Rear brake pad change

[KayG]

Thought I'd share my experience of changing the rear brake pads.

Mileage 102000, pads down to about 2mm about the thickness of a 50p piece. Original pads.

Should be an easy job ? Wrong. Dismantling is easy enough, the outside pads come out and slot back in no problem. However the inside pads are a different story, the original pads would not come out without the use of some sort of lever (I used the flat end of the wheel brace), and then the new pads would not go in. Tried putting the original pads I'd just taken out back in and they wouldnt go in either ! In the end had to hammer the new pads in.

Went for a test drive and everything seemed fine but on checking the disc noticed it was hotter than it should be, as if the pads were rubbing/binding. So I stripped everything down again but this time took off the caliper part that the pads sit in so I could make sure the pads were in place properly.

Here's the issue, the inside pads are a VERY tight fit, they will not slide in without hitting with a hammer or similar. Again compared to the original part that was being replaced and these were the same. My advice if diy is to remove the pad holder and fit the inside pad off the car, that way you know it is fitted correctly, trying to do it on the car you cant see if its lined up properly unless you have a ramp. Overall I'd say buy the parts and get a local garage to fit them for just the labour cost which shouldnt be more than around £20. Let someone else have the grief !! It's as if the pads ( new and old) are just slightly too long, 0.5mm less and they'd slide in no problem. Thye do go in but it takes some force, you can't do it by hand.

If you do want to try it yourself you'll need;

13mm socket for the caliper

14mm socket for the pad holder

Brake piston rewind tool, clockwise for drivers side(RHD), anticlockwise passenger side. You can 'push and turn' without the tool but it's very stiff and needs a lot of push pressure.

Wire brush for cleaning

Lever and hammer to remove/replace inboard pad.

New pads, £70 Toyota dealer, £35 eurocarparts.

 

[Mooly]

Useful information and I'm pleased you appear to have it all sorted now, but as to getting a local garage to do the work for £20, well I can't really imagine any professional even getting out of bed for £20, let alone doing the work properly. 

[Byzii]

25 minutes ago, Mooly said:

Useful information and I'm pleased you appear to have it all sorted now, but as to getting a local garage to do the work for £20, well I can't really imagine any professional even getting out of bed for £20, let alone doing the work properly. 

Similarly I can't believe you guys have even an option of going to the dealership for parts. Where I'm from everything from them is disgustingly expensive. It's even impregnated in people's minds already that dealerships aren't even a place to look for anything, people just tune them out.

A simple engine air filter would run over 50€.

[Heidfirst]

14 hours ago, Byzii said:

Similarly I can't believe you guys have even an option of going to the dealership for parts. Where I'm from everything from them is disgustingly expensive. It's even impregnated in people's minds already that dealerships aren't even a place to look for anything, people just tune them out.

A simple engine air filter would run over 50€.

You are always going to pay a premium for oem parts over mainstream aftermarket but an engine air filter would be <€30 e.g. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Toyota-Auris-Avensis-Verso-Air-Filter-178010R030/321658748069 & that is from Toyota UK themselves - a local dealer should be cheaper with no carriage. It might even be worth you buying from the UK (at least whilst we are still in the EU).

[TonyHSD]

That’s right , dealers are stealers it’s an obvious thing. Some parts are important to be OEM like transmission fluids where applicable, but some not necessary, for the air filter or cabin filter you can use “Blueprint”.,  it’s a packaging company part of Febi Bilstein family specially for Japanese cars and their parts are of highest quality as good as original OEM even sometimes are exactly OEM inside the box. Air filter is around £8 and pollen filter is around £7 if you shop around online.

Rear brake pads should fit tight but not with hammer, if you have to use the hammer than means something not right, thoroughly cleaned surfaces before fit and tiny bit of a Textar Caretec Brake grease can help you fit them easier. Cleaning all surfaces with Hard plastic brush or soft metal brush and to lubricate the sliding pins are very important things to do, a can of brake cleaner spray is also must have when changing pads. 

 I would prefer to do any job possible by myself, as I love to get my hands dirty and to make sure I ve done best for my car. Dealer mechanics are most of the time professionals but this doesn’t always mean that they will do a proper job on your car, it’s a practice they skip important steps or even the the whole process of service customers vehicle but let’s keep it short. 

[KayG]

20 hours ago, Mooly said:

Useful information and I'm pleased you appear to have it all sorted now, but as to getting a local garage to do the work for £20, well I can't really imagine any professional even getting out of bed for £20, let alone doing the work properly. 

