Rear Pads Change Golf Mk7

[Burnerman]

Those spline bolts are ferociously tight and also have a locking compound applied.....I use a Sykes Pickavant bit hammered in, and heat the bolts up first.
You really mustn’t damage the heads on these
John

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes. Remove the wiring plug and the two bolts that hold the electronic parking brake on from the rear of the calliper. You can then, with a socket or even your fingers, screw the handbrake spindle in clockwise, as far as it will go and then just push the piston back in the normal way. I have the tool to do it electronically but I just did it the way I described when I changed the pads and discs on our A3 because I’d lent the tool to a mate. You don’t need to reset anything, just put the handbrake on when you’re finished and it resets itself. You can do that with most epb's.

View attachment 230913

@Mottie OK so I have to change the rear pads which I am going to do this time, being a bit paranoid and before I committed to buying the pads I did a dummy run through as wanted to double check everything and measure the pads so I can ensure I get the right ones, all went OK as per your instructions above.

But when I pushed the wiring plug back on I didn't get feel any kind of click, it seems to be well on there but would have been more comforting to feel it click on. Secondly when I went to turn the hand brake back on it duly whirled its way to reset itself but I then got a handbrake error on the dash so I turned off the ignition and back on and did the handbrake again and it seems to have righted itself, I guess it was just throwing a tantrum, possibly because it had the old pads still in? Last thing when I turned the spindle as above I used my fingers and some of the grease came off, what would be an appropriate grease to splodge on there? I alredy have some copper grease before anyone asks.

 

[Mottie]

Sometimes you do have switch off and back on again. Sometimes you have to drive the car a few yards to clear warnings. I wouldn’t worry too much about the grease that came off of the splines it would only be excess grease anyway. Sounds like you did everything right on your dummy run though so just get those new pads on now.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes have been for a test run and all seems OK.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Job completed, all working fine again, I did struggle with the bolts, I had a 7mm 1/4" drive allen bit and ratchet, didn't help that my short extension has gone missing but got there in the end I can see a simple allen bit and ratchet spanner would make the job much less awkward.

On the OS the wiring connector properly clicked back on, whereas just as on my dummy run it didn't click on the NS, so seems just friction is holding it on, guess we'll see if that's a problem and it comes loose. I also noticed that on both sides the protective rubber sleeve around the brake line was split - could that be an MOT issue if spotted? I wouldn't have thought so, the brake line itself was fine.