Aftermarket F/R rotors, pads, hardware, and sensors now!

[Vegas Matt]

Well, at 25,000 miles last weekend I finally pulled all the wheels and did the brakes. The fronts were down to the 2mm limit, and the rears are not into the sensors yet. The sound I was hearing from the rear seems to be something with either the wheel bearing or something in the parking brake rubbing. It's going in Tuesday for a checkup to see what's going on.

For those of you thinking about doing the fronts on your own, absolutely do it! These are very easy to change, rotors and all. Just make sure you're equipped with an ultra heavy duty torque wrench and a large (I believe 21mm) socket for the caliper bolts. You'll probably need a 2ft breaker bar (like I did) to get them loose. Overall, very simple. Plan on replacing the sensors, as once they go off, fuhgeddaboutem, they're gone. Mine disintegrated when I took the pads out.

Also, Kudos to Geoff at Alretta for saving me some bucks on the whole deal. While I already had new OEM front rotors, I bought the rear rotors and all the pads from him. Everything came in in great shape, and (at least the front Aimco pads) are good so far. At first they lacked the initial bite of the OEMs, but after some bedding in the grab is nearly back to normal. I've only got about 100 miles on the pads now, and I'm sure they will wear in very well over the next 50-100 miles or so. I've had this same scenario play out before with Performance Friction Carbon Metalic pads on my last truck, which, once worn in a few hundred miles, were great.

These are also much quieter than my stockers were, even when new. I have yet to hear a squeak/squeal out of them, which I heard all the time with the stockers.

Overall, great products, great service, no complaints. Geoff's the man! Call him for your brake pads and rotors for sure.

Matt
Satisfied Alretta customer

[QPower1]

Dear Fellow Touareg owners,

Starting today, I am making available the caliper retention pins/bolts and lock nut and the pad anti-rattle clips just like the OE kits, 7L0-698-269 (rear) or -269A (front), for a fraction of VW's price or anyone's prices!

Please see the first posting in this thread for full details!

Now one more piece of the complete brake service package can be offered at unbeatable prices - all this for $15 front or $10 rear per Axle Kit when purchased with an axle brake package.

Wear sensors are also being sourced as a future available item - stay tuned!

Thank you all for your interest and patronage! Let's keep the dealer's guessing...

Geoff

[alboogiee]

I recently had a brake job done and I purchased my parts from Geoff. I can’t thank him enough for his service.

Big thanks to Geoff at www.alretta.com for his helpfulness and very reasonably priced products.

Second big thanks to Tim at www.tomassporttuning.com also for doing my brake job! (bay area shop)

I highly recommend both of these sources for a cheap(er) brake job on the Touareg!

To compare the Aimco pads and rotors to the OEM: I would say that they are about even. The Aimco products DO NOT squeak and squeal! However they do not have as much bite when cold. After the first two stop signs in my neighborhood (2-3 blocks of driving) they are grabbing just as hard, if not harder then the OEM brakes. Brake pedal feel is also much better. I do not have the jerking stop feel any more, my stops are smooth and quite!

Thought I should add... I saved $1,000 give or take $10 from the dealers quote!

Alex

[Vegas Matt]

Originally Posted by alboogiee

I recently had a brake job done and I purchased my parts from Geoff. I can’t thank him enough for his service.

Big thanks to Geoff at www.alretta.com for his helpfulness and very reasonably priced products.

To compare the Aimco pads and rotors to the OEM: I would say that they are about even. The Aimco products DO NOT squeak and squeal! However they do not have as much bite when cold. After the first two stop signs in my neighborhood (2-3 blocks of driving) they are grabbing just as hard, if not harder then the OEM brakes. Brake pedal feel is also much better. I do not have the jerking stop feel any more, my stops are smooth and quite!

This is a carbon-copy of my experience. The Aimco's work out great. They are very quiet, and once warm (after a couple stops) I'd put them on par with or better than the OEM Pagid pads. Good stuff!

Also, they seem to dust a LOT less than the Pagids. My comparison: I changed the front pads, and left the rear pads alone, as they are not worn down enough yet to merit replacement. Well, after a month with no car washing, the front wheels have a little dingy grunge on them, while the rears look black! This is obviously backwards of what should normally be, with the fronts having a much thicker coating of dust than the rears. So, I think it's safe to say these Aimco pads certainly produce less dust than the OEM Pagid pads do.

Geoff, thanks again for your great products and excellent service!

Matt

[TREG4318]

Besides saving the money, the whole experience of purchasing from Geoff was a tremendous pleasure. He takes customer service to another level, I certainly wish all my purchases were as smooth and with the level of care he has for getting it right the first time.

As for the brake job, I felt very intimidated to tackle such a job. After talking with Geoff and researching, I can tell you this was a fairly simple task that allowed me to gain another level of intimacy with the Treg and appreciate this fine vehicle. Oh and save a lot of money at the same time.

I highly recommend Geoff and the parts. As said in previous posts, they are very good quality and the dusting is much less than OEM.

Thanks Geoff for your willingness to pass on the savings, prompt service, and quality of parts offered with this package.

[S. Taylor]

I had the same experience too. I bought pads for all four and rotors for the front previously. They perfomed as well as the original. They lasted 8k longer and I never had the dust problem!! I just wish that the sensors were already available. I've just recieved new pads, rotors, pins and clips in the mail. I ordered the parts on a Friday late morning and recieved the pads, pins, and springs on Monday. I recieved the rotors on Wednesday. I'm very pleased.
Geoff is very friendly and nobody hates to save money.

ST

[japdip]

I did my rear brakes today with parts from Geoff. He's very knowledgeable, and the parts were shipped quickly and packed very well. Quality was there for all items and make sure you order the hardware kit. The change out was a PITA, but survivable. I'll be ordering the fronts from him in a few months.

[loudboxer]

Just wrapped up a long weekend of busy days with about 500 miles on our new Alretta-sourced AIMCO front brake parts. Happy to report that everything works very well. We had plenty of gnarly freeway traffic and the requisite Central Valley Surprises to put the brakes to the test.

As for subjective performance, I'd say there's more bite in the AIMCO setup than the OEM works particularly when they're hot (a characteristic of the new pad's carbon compounds or just fresh brakes?). Outside of that, our wheels still look freshly washed and squeeling is notably reduced. Time will tell how well they wear, but we got 47k miles out of the OE set so it may be a while. Given our long wear cycle, we went full kit with Geoff's hardware and sensors and will do the same on the rears when their time comes. The few extra bucks is worth the peace of mind, imo.

Of course it should be said that Geoff is a joy to do business with. Excellent pricing on good parts with good service; all in all, the right stuff for our Touareg. Thanks Geoff.

[nltomba]

reduced sqealing?
shouldn't you have NO squealing?

[loudboxer]

Originally Posted by nltomba

reduced sqealing?
shouldn't you have NO squealing?

(Shrugs) We still have a teeny bit on occasion. How about next-to-no-squeeling? Negligible squeeling? The things don't howl like they used to, so I'm happy...