Here are a few tips on Q5 front brakes...
06-27-2013, 09:42 AM
#21
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Wow, 76k on pads is pretty impressive. I got about 40k out of my OEMs.
Just ordered the Ross Tech cable for $349. Not cheap, but hopefully worth it. I plan on keeping our Q for quite a while, and doing most of the work on it myself.
Just ordered the Ross Tech cable for $349. Not cheap, but hopefully worth it. I plan on keeping our Q for quite a while, and doing most of the work on it myself.
06-27-2013, 09:48 AM
#22
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Yes, My RS4 with the 8-pot Brembos has 55,000 miles on Centric Posi pads and original rotors. Might be a new record as many guys don't even get 1/2 that many miles before the pads and rotors are shot.
06-28-2013, 03:55 PM
#23
I know this is an old thread, but I'm getting ready to do this.
First, does anyone have the torque specs, specifically for the caliper mounting bolts? I know this DIY doesn't use a torque wrench, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of going without on a brake job. While I haven't tried yet, you should be able to get the wrench in from below (ie. the OP may have needed to jack his car higher) unless for some reason there's something down there blocking the steering knuckle.
It also looks like I'll be ordering a VAG-COM for the rear brakes. Sucks I can't retract the piston with a C-clamp like I can the front.
Lastly, I always remove the rotor retaining screw on my cars, as they always get rounded out. If it bothers you when working on the car, just take a lug or two and put them back in to keep the rotor in place.
I do like the anti-seize suggestion, and always do that as well. I've spent more than enough time striking wheels with dead-blow mallets on vehicles where no anti-seize was used between the rotor hat and the wheel.
First, does anyone have the torque specs, specifically for the caliper mounting bolts? I know this DIY doesn't use a torque wrench, but I'm not thrilled with the idea of going without on a brake job. While I haven't tried yet, you should be able to get the wrench in from below (ie. the OP may have needed to jack his car higher) unless for some reason there's something down there blocking the steering knuckle.
It also looks like I'll be ordering a VAG-COM for the rear brakes. Sucks I can't retract the piston with a C-clamp like I can the front.
Lastly, I always remove the rotor retaining screw on my cars, as they always get rounded out. If it bothers you when working on the car, just take a lug or two and put them back in to keep the rotor in place.
I do like the anti-seize suggestion, and always do that as well. I've spent more than enough time striking wheels with dead-blow mallets on vehicles where no anti-seize was used between the rotor hat and the wheel.
07-06-2013, 10:02 AM
#24
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ETA: First thing, huge thanks to HZ60 for the torque specs.
Ok, this may turn into a full DIY thread. I think my search is broken, because I'm not seeing old threads about this. Even searching through google, it was tricky.
I'm doing this now, and the first issue I ran into was even finding the factory jack and lug wrench. I don't have a 17 mm 6 point 1/2 drive socket, as my BMW uses an 18mm for the lugs.
I searched and found this thread, and sure enough, the tool kit was in there. The factory manual's description of where to find it is woefully lacking:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2771851
Next up is jacking the car and getting it on jackstands. I don't think any sane person would do a brake job on a factory scissor jack, and you really shouldn't be doing it with just a floor jack, even if you put the old wheel under the car for precaution. The proper way (without a lift) is jack stands, and I spent several hours searching for how to get the car onto jack stands.
I finally figured out, with the help of ECS Tuning, that if you remove a plastic piece of trim from underneath the car, you reveal two holes covered with circular rubber pieces. THAT, is where you want to place your jack stand. ECS makes an adapter, which I'm sure is great, but right now, I'm just using my ESCO flat top jack stands:
http://www.jbtoolsales.com/esco-equi...FQVyQgodPSoA7g
To get to the plastic trim piece (and get it undone), I first put the car on ramps.
I'll try to take a picture of the piece in a bit. I don't own the audi pinch weld adapter, so used the scissor jack instead of my floor jack to get the car in the air, then placed the jack stand, and lowered it onto it.
More to come...
Ok, this may turn into a full DIY thread. I think my search is broken, because I'm not seeing old threads about this. Even searching through google, it was tricky.
