Volkswagen Brakes....

[scheides]

...make me sad.



Tonight I broke:
-one bleeder valve (stripped)
-my birthday vice from kracka & rosey
-my brake caliper spreader tool (not the cheap one, the special one for brakes like on vw)
-my faith in german over-engineering

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

wow, your vice broke? that's pretty crazy! I lost my faith in German over-engineering the first time I ever worked on a German car.

[4seasons69]

aww man that sucks! those spreader tools break all the time. a couple guys who work at the shop I do have them and both of theirs have broken but they were able to get them warrantied. get a really big channel lock pliers it's never failed on me for spreading calipers yet. (unless they are the kind that the piston has to screw back into the caliper )

[jhaan_dude]

ok sheides, you do realize you need to turn the calipers to get them in? thats why your vice broke. they twist in, they dont just press in. great design, they never seize or jam up over time. best of luck to you!

[Kracka]

Wow...WTF!

[rose0529]

wow thats crazy!

[A//// Guy]

Originally Posted by jhaan_dude

ok sheides, you do realize you need to turn the calipers to get them in? thats why your vice broke. they twist in, they dont just press in. great design, they never seize or jam up over time. best of luck to you!

Yep. lol Scheides you newb, you have to turn them!

And that vice must have been a cheapy. haha carnage

[scheides]

I was turning them, like I said, I had the right tools and everything. The vice was a last ditch effort, sometimes if you turn them then crank on them you can get them to compress. I ended up using a small screwdriver in the pin hole that had a dowel pin in it (or whatever its called) and doing 1/2 turn at a time and getting it to compress....but not after completely disassembling the caliper from the car, ebrake assembly, secondary fluid lines, etc...basically it was a wh0re of a job, but eventually I got it done and everything back together, save for one trashed bleeder valve. The thing was completely seized in the caliper, I'm lucky I got it out.

[cmspaz]

Wow, sucks dude.

I thought that was a pretty good vice, too, considering how well it held up to you, me, Rosey, and that pile of shit o2 housing of mine.

[jhaan_dude]

i usually use a hand grinder tool for removing the discs

[blageo23]

I realize you are probably done with this but What ive done with those is use the regular caliper compressor and put some pressure on it then use a chanel locks and turn it. then tighten the compressor and continue turning. Thats when you dont have the right tools tho. Bought the tool but havent had to do them yet.

[scheides]

Good idea! I'll try this next time. Half the problem is the caliper is just floating mid-air, so you cannot crank on it to get the piston to go in (for fear or breaking ebrake cable or brake fluid line....but you have to or it just won't go in!

[A//// Guy]

Scheides, were you just trying to get it to go back in to reinstall pads or were you trying to get the piston out for a rebuild?

If doing a rebuild, did you try blowing the piston out with compressed air? Put it in a vice and put a block of wood between the other side of the caliper so piston hits the wood as it pops out. This is the method ive always used for rebuilding a caliper. On my old motorcycle restore, I had to pump out the piston with a grease gun though. Much higher pressures there.

[scheides]

Rebuild, hah, the car only has 51k miles on it; this is Anna's GLI

Just trying to install a new set of Girodisc Magic pads and fresh fluid; sometimes I amaze myself at how bad at this shiz I am.

[A//// Guy]

Haha yea I was wondering why youd be doing a rebuild on that car. That sucks it gave you that much trouble. I never had any major issues on my M3 or my old audi, the brakes were pie.

[Constant_Project21]

I didn't even have this much trouble compressing the rusty calipers on my gsx..haha. I used a big vice grip clamp, and had someone tighten it, and spun it down with a channel lock.

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

Whoever designed this type of caliper should have been shot in the face. Worst design ever.

[awd-drifter]

damn that is crazy. lol. that caliper looks funny.

[scheides]

Found a bleeder valve at napa that fit! VW couldn't get one in until friday. Got brakes mostly bled but then ran out of fresh fluid so the brake pedal feels mushy, but the car is semi-driveable. I'm going to grab more fluid at MAP today on the way home (ATE SuperBlue), re-bleed, then rock and roll.

[A//// Guy]

Nice, how are those pads compared to stock? Mine create tons of dust, and they dont bite quite as hard as I like. Might have to replace them with something a bit more bite.