It took this 53yr old man every bit of 12hrs, 4hrs my azz as some have posted here, beginning with unpacking, cleaning and painting the rotor hubs, and painting each caliper bodies for each wheel as I got to it. That took some time plus an extra ~30min searching and printing instructions and tips from this forum and Alreta. I did no advance preparation other than ordering the brakes kit 18mos. ago, buying paint and a 1/2" drive bit.
Question: A small puddle formed underneath the brake fluid reservoir or master cylinder. Not sure exactly where it came from because i haven't exactly checked. It was late and I was beat. If I need to add brake fluid then perhaps I should just flush the system? How is brake fluid flush performed anyway and will they need to be bled too?
Thanks to Alretta for the parts and tools (T50, 16mm triple square, +). They really did provide everything needed. Though I had bought a 1/2" drive 16mm triple square bit from Snap-On and really glad I did. Used with a 1/2" drive breaker bar to get those rear bolts off was easier I think than it would have been with 3/8" drive. Just the largeness seemed to help. It was still pretty damn hard but mostly due to finding the right leverage and being nervous about only using a floor jack without jack stands. Thanks to http://gigaloop/rearbrakes for the writeup and helping me prepare my mind for that battle. I'm really glad I did the job myself because not only did I save over $1000 by not taking it to my local stealership, I know the job got done right and the paint job (Caliper Silver enhanced with porcelain and good up to 500degres) looks really good. I started with the right rear wheel and worked my away around clockwise left rear, left front, and then right front. I took note of the the cooling fins on the left front rotor before removing and replacing it and found the fins where swept to the rear of the vehicle. OK cool. Glad I remembered to check that. But when I got the right front wheel (the last one to go...finally -10.5hrs in) the rotor fins were swept forward. OH SHLT! Did I screw this up? Right front (driver side of vehicle) the fins where swept back and the left front where swept forward! I'm panicking now, I did something wrong and I'll have to remove/redo the left front I just finished. But a quick check of the used left front rotor I replaced had a green 'L' stamped on it. And the used right front rotor had a green 'L' on it too. What do you know. I've been tooling around with too left front rotors. I bought my Touareg used at 32k miles and today it has 78.7k miles so I assume a brake job was done it before I bought it. I don't know for sure about that but the two left front rotors suggests so. You know I like to save money where possible just like most but for me it's more about doing the job right and if I can do it myself I'm going to do it to insure the job gets done right. You can't tell me some of these brake mechanics don't cut corners or otherwise give a crap about your car. I'm really sore this morning but I also feel like I accomplished something. Oh yeah, this was my first brake job. A big thanks to this forum for the knowledge and tips.
Question: A small puddle formed underneath the brake fluid reservoir or master cylinder. Not sure exactly where it came from because i haven't exactly checked. It was late and I was beat. If I need to add brake fluid then perhaps I should just flush the system? How is brake fluid flush performed anyway and will they need to be bled too?
Thanks to Alretta for the parts and tools (T50, 16mm triple square, +). They really did provide everything needed. Though I had bought a 1/2" drive 16mm triple square bit from Snap-On and really glad I did. Used with a 1/2" drive breaker bar to get those rear bolts off was easier I think than it would have been with 3/8" drive. Just the largeness seemed to help. It was still pretty damn hard but mostly due to finding the right leverage and being nervous about only using a floor jack without jack stands. Thanks to http://gigaloop/rearbrakes for the writeup and helping me prepare my mind for that battle. I'm really glad I did the job myself because not only did I save over $1000 by not taking it to my local stealership, I know the job got done right and the paint job (Caliper Silver enhanced with porcelain and good up to 500degres) looks really good. I started with the right rear wheel and worked my away around clockwise left rear, left front, and then right front. I took note of the the cooling fins on the left front rotor before removing and replacing it and found the fins where swept to the rear of the vehicle. OK cool. Glad I remembered to check that. But when I got the right front wheel (the last one to go...finally -10.5hrs in) the rotor fins were swept forward. OH SHLT! Did I screw this up? Right front (driver side of vehicle) the fins where swept back and the left front where swept forward! I'm panicking now, I did something wrong and I'll have to remove/redo the left front I just finished. But a quick check of the used left front rotor I replaced had a green 'L' stamped on it. And the used right front rotor had a green 'L' on it too. What do you know. I've been tooling around with too left front rotors. I bought my Touareg used at 32k miles and today it has 78.7k miles so I assume a brake job was done it before I bought it. I don't know for sure about that but the two left front rotors suggests so. You know I like to save money where possible just like most but for me it's more about doing the job right and if I can do it myself I'm going to do it to insure the job gets done right. You can't tell me some of these brake mechanics don't cut corners or otherwise give a crap about your car. I'm really sore this morning but I also feel like I accomplished something. Oh yeah, this was my first brake job. A big thanks to this forum for the knowledge and tips.
