Hey guys,

This might be a bit of a long shot, but anyone on here have any experience doing rear brake work on VW's, specifically a Passat?

I'm in the process of replacing mom's rear pads (2003 Passat 1.8T FWD), rotors and likely the calipers too since they seem to be seized up. The rear calipers are the type that you have to turn the piston clockwise and push in to get them to depress enough to install new pads. I'm ok with that step, but the calipers don't seem to slide at all, almost like the pins are seized inside the calipers. Does anyonme recall if these pins should have some travel, and if you should be able to slide them pretty easily by hand with the caliper off the car?

Thanks for any advice with this, I really HATE working on VW's and their senseless engineering that makes easy tasks much more difficult than they need to be

I think thier is a special tool made to do this. Were are you Brandon when we need you!

you mean the tool to compress the caliper piston? There is one, but you don't really need it, it can be done with a set of needle nose pliers or vice grips. The part I am having trouble with is sliding the caliper itself. I think I'm just going to get new calipers and hope for the best. If I still can't get it done, I'm going to burn it...

Yeah there is a tool to turn them. It sits in the groove of the piston, tight it up and turn. Ive never tried it with needle nose or vice grips though.

My Mazda 3 is the same. I used needle nose pliers and I found it took a while before it started going back in. Best is to get someone to hold the caliper so you can apply a good bit of force to push down while you turn. Found that worked the best for me.

Hope I didn't completely miss the point of this post.

i thought he meant the guide pins.

I think it's the same for any caliper. If it doesn't slide freely, you have to clean off all the corrosion and grease it up. It might need new pins if they are really worn.
I've seen some stupid designs but it's always the corrosion that binds!