VW Brake Pad Sensors...

[chopchop]

In another thread, I have highlighted the problems with premature rear brake pad wear.

Here's another observation:

The front pads are fitted with wear sensors, the rear's aren't.

Why fit the sensors to the fronts when it is the rears which habitually wear out first?

Another observation:

Pad thickness:
Bentley says 12 mm for rears. These are the ones which the dealers charge out at $102 Cdn.

Standard ones from Cantire ($25) are 15 mm thick
Premium ones from CanTire ($55) are 17 mm thick

The backing plates are all about 6mm thick.

So you'll get a max of 4mm useful wear out of the VW ones, 7 mm of useful wear out of the CanTire el cheapos, and 8 mm out of the CT Premiums.

Christ, VW's ripoffs become more blatant & obvious by the day.

- Richard

 

[Steve]

My understanding is that there is a wear sensor on only one of the two front wheels, not both. Talk about cheap.

 

[Weisse Bora]

Originally posted by chopchop:
In another thread, I have highlighted the problems with premature rear brake pad wear.

Here's another observation:

The front pads are fitted with wear sensors, the rear's aren't.

Why fit the sensors to the fronts when it is the rears which habitually wear out first?

Another observation:

Pad thickness:
Bentley says 12 mm for rears. These are the ones which the dealers charge out at $102 Cdn.

Standard ones from Cantire ($25) are 15 mm thick
Premium ones from CanTire ($55) are 17 mm thick

The backing plates are all about 6mm thick.

So you'll get a max of 4mm useful wear out of the VW ones, 7 mm of useful wear out of the CanTire el cheapos, and 8 mm out of the CT Premiums.

Christ, VW's ripoffs become more blatant & obvious by the day.

- Richard

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The wear limit includes the backing plate thickness. You get 9mm of wear from the cheap ones. Actually, if you DIY and check often, you can safely run them down to a millimeter.

 

[Fast_SilverTDI]

Sensor is only on the left wheel.. So you're right pads could be totally gone but no light!

If you keep the connector for your old set of pads, and cut it off, short it together and plug it back in the light will not come on. Then you can just buy the pads without the sensor. I think the sensor is the most useless feature.

I figure all the sensor consists of is a piece of thin wire that runs parallel to the rotor. When the pad gets to a certain thinkness the wire is then broken and the circuit broken hence throwing the brake pad light!

Just a reason to charge us another 100 bucks!

 

[Muggins]

Had a chat with a service manager at a dealer in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) today who said if brakes wear out within first two years or 40,000kilometres, the brake jobs' on the dealer because VW recognizes the premature wear issue.
He said since ABS was added there's a proportioning valve that spreads the braking almost equally between fronts and rears. With non-ABS cars, 75% of initial brake pressure was on the fronts, but no more. And because rear pads are softer they wear out in a hurry, hence free brake service if it occurs in the first two years of ownership.

He also said it's very important to lubricate the caliper pins because as has been noted lots of times here, the calipers tend to seize if you look at them the wrong way.

I asked what else he thinks is particularly important for TDIs. He said to check the air filter and clean the snow screen at every oil change. And under no circumstance is it wise to remove the snow screen because the MAF problems familiar to most everyone here are directly attributable to the screens' removal or neglect. Diesels ingest several times the air of gassers, hence the importance of screen and filter cleanliness to prevent contaminants from reaching the MAF.

As helpful as this service manager guy was, the parts guy was the exact opposite -- condescending and arrogant, a real useless twit. Stay away from non-VW parts else you're looking for trouble, said he. For every half-decent helpful staffer there's probably two or three working to turn customers away.

 

[Rob_from_Elkmont]

Unless he is expecting the snow screen to be catching rocks and errant ducks, I must disagree with him. The MAF is after the filter. The filter should be catching the stuff that could damage the MAF. Also, previous TDIs (A3;B4) did not have the screen, and their MAFs are known to be much more reliable that the A4s.

Best Regards,

Rob

 

[Rob_from_Elkmont]

Double Post.

[ January 09, 2003, 18:40: Message edited by: Rob_from_Elkmont ]

 

[Muggins]

I'm living in hope this website's processing picks up because it's slower than molasses in February.

Re. rocks and ducks: haven't seen any yet in my air filter or snow screen.

RE. MAf after the air-filter: Don't hold the presses on that one, either. Wouldn't make much sense to have it before the snow screen and filter. Would it?

But I do know the snow screen is not something VW put on without a reason. I don't think they'll add parts costs unnecessarily unless the bottom line is not important to them.

Bosch MAF seems much more problematic than Pierburg unit. I think that goes without saying. All the more reason to look after intake filtration.

Snow screen is not akin to appendix or tonsils, IMHO. Look after it and keep it in place is all I'm saying, as told by a knowledgable service guy.

 

[chopchop]

Originally posted by Muggins:
Had a chat with a service manager at a dealer in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) today who said if brakes wear out within first two years or 40,000kilometres, the brake jobs' on the dealer because VW recognizes the premature wear issue.
........

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks for this info, Muggins - it serves to confirm once again how useless and what a twister the so-called Service Manager at S Centre Fine Cars here in Calgary actually is in trying to extort $400 out of my daughter for remedial work.

The same guy tried to tell me that there are NO wear sensors anywhere on a 2001 Golf braking system........

- Richard