No brakepad sliders?

Does the B4 Passat rear disk brake not have any sliders for the pads, so they ride directly on the bracket? ETKA and the aftermarket show nothing, and there were none on my car when I started the rear brakes yesterday.

I say "started", because it took me most of the evening just to retract the caliper piston.

moroza said:

Does the B4 Passat rear disk brake not have any sliders for the pads, so they ride directly on the bracket? ETKA and the aftermarket show nothing, and there were none on my car when I started the rear brakes yesterday.

I say "started", because it took me most of the evening just to retract the caliper piston.

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The pads for the rear drop in to the caliper carrier (bracket), the small springs keep the pads under tension when the caliper is bolted back in place. There are no sliders other than the pins the caliper slides on.

As for retracting the caliper piston, I hope you were rotating the piston clockwise when you were retracting it, they screw in during retraction, that's how you reset the parking brake mechanism inside the caliper.

Steve

So the bracket is a wear item, like window regulators?

I tried a few ways and ended up taking the piston right out. It took a friend with channel-locks and me with vicegrips - pushing it in and turning it, respectively - to get it back in. I've been a mechanic for 7 years but somehow have never dealt with a rear caliper with an integrated parking brake; I have no idea if they're all this annoying or it's just a VW thing.

moroza said:

So the bracket is a wear item, like window regulators?

I tried a few ways and ended up taking the piston right out. It took a friend with channel-locks and me with vicegrips - pushing it in and turning it, respectively - to get it back in. I've been a mechanic for 7 years but somehow have never dealt with a rear caliper with an integrated parking brake; I have no idea if they're all this annoying or it's just a VW thing.

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When you're talking about the 'bracket' I'm not sure what you're referencing. Is this the caliper carrier? If this is what you're talking about, the carrier that the caliper bolts to, then it's not a wear item because there's really no way that it'll wear out. It's just there to allow the caliper to slide back and forth on as the pads wear out.

Steve

It can be called a carrier as well. This part:



There are dimples worn where where the pads slide on it. All other carriers I've seen have replaceable steel slider pads, like below, to prevent this from happening.

Neeevermind...

The other side did have sliders. Try as I might, though, I can't find a VW PN for them, and it took renewed sleuthing effort to come up with an aftermarket kit - Wagner H15733.

Yes, I only refer to them as a carrier, it makes it easier because that's the common name that everyone uses. Some versions of the carrier use the small stainless inserts, some do not, depends on what model they came from. I don't believe my B3V has the stainless inserts but I can't recall.

The stainless inserts are usually included with rebuilt calipers but I'm not sure where you would get them individually. Probably at a JY from a junked car.

I usually just file out the irregularities in the carrier where they're corroded or if they're really bad I just toss them and get some used ones from the JY.

Steve