And use break cleaner liberally! I jope you did because your pics show a lot of break crap!
One of my pins was stuck pretty good. The brake dust was almost baked on it. Scraping the pin real good helps too before hammering it out.
If that is all you do it is real easy!
It gets a little harder if you replace the rotors too and if your set was OEM you should, because mine where below the wear limits at 52 k miles
I now have new Zimmerman rotors with Hawk lts pads and I must say break feel has greatly improved with a LOT less brake dust!

PS if you change rear rotors, you need an additional tool
a triple square 920 xzn 16 mm and another one that I have not figured out yet but is not directly necessary do to the break job.
It has to do with a screw to adjust the parking brake
I have to see if that one is with the standard treg toolkit

 

there are two screws in the rotor, the T50 torx, exactly like the front rotor, and a 4mm triple offset square (12 point). That drove me blooody crazy. Without checking, I got a 16mm xzn, it was waaaaaay too big, the fellas a VM AutoHaus gave me an 8mm and a 6mm, and they were also too big. finally got a 4mm, and I'm going to go try it now. I haven't taken it apart yet, but I believe it's an adjuster screw for the parking brake drum..... will post photos of all of it, cause I can't find photos anywhere!!!

 

Pretty sure it is a 5mm triple square socket. You can get them from Geoff, the brake guy(QPower1). Good luck finding one at your local part store. Technically you can probably do the job without it. Just remember to release your parking brake, makes it a lot easier to pull the rotor off. Sounds pretty obvious, but when you jack up the treg to do the front brakes setting the parking brake is a good idea for safety reasons. It is possible, not that I would know by experience or anything, but you sometimes forget to release the parking brake when you start the rear brakes. Why won't the rotors come off? :confused2:...duh.

 

Pretty sure it is a 5mm triple square socket. You can get them from Geoff, the brake guy(QPower1). Good luck finding one at your local part store. Technically you can probably do the job without it.

can you really get away from using this tool ? and how?
also is it 5mm for sure ?

Thanks

 

Can OP post pics again...cant see any pics.

 

I can't see the pictures. Please post again if possible.
Thanks

 

Tools Needed:

19mm socket (lugnut removal)
Needle nose pliars
Hammer
Channel lock pliars
Screwdriver

I am having a difficult time pushing the piston back. I think Something's stuck behind it. Gonna check it out later.

 

The rear caliper has 4 pistons. just one of those giving you trouble?
You should almost be able to push them back with your thumb

 

This would be a great post if it had pictures!

 

pictures would be really helpful. are these recoverable?

 

where the pics @?

 

I put up a DIY for rear brakes with pics if anyone is interested. You can find it here:

'06 Touareg Rear Brake DIY

 

Great write up ! Did you have to adjust the parking brake shoes at all?

It looks like you pads still had a couple of thousand miles on them though.

 

I didn't have to adjust the parking brake at all. The pads had a bit of wear left in them, but I decided to do all four tires at once since the braking system is advanced and would have put undue wear on the front pads if I had just replaced them. The front wear sensors were worn down to the wires, which was what was causing the light to trigger on the dash.

 

Thanks for the great write up. Did you change the triple-square caliper mounting bolts?

How do the pads wear after these months compared to OEM in terms of dusting, noise and braking power? Thanks.

 

Great writeup I will be using this in a little while for my rear brakes. Thanks so much!

 

So how does one go about jacking the rear corner up and supporting it on a jack stand (using a hydraulic floor jack instead of the tire change jack)?

Some said to use the "frame rail" but this is a unibody, right? So if the specified jack point is being used by the floor jack, it would be hard to put a jack stand there.

 

No, I didn't replace the spline (triple square) caliper bolts. The pads and rotors are holding up extremely well so far; I highly recommend Alretta.

You can jack up the car on a suspension joint in the rear and then lower it onto a jack stand at the proper spot recommended by VW. I would use a floor jack with a rubber pad to prevent scratching.

 

Geekstrada,

Congratulations on a wonderful, detailed write up & diorama! What a pithy sense of humor!

This is a big help for folks to follow the essential step by step. I would add that the lubrication points should include all places where metal will contact metal in the caliper theater, so the mount points at the bottom of the pads, the pad pin at the caliper saddle and pad loop points along it, and the top edges that touch the caliper body, all these should get dressed down with the poly-silicate lube we supply in our kits, or a similar long-lived high temp lube. Just my two cents.... Thank you for your efforts!!

