My rear brakes are making all kind of noise. It def sounds like brake grindiing. I had the guys look at the pads when they balanced and rotated the tires earlier this week and they said they were about 50% but what do those guys know? Anyway heres my question: How? ive worked on a lot of cars and have done brakes before, but never on the audi and never on a german. Ive looked around and think i have a pretty good idea of what to do. I dont want to risk getting in the middle of the job and then getting stuck. this is what ive gotten from what ive read here.

remove wheel
remove caliper from hanger
remove pads
compress piston
reinstall everything.

how does that sound? some people say you have to open the bleeder valve. is this true? i dont want to risk having to bleed the brakes bc i hate bleeding stuff. also, i have a cube style end of ratchet piston compressor. should i try to rent the more official looking tool from autozone or something? ive used the cube one on my rx-7 calipers and it works fine, but i know this car is no mazda.

thanks a lot

 

You don't have to bleed the brakes unless you open the system and expose it to air. Don't forget to rest your caliper on something and don't let it dangle, that could ruin the lines inside.

 

Why are you doing the brakes if you have 50% left?

You need a special tool that pushes & turns the caliper piston.

My bet is on the wheel bearings.

 

Pull the hand brake and listen for the noise.

 

so it was the pads. and a rotor. i tried to do the brakes last night but couldnt get the caliper off. an allen wrench wouldnt work bc there wasnt enough room to turn the wrench. i tried an allen wrench socket and it wouldnt fit with the ratchet and socket so that didnt work either. I was able to get the top bolt loosened, but i couldnt get the bottom one. so off it went to the shop this morning. the grinding was from the inside passenger pad which was down to the plate and pin. this means my rotor is all torn up too. No one in town has the rotors in stock so i just had them go ahead and put the pads on and i just ordered some rotors. im going to try to put the rotors on myself. i think what the guy used for the caliper bolts was a ratchet wrench with an allen wrench bit/attachment. is that what you guys who have done this service have used?


the false 50% reading was bc of the outside pads looking ok, not 50% but ok, and the fact that the inside pad was the cause of the grinding. you cant see the inside pad unless you have the caliper off.

thanks for the help guys.