I'm doing this now, and the first issue I ran into was even finding the factory jack and lug wrench. I don't have a 17 mm 6 point 1/2 drive socket, as my BMW uses an 18mm for the lugs.
I searched and found this thread, and sure enough, the tool kit was in there. The factory manual's description of where to find it is woefully lacking:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2771851
Next up is jacking the car and getting it on jackstands. I don't think any sane person would do a brake job on a factory scissor jack, and you really shouldn't be doing it with just a floor jack, even if you put the old wheel under the car for precaution. The proper way (without a lift) is jack stands, and I spent several hours searching for how to get the car onto jack stands.
I finally figured out, with the help of ECS Tuning, that if you remove a plastic piece of trim from underneath the car, you reveal two holes covered with circular rubber pieces. THAT, is where you want to place your jack stand. ECS makes an adapter, which I'm sure is great, but right now, I'm just using my ESCO flat top jack stands:
http://www.jbtoolsales.com/esco-equi...FQVyQgodPSoA7g
To get to the plastic trim piece (and get it undone), I first put the car on ramps.
I'll try to take a picture of the piece in a bit. I don't own the audi pinch weld adapter, so used the scissor jack instead of my floor jack to get the car in the air, then placed the jack stand, and lowered it onto it.
More to come...
07-07-2013, 06:38 PM
#25
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Got rushed for time, so didn't get a chance to snap pics. A couple of observations:
- My front pads were well below the wear limit, but the sensor had not quite gone off. Pads start out at 19mm, wear limit is 7mm, but mine were at about 4mm, and the wire was not quite cut through.
- Meanwhile, my rear pads were at about 12mm. Given they start off at 17.5, and the limit is 7mm, they're only about halfway worn! I wound up not changing them, which meant I didn't need to buy the VAG cable this early.
- If you let your front brakes go as far as mine did, you will need to compress the piston in order to get the caliper to clear the lip on the rotor. That was a bit of an adventure.
- It is easy to damage your side skirts with the crappy scissor jack. You want to make sure you position the jack pretty far inward of the jack point, so the metal "screw" you turn isn't close to your skirts.
- Most importantly, if you ever use tools that aren't yours, make sure you check them first. I rented a 1/2 torque wrench from Autozone, as my 3/8 doesn't quite go to 105 ft/lbs. Unfortunately, I didn't think to test it at a low setting, so put a ton of torque on one wheel's lugs until I realized the thing wasn't clicking. It was late, I was tired, but I should have realized something was wrong sooner. I backed out the lugs with a breaker bar, exchanged the torque wrench, and torqued them to the proper settings. I must have had 200 ft/lbs of torque on them, easily.
- My front pads were well below the wear limit, but the sensor had not quite gone off. Pads start out at 19mm, wear limit is 7mm, but mine were at about 4mm, and the wire was not quite cut through.
- Meanwhile, my rear pads were at about 12mm. Given they start off at 17.5, and the limit is 7mm, they're only about halfway worn! I wound up not changing them, which meant I didn't need to buy the VAG cable this early.
- If you let your front brakes go as far as mine did, you will need to compress the piston in order to get the caliper to clear the lip on the rotor. That was a bit of an adventure.
- It is easy to damage your side skirts with the crappy scissor jack. You want to make sure you position the jack pretty far inward of the jack point, so the metal "screw" you turn isn't close to your skirts.
- Most importantly, if you ever use tools that aren't yours, make sure you check them first. I rented a 1/2 torque wrench from Autozone, as my 3/8 doesn't quite go to 105 ft/lbs. Unfortunately, I didn't think to test it at a low setting, so put a ton of torque on one wheel's lugs until I realized the thing wasn't clicking. It was late, I was tired, but I should have realized something was wrong sooner. I backed out the lugs with a breaker bar, exchanged the torque wrench, and torqued them to the proper settings. I must have had 200 ft/lbs of torque on them, easily.
