Passat Breaks

[Sammyzuko]

I have a question about brakes. My girlfriend has a 2000 Passat and when her brakes pads wore out she was told she had to replace the entire break system. She thought this sounded strange, so she called around, but that was what everyone told her had to be done. It cost her about $700! Does this sound right to you guys?

[midlifecrisisvette]

Well that is strange, but I guess not impossible. Maybe the pads were worn for so long that the squeeler had actually damaged the rotor. I'm stumped.

[mechy1barry]

this raises a question.brake pedal spongy,hand brake inefective?just front pads/discs?or what?

[dog1]

Originally Posted by Sammyzuko

I have a question about brakes. My girlfriend has a 2000 Passat and when her brakes pads wore out she was told she had to replace the entire break system. She thought this sounded strange, so she called around, but that was what everyone told her had to be done. It cost her about $700! Does this sound right to you guys?

My 99 brakes were replaced at approx. 115,000 mi. I to had to purchase pads and disc, approx. 600+. I think that I did well as to mi. before replacement. Girlfriend vehicle has had two set of brakes replace and has yet to get to 90,000 mi.

[00Psst]

I just replaced the both the front and rear brakes on my 2000 Passat 1.8T. Good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that the price quoted you is about right on per axle if you need new pads and rotors. The good news is that you can buy the parts from several places, rotors about $100 per pair for the front and slightly less for the rear and pads for about $50 per set as well. The work is fairly easy (the rear was more difficult than the front due to integrated e-brake) and takes about an hour or so per axle. If you have access to a place to work you can do it with basic tools and you'll need to buy a special wrench head for the e brake piston - should run you about $15 for it. I did the work in my driveway with the car on stands. All total it cost me about 3.5 hours of my time and about $300.

** I should mention that my car has about 78k miles on it. **

[rollhard]

Originally Posted by 00Psst

If you have access to a place to work you can do it with basic tools and you'll need to buy a special wrench head for the e brake piston - should run you about $15 for it. I did the work in my driveway with the car on stands. All total it cost me about 3.5 hours of my time and about $300.

** I should mention that my car has about 78k miles on it. **

OOpsst, i have a friend and she asked me to replace her rear pads. i did find it strange that her rear pads are compeltely worm at 19k miles where her fronts are almost new. But now i see everyone is having this same problem. My question to you is how did you get the rear piston to go in? i have the piston press tool and when i turn it it does not go in. This is the first time i have touched a passat and im wondering if the caliper is damaged or if i am missing something. I have changed over 100 rear pads and this is the first time i have ran into this problem. any help would be appreciated. thanks