Now that i'm officially poor, i have to resort to fixing my own car. 😆

Actually, it's quite satisfying knowing how much cash you are saving. I recently replaced both CV joint gaiters for less than £20 which saved me a small fortune on the quotes i got for a garage to do this job.

It's a 10 yr old Audi and has wind back calipers.

Has anyone ever replaced vw/audi rear pads and if this is you, do you know whether the calipers are handed, both r/h tread or, both l/h thread.

I need to buy a wind back tool, but don't know which one.

Cheers in advance.

I can't remember if they're handed or not. It's pretty obvious if you're going the right way or not.

VW/Audi calipers normally take a tool that has two prongs to turn the caliper back. I'd be amazed if a pair of needle nosed pliers won't do the trick. You can get the kind of threaded tool with a false pad back to help wind them in, but it's usually not needed and just causes more hassle (the thread on the tool rarely matches the thread in the caliper).

I seem to recall there is some element of black art to making the calipers reset correctly so that the handbrake works as it should – the caliper includes an automatic cable adjustment mechanism. It's covered in the Haynes I believe.

I'm assuming here that you're working on rear brakes. Fronts just shove back in, and you can do it by hand or with any lever you like – just use an old pad or bit of wood if you're worried about the piston face / rubbers.

Oh, and if you're lucky, the wheel bearing's pressed into the rear discs, a la drum brakes. In which case, you need new wheel bearings, and something to drift them in with.

I used a G clamp and needle nose pliers to wind mine back in.

Yep, they are the rear brakes i'm referring to. I've changed the front pads with ease twice now. This was a couple of years ago and I can't remember which way th rear pistons rotate and only tried this on one of them. The rears were stubborn and i didn't think a pair of pin nosed pliers would be man enough for the job. Maybe i'll try getting hold of some hefty angled ones. I baulked at the cost of a universal wind back tool then and got a garage to fit the pads for me. They charged £25 which was a fair price, but this time i'm replacing the discs. I need to check the rear re. tron's wheel bearing comments, but remember the fronts weren't fixed by anything other than the wheel studs. Once the caliper is out the way, they just slide off. I assumed the rear would be the same, but now better check.

Front and rear are very different. Fronts have been discs for years, so the hub carriers etc. are all designed for disc brakes.

Plenty of cars still come with drums on the back, so they make discs that fit up the same way as drums. I suppose it's part evolutionary throwback (ie, it works, so why change it), and part commonality of bits between the VW range. It wouldn't surprise me if an A4 has the same rear stub axle as a Polo.

If you've bought the disks, it's really easy to tell if the wheelbearings fit in them, they'll look like this:

Ok, thanks for the info tron! Nice photos! BTW, mine's an A6 which I believe used the exact same running gear as a Passat.

I just had a tinker and found I can wind the pistons back with a very large pair of adjustable waterpump pliers (taking great care not to wreck the dust seals).

The disc is free on the hub (where the studs fix), so I don't think i've got the wheel bearing variety, but time will tell.

If i do have the legacy type, I have a couple of bearing pullers from the days when I fixed heavy duty mainframe hardware (yes, a lot of machines had hefty bearings in numerous applications – when computers were real beasts! 😆 ).

The caliper assembly is fixed with a couple of allen bolts which if memory serves me correctly, i'll be getting the grinding wheel out to "modify" and old allen key so it fits.

Looks like a pretty easy job, but shan't get too big for my boots just yet! 😉

The disc is free on the hub (where the studs fix), so I don't think i've got the wheel bearing variety, but time will tell.

It's not the kind with the wheel bearing built in then. When the wheel bearing is built in, the dust cap actually fits into the front of the disc, and the disc won't come off until you've pulled that and physically undone the castellated nut and bearing.

Brake calipers should normally be fixed on with an 8mm Allen fitting – easiest if you have allen drive sockets, easier to belt in and heave on. Shouldn't need any special tools. You may be thinking of the odd fixing sometimes used to hold calipers together?

Thanks! There are a couple of captive bolts which enable the caliper to float, but the main assembly is held on with Allen bolts.

Hmmmm, 8mm? It's hard to see because they face inwards towards the wheel arch and I was too lazy to go find a mirror. 😆

I bought a really nice chrome vanadium socket set earlier this year and was trying an 8mm hex drive, but it seemed to begin to round and became a slightly loose fit, so I immediately stopped trying to get the bolt undone. I'll worry about this when I am ready to fit the disc, but have a couple of "methods" up my sleeve for stubborn rusted "fecker" bolts. A custom fit allen key is one option seeing as I have several rusting away in a box.

I appreciate the input!

ignore this

there is some element of black art to making the calipers reset correctly so that the handbrake works as it should – the caliper includes an automatic cable adjustment mechanism. It's covered in the Haynes I believe.

"CALIPER ADJUSTMENT [3 spanners]

First, disassemble the assembly in the correct order with the dedicated tool. Then adjust the caliper to the appropriate position. It may be useful to have an assistant. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly".

I've got the same brakes as the A6 on my Skoda, and can tell you that after 10 years, the rear pistons do not want to go back into the caliper easily.
I've tried the g-clamp with pliers and wrenches with no luck at all.
I spent an hour on one side without budging it, so have just ordered a wind-back kit from ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/260638381147

For the price, I think it is well worth it, as it'd be £30 to get it done at a garage.

German and Swedish do the rewind tool you need for £18

German and Swedish do the rewind tool you need for £18'

Care to give a link for that?
I've searched for hours to find the tool, yes there is a tool from Laser for £15 ish, but you then need to buy the adaptor to fit the piston, adding another £12 on, so the kit I linked to above seems pretty good value with a range of adaptors included.

