1997 VW Golf L4 2.0L Front Ceramic Brake Pad & Rotor Kit TRQ BKA11081

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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video we're going to show you how to remove and reinstall or remove and replace the front brakes on this '97 Volkswagen Jetta. This procedure is basically the same for any Jetta, as well as the Golf from this generation. We're going to show you the passenger side; obviously the drivers' side is the same procedure and you do always want to do your brakes in pairs. You'll need some new rotors and pads from 1AAuto.com, jack and jack stands, a lug wrench . my vehicle had after-market wheels so I had to use probably something different than most people use, which was a large Torx bit, but you'll need whatever wrench fits your lug ., 13 and 17mm sockets, ratchet and breaker bar or a pipe for some extra leverage, and a large C-Clamp. You may also need a wire brush and some grease if you find that your slides are sticking like mine are, as you'll see in the video. You'll need a torque wrench and then an impact driver or drill bit with a 1/4 inch bit and you'll see what I mean and how to use those in the video.

Start by removing your wheel and tire. My vehicle has after-market wheels on it with basically Torx round bolts. So, I'm just using my impact wrench to remove these. Usually the bolts on these are either 18 or 19mm. You might need to remove the hub cap first. Take the lug nuts out and remove the wheel.

With the wheel off, you can turn your suspension or turn your wheels so you can get to these bolts easily. We can also check the condition of the rotors here. Actually, although they're a little bit rusty, they're in pretty good shape. You don't have to worry about the crustiness here or up here. The pads actually don't contact there. I am going to show you how to take these off and put a new one on, but these are actually in okay shape. The pads you can see actually still have some life on them, but, again, I'm going to install some new pads just to show you how to do it.

The next step is to remove two 13mm bolts here and one down here. These are not supposed to be on too tight, so just a small wrench should work. I was able to get the bolts moving, but then where it contacts into the caliper started spinning so I'm using a 15mm wrench to hold on there and remove them the rest of the way. Now I'll just speed up here as I remove those two bolts and I'll use fast forward quite a bit when I'm just doing rather monotonous stuff like this. These calipers pull right off. I'll hang that up right there for now. Now the brake pads, sometimes they'll come off by hand, sometimes just use a screwdriver to help yourself out. As you're taking this apart check these slides. This one moves, but it doesn't move very smooth. This one moves with a whole lot less force so we can actually, carefully take this one out and we'll clean it up, put a little bit of grease on it, and get it working well. Okay we clean it up, put a little dab of grease on the end, put it in and it works nice and smooth and I'm just putting the rubber boot right back on. Clean it up by just using a small wire brush and then I just use a little bit of wheel bearing grease on there.

To get the rotor off, you're going to have to remove this caliper bracket, which is two 17mm bolts, one here and one here. Generally these bolts are on there much tighter. If you have a breaker bar, use that. Using a piece of pipe on your ratchet carefully just apply pressure. After breaking them loose by hand, I "cheat" a little bit using an impact wrench and just zip those bolts out the rest of the way. For the next step, you can see right here, there's a screw. This is an impact driver. What you do is you put it into the screw, you turn it counterclockwise. You can see when I push in it rotates. What you do is turn it counterclockwise, hold it, and then when you impact the end that both pushes the bit in and turns the bolt counterclockwise. You can see even with an impact driver this screw wouldn't come through, so plan B, I take a drill and I'm going to drill that screw right out. You can see the head of the screw came off right there and I'll hammer to take this right off.

Here's the new rotor from 1A Auto. You'll put it on. Here's where the screw should go. There's where you can see the broken screw off. As I put it on there, I'll just line it up there as best I can. What I like to do is take one of my lugs and put it on and that holds stuff in place for now. Take your caliper bracket, put it on, move it around until you get the bolts started. Preliminary tighten these up. Using a torque wrench tighten them to 85 foot-pounds. Then, again, make sure your slides are nice and loose.

You'll need to reset the piston in the caliper here. It's pretty easy to do. Take a large C-clamp and put it right into the piston here. As I tighten up the clamp you'll see this piston go back into the caliper until the clamp doesn't tighten anymore and then remove the clamp. Bring your pads and put them right down in. A lot of times, they come with the metal backing plates. I find that they don't ever really fit well in there with them. Take the metal backing plate off and they go right in. Now, put on the caliper by pulling these slides in a little bit. Just make sure that these little springs . they'll try to get stuck on you a little bit . just make sure that they go in it correctly. From here, I apply some pressure down to seat the caliper and then start the two bolts on and tighten them up preliminarily. These bolts only need to be tightened to about 18 to 20 foot-pounds.

We'll fast forward here as I just put the wheel and tire back on. First pull that lug out that I had in to line it up and then what I usually do is put the wheel up in place, push a lug through and then line it up and then try and push it right in, as well as push the wheel on at the same time. Start the lug in and then get the other four in, lined up, and then tighten them up preliminarily before you torque it. Torque the lug nuts to between 90 and 95 foot-pounds. Any time you service the brakes, get in your car and pump the pedal a bunch of times. Make sure the pedal is nice and firm before your road test. We hope this helps you out.

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