07-08-2013, 04:24 PM
#26
Got rushed for time, so didn't get a chance to snap pics. A couple of observations:
- My front pads were well below the wear limit, but the sensor had not quite gone off. Pads start out at 19mm, wear limit is 7mm, but mine were at about 4mm, and the wire was not quite cut through.
- Meanwhile, my rear pads were at about 12mm. Given they start off at 17.5, and the limit is 7mm, they're only about halfway worn! I wound up not changing them, which meant I didn't need to buy the VAG cable this early.
- If you let your front brakes go as far as mine did, you will need to compress the piston in order to get the caliper to clear the lip on the rotor. That was a bit of an adventure.
- It is easy to damage your side skirts with the crappy scissor jack. You want to make sure you position the jack pretty far inward of the jack point, so the metal "screw" you turn isn't close to your skirts.
- Most importantly, if you ever use tools that aren't yours, make sure you check them first. I rented a 1/2 torque wrench from Autozone, as my 3/8 doesn't quite go to 105 ft/lbs. Unfortunately, I didn't think to test it at a low setting, so put a ton of torque on one wheel's lugs until I realized the thing wasn't clicking. It was late, I was tired, but I should have realized something was wrong sooner. I backed out the lugs with a breaker bar, exchanged the torque wrench, and torqued them to the proper settings. I must have had 200 ft/lbs of torque on them, easily.
- My front pads were well below the wear limit, but the sensor had not quite gone off. Pads start out at 19mm, wear limit is 7mm, but mine were at about 4mm, and the wire was not quite cut through.
- Meanwhile, my rear pads were at about 12mm. Given they start off at 17.5, and the limit is 7mm, they're only about halfway worn! I wound up not changing them, which meant I didn't need to buy the VAG cable this early.
- If you let your front brakes go as far as mine did, you will need to compress the piston in order to get the caliper to clear the lip on the rotor. That was a bit of an adventure.
- It is easy to damage your side skirts with the crappy scissor jack. You want to make sure you position the jack pretty far inward of the jack point, so the metal "screw" you turn isn't close to your skirts.
- Most importantly, if you ever use tools that aren't yours, make sure you check them first. I rented a 1/2 torque wrench from Autozone, as my 3/8 doesn't quite go to 105 ft/lbs. Unfortunately, I didn't think to test it at a low setting, so put a ton of torque on one wheel's lugs until I realized the thing wasn't clicking. It was late, I was tired, but I should have realized something was wrong sooner. I backed out the lugs with a breaker bar, exchanged the torque wrench, and torqued them to the proper settings. I must have had 200 ft/lbs of torque on them, easily.
07-10-2013, 04:48 PM
#27
Yes, it is possible-you'd have to remove the motor, undo the screw inside the caliper using a torx, then use special tool that compresses and rotates piston at the same time to back the piston into the caliper. My medchanic did it - took them long time, Snap-On tool/scanner they had would not retract the calipers
07-12-2013, 10:17 AM
#28
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Yes, it is possible-you'd have to remove the motor, undo the screw inside the caliper using a torx, then use special tool that compresses and rotates piston at the same time to back the piston into the caliper. My medchanic did it - took them long time, Snap-On tool/scanner they had would not retract the calipers
I took my 2012 Q5 in to the dealership because the Brake light warning signal was on with the Brake Pad warning light. They just quoted me $675 and said I need new Rotors and pads for front brakes. I only have 25,000 miles on it. Can this really be? Also, why can't they just replace the pads, I can't imagine I need new Rotors already.
Any suggestions are appreciated!!!
07-12-2013, 12:21 PM
#29
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Do the rotors have deep grooves? The dealer wont resurface the rotors they only replace then. Have another shop check them out. If your an aggressive driver you might want to look into another setup.
07-12-2013, 03:15 PM
#30
That sounds about right. I have 38000km on my car (24000mi) and the front rotors are too thin, and the front pads are almost shot. Granted I have no idea how the previous owner drove the car so I don't know if they were hard on the brakes or not (I am probably one of the easiest on brakes, coast to a stop most of the time as I actually pay attention more than 10feet in front of me. I'll get around to changing mine some day :P No warning light yet...I found the parts for $700 for front and rear.