Today I replaced front and rear rotors and pads on a mates 2011 T5 , imagine my surprise when I found another of VW,s cost cutting measures they no longer have the pad wear sensors fitted . The new pads came with the sensors but nowhere to plug them in I thought that it was a standard safety warning system .Oh I know it,s another way for VW dealers to make money from customers who would not be able to check the brake wear for themselves . So I would imagine there would be a few cases of brakes being worn down to the metal {dangerous} and not getting a visual warning on the dashboard .
The up side was I now have managed to do the job with less swearing and time as I discovered a neat trick to retracting the rear pistons for the new pads . I already had a special socket that I modified to fit into the two notches of the rear pistons , so instead of wrestling with the caliper in hand and struggling to get the piston back I worked out a simple work around . After removing the caliper remove the disc rotor and old pads then refit the caliper back on the axle part you only need to do the bolts up finger tight , without the pads and disc rotors in the way you can use the special socket on an extension bar and just easily wind the piston back in without the frustration of holding and trying to push and wind at the same time worked a treat !!.
The up side was I now have managed to do the job with less swearing and time as I discovered a neat trick to retracting the rear pistons for the new pads . I already had a special socket that I modified to fit into the two notches of the rear pistons , so instead of wrestling with the caliper in hand and struggling to get the piston back I worked out a simple work around . After removing the caliper remove the disc rotor and old pads then refit the caliper back on the axle part you only need to do the bolts up finger tight , without the pads and disc rotors in the way you can use the special socket on an extension bar and just easily wind the piston back in without the frustration of holding and trying to push and wind at the same time worked a treat !!.
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