I have one that came from the local motor factors. Laser, came with all the parts for VW calipers and cost about £15-£20. The full kit that will do every car ever is better value over your life though.

I've got the same brakes as the A6 on my Skoda, and can tell you that after 10 years, the rear pistons do not want to go back into the caliper easily.
I've tried the g-clamp with pliers and wrenches with no luck at all.
I spent an hour on one side without budging it, so have just ordered a wind-back kit from ebay:

Mine rotated with ease, but they were wound back two years ago. The first time, they proved stubborn.

The pads aren't worn out this time, but the disc is badly scored and there's a significant portion of the disc's surface which doesn't appear to be contacting at all. This is probably due to the infrequent use, the short journeys I make and the light braking I subject the car to. 10 years and 76k miles is a good innings for a set of discs.

I'm replacing both discs and pads so I don't wreck the new discs.

The said discs arrived. Went to fit them today. Got the front caliper off but with some bother – the bolts were rusted firm.

Fitted the new disc after getting the old one off, which was also was rusted on firm. Then noticed what looked like helicoils on the bolts, argh!!! Now waiting for a helicoil kit!

Will be tackling the other three discs to see what surprizes they throw up too.

Trouble is that I need to have the brakes working even with the car out of action, or else the car will roll away!

Much easier to take your car to a garage. With cars, I forgot how a simple job is always becomes more complicated due to decay and corrosion.

It's tough luck being skint! The price you pay for being one of the car owning minority! 😈

The other caliper bolts aren't 8mm as suggested previously, they are 7mm (or close to that). A size you can't easily buy.

This odd size was surely created to discourage owners tackling the simple job of changing disc pads.

Not a problem if you have a bench grinder and plenty of old allen keys!

7mm fairly common A/K size stocked in car factors / parts shops

There is no conspiracy, you can quite easily get hold of 7mm allen keys. I've got a set of 3/8th drive allen bits that run from something like 2-3mm to 12 or so.

alanl – Member

Care to give a link for that?
I've searched for hours to find the tool, yes there is a tool from Laser for £15 ish, but you then need to buy the adaptor to fit the piston, adding another £12 on, so the kit I linked to above seems pretty good value with a range of adaptors included.

The GSF caliper rewind tool for VW/Audi is:

987AA1000 CALIPER REWIND TOOL GENERAL USE*** 18.00

I wouldn't think you'd need to buy an adapter anyway. I used my VAG one on a Toyota by using the old brake pad to push against as it didn't matter that the tool scratched it a bit.

Whereabouts are you based? Got a wind back tool that you could borrow if you're close enough??

I'm based in Suffolk BTW

Would happily give you some advice but would need to look at the job in hand rather than throw blind darts…

Email in profile if required.

Another wind back tool in Brum/Stafford area if you need

And a 7mm allen key

Thanks for your kind offers to loan me your wind back tools, but I was able to easily wind the rear pistons back in with central heating pump pliers and a woodworking clamp.

The rear discs replacement took about 15 minutes each – a doddle! I didn't need to remove the caliper mounting bracket as I discovered that the discs would come on and off while the brackets were still in situ. Good job, given that the allen bolts holding them on were stuck fast (rusted in permanently). There was no way i could have got any leverage on them without getting the car on a ramp, or using air tools, so that was lucky.

Also did the other front caliper. The caliper mounting bracket bolts which fix into the wishbone came undone with comparitive ease this time, no thread stripping, no drama. That disc and pad swap was a doddle too.

If only the other front disc had been so straightforward. I wonder why both the offside bolts were corroded and fused whilst the nearside one's weren't. Weird!

So i'm now just waiting for the M12 helicoil kit to arrive tomorrow and hopefully within an hour, i'll be testing out these new disc brakes and pads.

£25 a corner ain't too bad.

According to the "Mr Clutch" ad. on this page, i've saved £200 and a trip to a garage.

M12 Helicoil kit?? Diameter of bolt size sounds right but have you ordered the right pitch thread? Caliper bolts are usually fine thread to allow a stronger/tighter fitting. I presume you took the bolt with you to ensure 'they' ordered the right helicoil kit?

Brakes may feel 'spongy' (sorry best word I could think of) for a few miles until the pads have bedded in a little, especially as you have changed all four corners.

Yep Sunday Wobbler, the helicoil kit has a slightly longer thread pitch 1.75 as opposed to 1.5. The helicoils went in fine, but after the first tap decided to fracture under the lightest of loads! The air then turned blue for a minute or so. A quick phone call later resulted in the supplier sending me out a replacement immediately (and FOC), which was impressive! This one worked fine.

I had to get new bolts which are now Loctited in and with spring washers. I did them up with a socket and a 3ft steel pipe for added leverage, but with nowhere near the close to shearing force that was required to get the rusted in originals out. These bolts ain't now goin anywhere, but if i'd realized that the pitch was shallower on the original bolts, i'd have tried to get the appropriate helicoil kit. You live and you learn! I plan to have the wheel off in a few days to check the bolts etc.

The new discs are now bedding in, but are lovely and smooth. The old ones were heavily scored and a significant portion of some of the discs were pitted and uneven. The noise they made when braking was pretty unpleasant too, but they worked ok. The car passed it's MOT today which was a relief and without these new discs, i'm sure it would have been a fail.

Job done! 😀

Thanks for all the advice and offers of help!