1984cgtturbo

I did the brakes on my 4KCSQ this week. Nothing fancy - Brembos rotors out front, ATE in the rear (stock sizes) w/Mintex pads. Really a relatively easy job all things considered. Had to buy a 12mm allen wrench to compress the rear brake pistons but otherwise no real difficulty.

One thing I noticed however was that the inner pads on both sides of the rear were worn quiet a bit more than any other pad. The fronts seemed to be wearing uniformly (with maybe a 1/4 inch of material left), and the rear outers seemed to have as much left on them as the fronts did. But the rear inners were maybe 1/8 inch thick.

I checked and lubricated the guide pins on the brakes (no problems noted) so anyone have any reason that they may have worn this way? Or is this a normal occurance?

TIA,
J.

cgtdenmark

inner was much more worn than outer.

My guide pins really needed clean/lube, so i was of the opinon that this was the cause of my uneven pad wear.

Still kicking my self for being too lazy to take them apart a little ealier :-(

SoCalCoupe

same uneven wear here, guide pins on my car were quite dry when I changed out front pads and rotors

Yow-di!

... Been fighting with the brakes on my daughter's A4Q for two weeks now, today's the first day I've been able to spend some quality time with it.

After a week of letting Liquid Wrench do its work to allow me to finally knock the left rear rotor off I found that I couldn't move the pistons in. Either side. With any of three pin-type 3/8" attachments that I bought. Yes the brake fluid reservoir cap was loosened, the parking brakes were off, I even put some negative pressure on the bleeder screw with a hand pump.

Giving up and coming home I searched AW's A4-B5 forum and I guess the solution is a bigger hammer in the form of a tool that applies pressure while turning the piston. AutoZone is holding one for me to borrow tomorrow so I'm hoping it'll do the trick.

Reading your post I checked some pics of your calipers. Simple 12mm hex in the center. Do you have to apply massive pressure while turning as the A4 apparently requires?

Maybe this A4Q is a solid and fun drive but when it comes time to work on it I prefer my 4KS any day...

1984cgtturbo

No massive pressure required, I have the compression tool which worked fine on the fronts. The rears did require a 12mm allen wrench, but went in pretty easily.

J.

Yow-di!

Maybe then there are some internal differences as well between earlier Types and the B5. After installing the AutoZone tool I had to give the jam nut some impressive pressure to get the piston started, but within a minute I had the piston retracted fully. Jeez I love it when things go that well! I leaned on that piston with a keyed-tool and a ratchet as hard as I could for hours yesterday and it wouldn't bite.

From the talk about the subject on the A4/B5 Forum it's a common hurdle. You guys with the 12mm hex pistons should consider yourselves fortunate I guess, if they retract that easily!

My mechanical curiosity has me wanting to take the calipers apart now since I have no idea what's going on in there to have caused me so much anxzt...

Jretal

you can do the a4 rear calipers w/ a small pipe wrench, needle nose pliers and a large C-clamp.

You get the piston turning w/ the pipe wrench, then spin it a few more times to make sure it's all free and loosey goosey, then put the C clamp on. You put the fixed part of the c-clamp on the back of the caliper and then put the rotating spindle on the piston itself. As you turn the c-clamp, it's enough turning movement and pressure to turn the piston into the caliper. Also, you can use the pipe wrench to turn it a little bit if it's not turning enough via the c-clamp.

They're a PITA, but once you figure out the trick it's a breeze. I did the same procedure on my brother's old CQ. Glad you figured it out though, I can relate on how much of a pain they are... but who says you need to proper tool to do the job