Geoff

 

Is it really that easy? Especially the part where the Pistons could possibly be pressed in by an Amazingly Strong Hand?

 

I'm in Sacramento too, I changed my Brakes using the QPower kit and it was really that easy.

 

Thanks Geoff! I should have included more pics of where to lube at but got a little lazy on the picture taking towards the end.

@schrickman
It really is that easy. And this guy could easily push those pistons in.

 

rears were easy......minus having to take some roids prior to trying to loosen that T50 Torx bolt.........i got it, eventually.

 

Is corrosion the primary issue with those T50 rotor holder screws? Did you replace them?

It's good to know the pistons are easy to press back in by hand. But mine aren't that big.

How do the pads feel compared to OEM? These are domestic pads I suppose.

 

What is a QPower Kit...? Nice to know you are in Sacramento... I am not quite there yet . . .

 

Sorry, it's the kit that Geoff offers.

Alretta Truck Parts, Inc.
One Watson Place
Framingham, Ma. 01701
Tel# 508-788-9409
http://www.alretta.com
"Where Parts are a Science and Service is an Art!" ™

 

I just replaced my Front and Rear Brakes myself. I used the Raybestos pads and rotors (Italian Made) I have noticed a reduction in the brake dust. My next step is to have the brake fluid flushed.

 

I'm sure domestic pads here in North America will work just fine. There are plenty of Suburbans, F250s and other full size SUVs and trucks running around. So not sure why European pads cost >2x compared to $50-60 per axle for Raybestos and Duralast Golds (Autozone's lifetime wear warranty). Right now I'm still leaning ATE pads or Hawk pads.

However, some of those European branded rotors are made in China. I read about the ATE Premium One grooved rotors and looks like Meyle too. Balo is even cheaper than Meyle, so I think this brand is too from China.

OEM SHW (Schwäbische Hütten Werke) rotors, ATE and Zimmermann (z-coat) are all coated to prevent corrosion on the hub and other non-swept surfaces. Are your Raybestos coated or do they rust after a while? Because these look like a pretty good deal if they are coated.

http://www.shw.de/index.php?27
http://www.otto-zimmermann.de/index.php5?Itemid=136

How's the stopping power of the Raybestos pads compared to OEM? Some here said they're weaker and don't have as much bite. But they're also about 1/2 the cost of ATE and Hawk, and I can't stop but think of all the Suburbans and F250s running these North American pads.

 

Well if your picky about your performance and want to drive the vehicle like it was designed and not worry about your ABS not working right then i would recomend OEM setup or better. I was very unhappy with the pads i already replaced them with pagids after 3400 miles on them and also had to machine one rotor due to a high center on it. The rotors are so so in my opinon and there already rusting which sucks! all in all i felt like it was a waste of 800 and some bucks. Especially after spending another couple hundreed on pads. I could have paid 200 bucks more and let the dealer worry about doing it by the time i was done.

 

Yeah, I'm leaning either OEM SHW or aftermarket German rotors because they don't cost more than ATEs or EBCs. Even Zimmermanns Z-coated should be fine for a little less but really not a lot. I'd probably stay away from the grooved, pre-coated ATE rotors because some claimed the grooves made some noise.

I'd probably get ATE or Hawk (carbon-metallic) pads. (Wanted something better than OEM in terms of braking power, dust, and longevity), even if these are twice the cost of EBC pads but still reasonable compared to VW pads.

 

I found this excellent discussion which answered many of my questions. See the great description of design differences in message #25 by Zegm. That's my personal experience in terms of braking effectiveness as well. Right on.

Discussion thread:
http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f44/pagid-brake-pads-22701-3.html

So the safest bet is VW TUV-approved rotors (~$500+tax). The next cheaper reliable rotors are the made in Germany Zimmermann Coat-Z rotors for about $380 shipped -- the prices went up since TVaitonis bought them (see message #42, http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f44/new-brakes-installed-not-so-happy-40915-5.html).

However, instead of VW pads or Pagids, I'm thinking ATE or Hawk because of the longevity users mentioned on their T'regs. At least Hawk seems to have similar performance as the OEMs without the sensitivity (which I can't say I noticed. I just think VW uses great brakes and I don't want anything less except more pad longevity).

 

FYI. Zimmermann Coat Z rotors are anti-corrosion coated so they will not rust on the hub and other unswept surfaces.

Better yet, their products are German TUV certified. Their plain rotors are a good alternative to OEM VW rotors with 20%+ savings shipped.

Zimmermann TUV certification:
Quality ensurance