A4 B8 rear brake pads, how too?

[tedward]

The rear pads need doing on my 58 plate A4 but the pesky electric handbrake is making it look nigh on impossible for a d.i.y,er .

Can anyone recommend a link to a how too without using the plug in caliper re-set gizmo or am i going to have to stump up at a garage?

There is a gunsons re set tool on e bay which might be worth a go?
Gunson Electronic Park Brake Reset Tool | eBay

thanks.

 

[Daggerit]

Look for someone near you with a VCDS. As far as I'm aware this is the only way of retracting the caliper to allow for a pad change unfortunately...

 

[NHN]

You not considered buying vcds for both your cars, then its money gone towards a single tool to do many jobs

 

[dieseldoos]

You can do it without VCDS allthough its better if you have it.

If your confident you can use use a 12v car battery to retract the pistons.


The electromechanical parking brake is a 12-volt motor that engages and retracts the rear brakes.

To retract the rear wheel parking brake, you will need access to a 12-volt battery and two jumper wires. One of the jumper wires should have an insulated clip on the end so you do not short-circuit the wires.
When you are looking at the caliper you will see the brake line and electric wire/connector going to the rear caliper.
Disconnect the electric connector from the caliper. Inside the connector on the caliper side you will see two medal pins sticking up. Connect the two jumper wires to the 12 volt battery.
Take the negative wire jumper and connect it to one of the pins on the caliper. Then take the positive wire and touch the other pin without touching the other jumper wire and causing a short.
If the caliper piston starts to push out, stop!, reverse the jumper wires. You should hear the parking brake retract and the piston not move.
Continue until the caliper piston starts to spin, stop! Now push the caliper piston back in with a brake tool, c-clamp, etc. Replace pads as you would normally. After all the brakes have been replaced. Pump brake pedal until you have a firm pedal. Check the brake fluid. Then turn on and off the electromechanical parking brake a few times and you should be good to go. Very simple!

 

[tedward]

Now that's what I'm talking about, there's always a way! Spare battery in the garage and plenty of wire about, pads ordered.....sorted.

Some local jockey wanted to charge me £50 to connect the laptop to rewind the pistons and £47 to fit the pads?..no thanks.

You can do it without VCDS allthough its better if you have it.

If your confident you can use use a 12v car battery to retract the pistons.


The electromechanical parking brake is a 12-volt motor that engages and retracts the rear brakes.

To retract the rear wheel parking brake, you will need access to a 12-volt battery and two jumper wires. One of the jumper wires should have an insulated clip on the end so you do not short-circuit the wires.
When you are looking at the caliper you will see the brake line and electric wire/connector going to the rear caliper.
Disconnect the electric connector from the caliper. Inside the connector on the caliper side you will see two medal pins sticking up. Connect the two jumper wires to the 12 volt battery.
Take the negative wire jumper and connect it to one of the pins on the caliper. Then take the positive wire and touch the other pin without touching the other jumper wire and causing a short.
If the caliper piston starts to push out, stop!, reverse the jumper wires. You should hear the parking brake retract and the piston not move.
Continue until the caliper piston starts to spin, stop! Now push the caliper piston back in with a brake tool, c-clamp, etc. Replace pads as you would normally. After all the brakes have been replaced. Pump brake pedal until you have a firm pedal. Check the brake fluid. Then turn on and off the electromechanical parking brake a few times and you should be good to go. Very simple!

 

[Zafi]

Just bumping this as someone was asking about how to do it. Thanks for the battery tip, dieseldoos

 

[RS5 JON]

You can do it without VCDS allthough its better if you have it.

If your confident you can use use a 12v car battery to retract the pistons.


The electromechanical parking brake is a 12-volt motor that engages and retracts the rear brakes.

To retract the rear wheel parking brake, you will need access to a 12-volt battery and two jumper wires. One of the jumper wires should have an insulated clip on the end so you do not short-circuit the wires.
When you are looking at the caliper you will see the brake line and electric wire/connector going to the rear caliper.
Disconnect the electric connector from the caliper. Inside the connector on the caliper side you will see two medal pins sticking up. Connect the two jumper wires to the 12 volt battery.
Take the negative wire jumper and connect it to one of the pins on the caliper. Then take the positive wire and touch the other pin without touching the other jumper wire and causing a short.
If the caliper piston starts to push out, stop!, reverse the jumper wires. You should hear the parking brake retract and the piston not move.
Continue until the caliper piston starts to spin, stop! Now push the caliper piston back in with a brake tool, c-clamp, etc. Replace pads as you would normally. After all the brakes have been replaced. Pump brake pedal until you have a firm pedal. Check the brake fluid. Then turn on and off the electromechanical parking brake a few times and you should be good to go. Very simple!

New I had read this somewhere, top work dieseldoos.

 

[Fwings]

The rear pads need doing on my 58 plate A4 but the pesky electric handbrake is making it look nigh on impossible for a d.i.y,er .

