Macallan21

I was just looking at ECS Tuning for pads/rotors on the front and it's $226 + $124.

Anyone have an opinion about the Duralast pads and rotors from Autozone? They come with all the spare hardware and are about 40% of the price.

Local, good, tire-brake shop was recommending ceramic pads.

Moviela

Duralast is the Autozone house brand. They are worth every penny they ask for them.

Head over to Pelican Parts. Textar pads with bolts and sensor is a good choice and saves a few dollars. The Ate coated rotors are as good as the OEM rotors. Meyle is also a good brand. Pelican ships same day, and free shipping with $75+.

Macallan21

Moviela, thanks.

What do you think of the Textar versus Bosch? Pelican has them for a few dollars more.

I've been thinking about doing the fronts myself. I watched a youtube vide of a B7 brake job and the work looks pretty easy. But it didn't have a good parts or tool list.

Moviela

Bosch is a great company. It is a charity you know, it is owned by Sisters of a religious order. All the profits benefit the needy. They are very strong in automotive electrics, sensors, spark plugs, modules, fuel management products, alternators, starters and the like.

They do have an aftermarket division that sells to auto parts stores. Selling gasoline engine management parts is not a huge aftermarket business. In order to have a broad product line they sell things like oil filters, air filters, brake pads and rotors, fuel filters, batteries, & wiper blades. I have used air filters from Bosch, but in the box is a Mann+Hummel or Hengst filter. I suspect their brake products are the same, made by someone else.

Textar has been a favorite of Europeans for decades for Porsche and BMW cars. I have used the pads and found them to be identical to OEM.

The front brakes are easy compared to the rear. The only special tool needed is a parallel jaw piston resetting tool. ATE makes one. The ATE part number is 03-9314-4950-3. Resist the advice to use a scissor device or lever with a screwdriver or wood block. If you cant the piston in the caliper get out your checkbook for a new one.

http://www.ottocarparts.com/shop/car...14-4950-3.html

Make sure that there is enough room in the brake fluid tank so it does not overflow when pushing pistons back. Sometimes I open the bleed valve and just discard that dirty fluid while pushing back.

The sensor wiring routing is very important. Take a picture before starting and lay the new wire exactly as shown.

Clean the surface where the rotor meets the hub with a wire brush. The rotor wants sit flat as **** on a plate.

Do use a quality torque wrench on all bolts.

The anti-rattle spring can be installed with the palm of your hand.

Macallan21

Moviela, so that 150 Euro tool is needed for the fronts as well.. hmm.

gunsmoker

You don't need any piston retracting tool for the fronts. Just open the brake fluid tank and push the old pad back to retract the cylinder. It moves slowly but it does. I have never needed any clamp for that on any of the cars I have worked on and I can't say I have very strong hands. The key is to open the tank.

Moviela is right about the sensor on the front left side. You need to pay attention especially if you are not replacing it. Last week when I upgraded to S4-size rotors I did not change the pads and I was looking to reuse the sensor. It came off easily but I had a hard time putting it back in, because I had not noticed where exactly the clip needs to be. I ended up pushing it too hard and damaging it so I had to order one. It's obvious from the picture at ECS tuning that the clip needs to be in the groove, not next to it the way I tried to stick it in. It's also tricky to get the other end out of the bracket that is bolted to the hub housing. There is a spike that has a little pin which fits into a hole in the bracket to prevent the sensor connector from slipping off the bracket. You need to push that out of the hole or break it off if you are not going to reuse the old sensor. Then you need to turn the connector 90 degrees to be able to get it out of the bracket - the hole is elliptical.

There are other things that can give you a hard time.
The wheels were stuck on the hubs in my case and I had to use a lot of anti-seize and beat on the inside through a piece of wood.
The the rotors were stuck on the hub. You need a bolt roughly the size of the carrier bolt but a little longer and a nut and a washer for it to be able to pop the rotors out using one of the carrier holes.
Trust me, I tried with a hammer and anti-seize for a few minutes, and then I gave up and went to Home Depot to get such a bolt.
For cleaning the hub I wouldn't risk just using a wire brush. I have been burned by that and have had a rotor run-out in the past because that. I first use Navy Jelly to get rid of the rust as much as possible and then I sand the hub carefully until it's smooth to the touch.
Audi recommends changing the carrier bolts. You can buy them from ECS tuning for example.

Another thing was that the pads were glued to the piston and the caliper. The one on the piston side didn't put much of a fight, but the other did. There are two grooves in the caliper that go behind the pad. You can see their openings on the edge. I inserted two small screwdrivers there and pried the pad off. The hole on the front side where the anti-rattle spring attaches wasn't helpful. I didn't use any adhesive when I put the things back together because no one had mentioned that in the DIYs and I have no rattle regardless.

I haven't done the rear brakes yet.

Never had stuck wheels on a car before, but on this one I don't rotate the tires and it has 30k miles on it. I don't think the dealer took the front wheels off when they changed the brake fluid 6 months ago. They did mention that the rear wheels were stick to the rotors and they put anti-seize on them.
My new front rotors have painted aluminum hats so hopefully that will prevent such a problem in the future. I did put anti-seize on them though.

Moviela

There are other brands and styles in the market, but the ATE tool is specified. The important thing is that the spreader parts remain parallel. My friends at Cardone tell me they toss lots of calipers because the bore was damaged by the piston.

The rear requires a tool that plugs into the OBDII connector to retract the piston electrically. The tool is also needed to reset the pads after replacement on the rear. There is a control module for the EPB (electric parking brake) and the module needs to be programmed for the new pads. It has to be done in a specific order, with wait times between steps to avoid bricking the module.

bestoverall

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The picture above is the back of the caliper showing the bolts.
Can someone confirm if I need to remove the regular bolt (one with some rust) or the two torx bolts to remove the caliper? When I removed the regular bolts only, the caliper wouldn't budge. Should I remove the torx bolts as well or do I need to bang the caliper loose?

jfo

Yes, you only need to remove the 2 caliper slider bolts. They have the rubber boot. You may need to pry the caliper a bit to break it loose. Try a screwdriver between the caliper and caliper carrier, from the outside of the car. I assume you have already removed the retainer spring.

gunsmoker

You need to remove the anti-rattle spring on the front to make it easier to remove the caliper. Then open the brake fluid tank and pull the caliper hard towards you for 15 seconds or so to retract the piston a little bit so that the pads can clear the edge of the rotor.