Front pads & Steering rack gaitor replacement....

[DEL VR6 0]

Hi folks...

 

The VR6 (expectedely) failed the MOT this morning for two reasons:

 

Front pads too low

 

Steering Rack Gaitor is split.

 

I have a friend who is a reasonably competent mechanic but i only like to give him "general" type work like pads / discs replacement etc.

 

Is the steering rack gaitor a big job to replace and are there any other parts worth replacing in that area while the job is being done? And do i have to source the parts from VW main stealers for this job?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Del.

[Supercharged 2]

Pads are an hours work and probably about the same for the gaiter althoug in therory you should save time doing both together... not hard but a fiddle if you're not on a ramp.

 

You need the gaiter, clips and probably best to buy a new track rod end as well for that side - get these from VW and the gaiters are plastic rather than rubber so last the 'lifetime' of the car rather than just a couple of years.

 

Pads must have been low to fail an MOT!

[DEL VR6 0]

thanks for the quick reply Supercharged.

 

Rang the dealers and have been told:

 

Gaitor £18.94

 

Track rod end £18.73

 

Clips: Inside (larger one): £2.63, outer £1.54

 

all plus vat. Do those prices aound about right?

 

PS, for someone that does a lot of the work myself on my cars, i know its a daft thing to ask but i have never done brake pads myself before on any of my cars. What does it entail to swap the front pads? Take it its just clips and bolts, no?

[Jim 2]

Yeah - really easy. Wheel off, remove caliper from the carrier, remove old pads and put new ones in! Put copper slip on the backs of the pads to stop em squeaking, and renew the caliper to carrier bolts (cost like £1 from Halfords). Easy job even for someone as useless with a spanner as me! :)

[DEL VR6 0]

Yeah - really easy. Wheel off, remove caliper from the carrier, remove old pads and put new ones in! Put copper slip on the backs of the pads to stop em squeaking, and renew the caliper to carrier bolts (cost like £1 from Halfords). Easy job even for someone as useless with a spanner as me! :)

 

Nice one Jimbo...

 

you make it sound so easy! At no point have you mentioned cutting your knuckles / getting pissed off with jammed / tight bolts etc. anyway, a few questions....

 

remove caliper from the carrier

Is this two bolts around the back of the caliper? (Guessing 13 or 15mm jobies?)

 

remove old pads and put new ones in!

Is this the stage where there are like tensioned and shaped thickish wire steel clips which clips the pads into place?

 

Put copper slip on the backs of the pads to stop em squeaking

Do i have to compress the caliper back in during / after the pads are installed?

 

and renew the caliper to carrier bolts

Is that mainly cos the current ones will be all rusty and old / worn? or just cos they will be too old / knackered to go back in?

[Jim 2]

Yeah - there are two bolts holding the calliper onto the carrier.

 

Is this the stage where there are like tensioned and shaped thickish wire steel clips which clips the pads into place?

 

The springs on the pad need to sit properly into the caliper - just look at the existing ones for how they need to sit. It's fairly explanatory :)

 

Do i have to compress the caliper back in during / after the pads are installed?

 

Yeah - best thing to do on the fronts is get the lid off the brake fluid resevoir first and have someone standing by to suck some brake fluid out (using a turkey baster or something) and with the old pads still in place, stick a spanner into the caliper and just lever the pistons apart. They shouldn't put up too much fight, but as I say the fluid will rise so you need to be ready to take some out.

 

Is that mainly cos the current ones will be all rusty and old / worn? or just cos they will be too old / knackered to go back in?

 

I think the bolts are threadlocked - so no point in buying threadlock just for this - just buy the bolts with it already on. But also as you say, they could be old / worn / rusty. For the sake of £1, given that it's on the front brakes, I'd change em regardless! :)

[DEL VR6 0]

probably best to buy a new track rod end as well for that side - get these from VW and the gaiters are plastic rather than rubber so last the 'lifetime' of the car rather than just a couple of years.