Can anyone recommend a link to a how too without using the plug in caliper re-set gizmo or am i going to have to stump up at a garage?

There is a gunsons re set tool on e bay which might be worth a go?
Gunson Electronic Park Brake Reset Tool | eBay

thanks.

Hi Just changed my discs and pads for EBC with green stuff pads un plug the plugs on the calipers and connect a 12v battery to the pins the hand brake will wind back all the way until the piston starts to spin push the piston back assemble pump the brakes use the hand brake ....job done no labour cost at all and no computer

 

[audimaniac312]

This is the cheapest only tool that will get it retracted besides that vag com. It’s a scanner made by autel. You click on the EPB setting pick euorpean, vw , special functions, then deactivate brake, it will rewind the brake piston, turn ignition off. Then you change the brakes as normal. When finished go back to the scanner, same thing and this time activate the brakes instead of deactivate on the scanner. The 12 volt method can cause damage to the ecm http://amzn.to/2x6eHdJ

 

[desertstorm]

It is possible to damage the caliper using a battery. The module that drives the motor on the caliper provides a 12V current limited feed to the motor. You can actually monitor the amount of current that the caliper motor is drawing.
This is how the module knows the position of the motor. As the brake pad contacts the disc and starts applying pressure the motor takes more current to the point where it nearly stalls.
The module will cut the power off before the motor stalls to avoid damage to the mechanism and the motor itself.
Driving the motor off a 12V battery you have no current limiter, especially if the battery is a large 12v car item.
Using a small capacity 12v battery such as a 12V SLA alarm battery around 2.3A would reduce the chances of any issues as the peak current available from a smaller battery is a lot less.

http://pmmonline.co.uk/technical/how-electric-parking-brakes-epb-work-part-3-service-and-diagnosis/

 

[xpoweruk]

Have you thought about Carista ? Has some coding functionality

 

[forty3]

Carista has an option for operating the handbrake and I'll be using it tomorrow so hopefully it works!

 

[jakm15]

The motor is held on to the calliper with 2 torx bolts.

Remove the two torx bolts then the electric motor will separate off the calliper, you then will be able to see a torx gear that the motor engages into. Wind this clockwise until it stops, you can then fully depress the calliper piston with a g clamp or similar.

Refit the electric motor, fit the new pads, re fit the calliper, wheel back on.

Job done.

There are several videos on YouTube as a how to.

 

[ianv5]

I used carista, nice and easy.

 

[Liber_A4_te]

Carrista all the way. Get a cheap Obd2 scanner, download carrista, use it to retract the handbrake. You will need to subscribe but it's only £7 for the week. Easiest start way if you don't have VAGCOM

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

 

[lanrceds]

Putting the electronic rear parking brake into service mode using an Xtool VAG401.

 

[lanrceds]

I purchased this from https://www.xtool.co.uk/wholesale/xtool-v401-vwaudiseatskoda-professional-tool.html specifically to change the rear brakes on 2010 Audi A5 。 The car has an electronic parking brake and as such the caliper piston needs to be recessed via an electronic signal otherwise you will not get those bad boys off without risking damage to the calipers (which cost ~$600 each). It recessed the caliper pistons just fine. When attempting to extend them though, it took a try or two, but that was due to a learning curve on my end. The 5 star rating heavily takes into consideration the price of this product; I have seen much more expensive devices have very detailed instructions in their menus, but for this price and its performance, it is a winning combination.
My procedure:

• Connect a battery charger to the car. Turn the ignition on but don't start the car. Plug the Xtool into the OBDII slot and select Diagnose.
• Select Special Function
• Scroll down until you see Brake Pad Replacement. Select Brake Pad Replacement.
• selected Other Models.
• Select Replacement of Brake Pads
• At this point you want to press the parking brake button down to release the rear brakes. Then press enter.
• You will start to hear the electronic parking brake motor start to back out.
• The light on the parking brake button will slowly flash, and the "brake" light on the cluster will slowly flash as well. Now you're ready to replace your brake pads!
• I wedged a flathead screw driver in between the brake piston and the old brake pad and leveraged the piston back into the caliper.
• I used a 13mm socket for the back bolt, and a 15mm box wrench to hold the nut down.
• Replace the old brake pads with the new ones.
• Reverse the steps that you took to remove the pads and reinstall the caliper. Check everything and put the wheels back on.
• Now go back to the Xtool. The screen is still displaying the old message of replace the rear the pads for the two rear wheels. Just hit enter on the Xtool. The electronic brake is moving back into position.
• When the electronic brake stops, the Xtool will say "Replace brake pad success". The brakes are still not applied. The motorized piston just pushes back out until it reaches the new pads.
• I turned the ignition off, then back on/started the car. I exited all menus on the Xtool, then I lifted the parking brake button to activate the electronic rear parking brake. Success!