Good evening,

I have found out that I need to replace the rear pads on my '04 A6 Quattro. I found that I am able to remove the caliper and remove the pads with very little effort. However, my question is how do you reset the caliper piston??? On past cars, I would normally take a C-clamp and twist it until the piston is reset to it's full open position. I tried the same thing on the A6 caliper and it didn't budge. Should I be able to reset the piston with a C-clamp???

Feed back is greatly appreciated!!!

Mike

 

the same thing happened to me,you need a rear brake tool you will never get the job done without it

 

Havent done an 04 a6 before, but usually you can do it with a c-clamp as you said (make sure to remove the cap of the master cylinder )

OR

They screw back in. You need to improvise a tool to do this. There is a slot on each side of the piston to grab with a tool and twist. (Screwing clockwise pushes the piston back into the caliper). The tool could be just a pair of needlenose pliers. Hold the points open to fit the slots in the piston and after a little trial and error you should find a way to hold them to get the necessary torque. (It takes a fair amount of force and the piston should turn slowly and smoothly).

 

Heres a good description with pics..

http://www.20v.org/brakmain.htm

 

The tool is cheap. Get one. You'll be glad you did.

Bob

 

THe piston has to turn while being pushed, and there is a special tool for this job. Just go to any AutoZone, and you can borrow the proper tools from them for free (you pay $50 but then get that back when you return the tools). Makes the job SO easy when you have the right tools!

 

I did see the slots on the piston head that you mentioned. I will be going to get that tool to make life easier.

Anything special I need to know when it comes to replacing rotors???

 

From what I hear rear brakes starting around 2004 require VAGcom to retract the rear brake pistons. You should check. Talk to auditech79

 

I have a 99 a4 quattro 2.8, do I need to do the "turn piston" thing when replacing the back pads and rotors? or is this just for newer models? Anything in perticular I should know, I've done honda, nissan and domestic rotor and pads in the past. Is it pretty much the same on my 99?

 

You will need it for the 99 A4 as well - we have the same setup on our rear brakes. Nothing special at all to know, but you will need allen bits to remove the calipers from the carriers (7 or 8mm, I don't recall which offhand). Other than that, and the caliper screw-compressor, there's absolutely nothing to it. It's a very easy job.