I’ve got bearings, rotors and pads to go on the rear. I’m stuck trying to get the lower caliper bracket bolt off. I can just barley get an 18mm wrench on it and while I could probably muscle it loose with that my concern is getting the thing torqued back down. I want to say spec is like 140nm - Bentley recommends this wrench with this head which clearly looks like it could make this job a lot easier however I’d rather not drop the $400 on tools if I don’t have to. I was looking at this extension but I don’t believe it would be long enough to reach the bolt. Anyone else have any thoughts?
Hi jludt,
I’ve removed my rear calipers and I can’t recall any issues reaching it. I definitely didn’t need the second head that you’ve posted. You will need a torque wrench and that would be a good investment if you’re going to start doing your own maintenance. Maybe you just need a good socket and extension set also. both these will cost you under $200 depending on how much you want to spend.
Thanks
Rich
Thanks for the reply Rich - I’ve got a couple torque wrenches but from what I can tell so far none of them are going to get into the space where that lower bolt is. I’ll double check again this evening to make sure I’m not going in from the wrong angle. Currently I’m on working on the driver’s side rear and if I’m facing the rotor/caliper I’m coming in from the left side (towards the front of the car) at the bottom. This was the only angle I could see to get any kind of wrench on that bolt. I’ve watched about half a dozen videos on Youtube and they all seem to gloss over that lower bolt not to mention they were A6’s so I’m not sure if the access is any different on that model. If you remember anything else specific about how you got a standard torque wrench on that bolt let me know otherwise thanks again for the reply.
Yeah you should be able to get in there with a box wrench. Also if you have the eletronic parking break and I think all S6 cars do. Don’t forget to retract the piston first.
So I can get in there with the box wrench but what about getting the bolt torqued back down? I don’t have a torque wrench that would take a box wrench type end and still fit in that space. You don’t just wing it with this bolt when tightening it back up do you?
I’ve never used a TQ wrench on both of them. Generally I spin both of them until they are about as snug as I can get making sure with a good amount of awareness the ending point and effort. Basically setting both bolts to the same effort. I then run the other bolt in use the TQ wrench on that and count the amount of rotations. Then repeat on the other side making sure the same amount of revolutions of the bolt has been achieved.
A large amount of bolts on the Audi are a Tq spec of xxx Nm and then + 90 degrees to tighten. I common sense tightening generally will be more than enough
I remove my lower strut bolt and move the strut away towards the car about 3" and this gives me ample space. I use a 1’ breaker bar and the HF extended socket, 21mm I believe
TQ spec is always gutentight. I’ve heard of those torque wrench thingies tho
Cool beans - that should have been my previous question, “Do I need to move anything else out of the way?” I’ll see about loosening that strut bolt - hell may just replace those too while I’m at it.
So I did not adhere to the “retract first” and now have most of the damn rear suspension off as well. Currently the caliper is hanging by a bungee cord. How detrimental is it to try and use VCDS to retract the piston with it not attached? I see the VCDS instructions state to make sure not to perform the procedure with the brakes disassembled - how much of a risk is this?
I guess it depends on your interpretation of the term “brakes disassembled”. I would take that to mean if you had the actuator separated from the caliper.
You can open the calipers in vcds with them not mounted to the car, just do not close them with nothing in there or the pistons could fall out
Makes sense to me - I’m going to give it a try.
@jludt I just did the rear wheel bearings on my S6 (will do a thread on that job soon) and had problems retracting the pistons because I destroid the wheel speed sensor trying to get it out… (didn’t retract before)… and got the very anoying parking brake error in VCDS. I just removed the connector and retracted the pistons using an extra battery with a long wire. With the rotor still in place you will have no problems. Just keep the pistonmotor spinning until the sound changes… you will know when you hear it.
When assembled I just did the reverse and the brake system was ok after a couple og engage/disengage operations. Didn’t need to do the VCDS operation at all.
Yea -12V works great. I have done that, and for safety a 2x4 in the caliper so in case you dont close the piston on accident