manual. Replacement is the reverse of removal. (tip for ya)

Wouldn't dare now!

Easy job with the right tools.

As is anything for the most part

How ever unless its something you do often or enjoy its not worth buying the tools . The garage willdo it for the cost of the tools for the job.

You can bodge it - but chances are youll make a **** of it if you dont understand what your trying to achieve.

* disclaimer - do all my own car maintainance and built a whole land rover from componant pieces.

IIRC some VWs need to diagnostic thing to bleed the brakes if there is ABS fitted too. Not much help to the OP, I thought I'd just point that out.

Like most jobs.

If you know what you are doing then you wouldn't be asking...

Done it myself when needing to save the pennies vs the time, now I'm more interested in saving time.

you aint gonna get any disc off without removing the caliper!

so you WILL need a 7mm hex

you can do it.

you'll end up buying a few special tools, and it'll take you about 3* days, but you can do it.

(*bitter experience)

+1 also my experience.

If your Toruan is anything like a VW T5 you'll need a 7mm Hex and M10 spline drive. Maybe some large 1/2" drive sockets if you don't have them. I also had to buy a big 600mm breaker bar and a brake bleed kit to finish the job. I bodged the caliper rewind tool with a g-clamp and some wood. Also assuming you have an appropriate jack and axle stands.

IIRC some VWs need to diagnostic thing to bleed the brakes if there is ABS fitted too. Not much help to the OP, I thought I'd just point that out.

This +1, a former friend (long story) managed a Kwikfit branch and the apprentice replaced the rear pads on a VW by the normal method. It then cost £1800 to have it trailered away to a VW specialist (not even a main dealer, it was a UK VAG technical centre type place) to have some wizardry done to the ECU to bring it back to life.

Some VW's apparently really don't like you servicing them at home! Apparently it's quite simple to do but you do have to tell the ECU you're doing it.

I've changed disks and pads on a few of my cars and it's fairly straightforward but be prepared for a world of pain if you round a bolt off or strip a thread. You're also almost guaranteed to lose some skin off your knuckles. Unless you are totally skint I'd say take it to your local garage (not Kwik Fit though, they are just a bunch of crooks).

Done them on my Cmax and was surprisingly easy, even managed to wind back the piston on the rear caliper without any special tools(Needlenose pliers and a dose of MTFU soon had them sorted).

Found a step by step guide online for the Touran, doesn't look to be anything special.
[url= http://robyco.hubpages.com/hub/VWTouranBrakePad ]LINKY[/url]

properbikeco - Member
you aint gonna get any disc off without removing the caliper!

so you WILL need a 7mm hex

Unless the touran doesnt use a caliper slider type with a 7mm hex key which going on the link above it seems it doesnt. So you won't need a 7mm hex key in that case but they can vary on brake type.

unovolo - that's the link I posted above. I wouldn't use it as a guide. Far to many bits missed out.

I've replaced both rear calipers on our B6 Passat with the ridiculous electronic handbrake and despite what the internet says you [i]do not[/i] need any ECU resetting wizardry if you know what you're doing.

@andyl,
Sorry missed your link as I only skimmed through, my bad 😳

In reality you will have 0000's of miles of corrosion and brake dust to deal with, seized screws, seized...

Pretty much my experience. A doddle in theory. Or so I thought. Then I was soon reminded what a nightmare the caliper bolts were the last time I did the pads. Went through every socket I own, then bought some more... Then there was the stupid pointless screws which hold the disc in place while the wheel's not on. Like that's a necessity. They were made of cheese and I followed every method going that I could find on Youtube before drilling them out. Turned out to be a good weekend's worth of work.

For seized disc screws:

[img] [/img]

+ a bit of heat on the head if you need to first (disc will be scrap anyway so doesnt matter).

I have had to drill a few heads off though in the past.

Then a good dip in copper slip before you put the screw back in. They are useful as they stop the disc rotating when you take the wheel off which can lead to judders on a worn disc where there is run-out/rust on the hub interface or just a PITA when changing a wheel on the road side. They are absolutely fine when people put grease on them and don't do them up mega tight thinking they take braking forces.

I have done brakes on many cars, many times. If you know what you are doing then it's one of the easiest ways to save on garage fees. 7mm allen key for VW is needed, I also have a laser branded caliper wind back tool. My philosophy is simple...if the tool costs no more than asking a garage to do it then I will usually do it myself knowing that next time I will make a big saving. Consequently I have lots of tools for brakes and removing clips from VW cars!

For seized disc screws:

I thought I was in luck when I discovered my dad had an impact driver. All it did though was annoy the neighbours.