Supercharged, hope you dont mind me asking, can you elabotrate / educate me about why you say about the track rod end? Do they get worn / knackered with age too? Reason i ask is cos my mate who is going to do it for me reckons it's not worth changing it. (them)

 

Also, he said to do both gaitors rather than just the one on the basis that if one has gone, the other might be near to going and with car having done 114'000 miles now, prob best to do both for peace of mind etc.

 

 

Pads must have been low to fail an MOT!

I just looked back at the MOT fail sheet. The pads were not a fail, just an advisory but verbally, he did say he strongly advises it while the wheels are off etc

[DEL VR6 0]

i have a seperate question to do with the front brake pads and a "wire"....

 

The pads dont have anything to do with the ABS sensors do they?

 

Reason i ask is that the guy at Parkers asked if my pads have a wire on them that is connected to the dash and related to the warning light. I assume he meant incase the dashboard has a light / warning indicator to say that the pads are low, as opposed to anything to do with the ABS warning light?

[Jim 2]

I didn't think any Corrado's had brake pad wear indicators on them.....?

[Supercharged 2]

No UK Corrado's had wear indicators.

[DEL VR6 0]

No UK Corrado's had wear indicators.

So the guy at Parkers is either talking shite or confusing the wire with an abs sensor?

[KIPVW 0]

Not as such Del as some brands do have a wear indicator wire on so i guess he's confusing it with that. The ABS on a Corrado has a sensor on the hub housing the bit the strut is fixed to and a ring attached behind the disc which is kind of read by the sensor and makes the abs work when it begins to skid.

 

Hope that helps, I like doing brakes, very thereputic :lol:

 

Hope to see you at BVF for a chat :wave:

[Supercharged 2]

No UK Corrado's had wear indicators.

So the guy at Parkers is either talking **** or confusing the wire with an abs sensor?

 

Never heard of Parkers mate? if they have the indicators then you can just chop them off but you will probably pay more for them... best to get them from somewhere who has the correct data for the car tbh...

 

As you're mate says it's maybe best to do them both or at least buy a pair - makes sense as he will have to re-do the tracking.

 

I would buy both track rod ends too if they are original, bound to be passed there best at over 100k miles and the reason I said to get one anyway is the boots often split when you take them off and you also need to use a new nut everytime, if he uses the proper Sykes tool he should be ok but if it's coming off the car you might as well stick a new one back on.

 

As always with this sort of stuff it's a case of how far do you go with it... for instance you could change both track rods for another £50 or so (new ones come with the ends) but then you could also rebuild the whole front end for £500ish...

[DEL VR6 0]

No UK Corrado's had wear indicators.

So the guy at Parkers is either talking **** or confusing the wire with an abs sensor?

 

Never heard of Parkers mate? if they have the indicators then you can just chop them off but you will probably pay more for them... best to get them from somewhere who has the correct data for the car tbh...

 

As you're mate says it's maybe best to do them both or at least buy a pair - makes sense as he will have to re-do the tracking.

 

I would buy both track rod ends too if they are original, bound to be passed there best at over 100k miles and the reason I said to get one anyway is the boots often split when you take them off and you also need to use a new nut everytime, if he uses the proper Sykes tool he should be ok but if it's coming off the car you might as well stick a new one back on.

 

As always with this sort of stuff it's a case of how far do you go with it... for instance you could change both track rods for another £50 or so (new ones come with the ends) but then you could also rebuild the whole front end for £500ish...

 

Thanks for the answer. Just the sort of reply i was hoping for.

 

Have just phoned GSF car parts to ask about the same parts. They only have the track rod ends, at a price of £8.90 each +VAT For that kind of price, i think it IS well worth doing them at the same time as long the new parts are of equal quality to the originals. Surely a part like this is fairly standard right, regardless of whether it comes from VAG or GSF?

 

ps, Parkers are a motor factors based in midlands. The guy did give me two prices. One for "with wire" and one without and as you said, the without wire pads were cheaper.