Plenty of garages round here that will let you turn up with the parts and just charge the labour cost for fitting. Obviously how much depends on what work you have done, they wont change a clutch for £20 !

With all the correct tools and a ramp to change brake pads on both sides should take less than half an hour, it's a nice simple job and a quick £20 for them. Even the likes of kwikfit and ats have done an oil and filter change for a tenner using my parts on other cars I've owned. My local toyota dealer only charges an extra £20 on top of the price of the pads for fitting, but your paying a premium for the pads in the first place ! Or rather if you get toyota to replace the pads its £90.

[Motheo]

Good informative post.
Thanks for sharing.

[Stooboy]

Hello in reply to the op, I was doing my rear disks and pads on a 2013 hybrid auris I had the exact same fault, pads stiff to get in and after a drive massive heat in the disk transfering to wheel.  My solution on pagid pads was to rub the sides with Emory paper only a small amount is needed small amount of copper slip and the pads pop in as easily on the other side a few test drives and no heat. 

[KayG]

Only had a problem with the inside pads, the outside ones slipped in no problem - Pagid pads as well, but the OEM were just as tight !

Looking back (and if I have to do them again) I think I will sand the edges down if they are a tight fit.

The good news is a week after fitting them I had to have the councils taxi test (like an mot) and everything was ok, no brake problems. And earlier this month I've had to have a 'proper' mot as it's no longer a taxi, a few days before I changed the front discs and pads. again no problems with brakes or anything else.

So after 4 years and 120,000 miles I've not had to do any work on the car at all except for wear and tear items and things like bulbs, wipers, tyres etc. Water pump went at 90k but was fixed under warranty, and the glovebox soft opener went within a few weeks of new, again fixed under warranty and only lasted another couple of months so just left it as not too bothered. Previous vehicles (mostly mondeos) would have needed numerous ball joints, suspension drop links, cambelts, and two or three clutches/ flywheels over the same period. Plus probably a Battery and starter motor.

[Gerg]

That's really useful information.  Was it the engine or inverter water pump that failed? 

Were there any early warning signs of it going? (Noises, leaks, error codes.)

Did you get any idea what it would have cost you if it wasn't under warranty?

I have replaced pads where the new ones are just too large.  It's difficult to believe that the dimension of the new part could be wrong, but the backing plates look to be a simple stamping and the metal can look a bit 'approximate' underneath the paint.  I've just used a hand file to get them 'just so', and then some copper grease.  I have never had any problems in the months or years afterwards.

Sometimes, when I'm cleaning out brake calipers, I lift the rubber dust boot lip and put some silicone oil spray into the void (using an applicator tube) to reduce the chance of any corrosion problems later on.  But when I did the Auris fronts, (not done the backs yet), that space was already very well greased from the factory - never seen that before!

[KayG]

Gerg. No prior warnings engine water pump was failing. First I knew was during the very hot weather last year (could have been on its way out for a while).

After about ten minutes driving from cold the check engine warning light would come on, then a few minutes later the car would shut down completely - quite scary as the engine would be off, no hybrid electric motor power and worst of all no power steering ! After a 30 second wait the car could be powered on and driven but only for a minute or so before shutting down again.

Unfortunately this coincided with a failing 12v Battery (again no warning it was failing) so after a few restarts it needed a jump to get going. During this time there were 3 failed attempts in a row to go into ready mode and so the car shut down completely and could only be restarted after towing to Toyota for a reset.

Before going to Toyota I bought an OBD scanner and it showed a water pump fault, however Toyota said it was a false reading due to the bad 12v Battery - they changed the Battery, cleared the codes and said the car was running fine. Dissapointingly they didn't go for a long enough test drive to get the car up to temperature - just went round the car park ! So after I collected the car I got no more than a mile from the garage before the same issues happened again.

Fuming I went straight back to the garage to be informed they hadn't checked the pump despite there being an error code because they presumed the battery change had fixed it !

Total cost if not under warranty would have been about £700, £600 for the pump (EXACT same part was £350 from the eurocarparts store next door!), £100 labour to fit and about £20 for coolant. BTW it's an electric water pump not mechanical.

Oh, and the battery cost me £120 despite me qouting Toyotas fixed price, because apparantly it doesn't apply to hybrids !!!

There were no warning lights or messages on the dash about engine temperature or overheating, I thought there was a 'check coolant' or 'temperature' warning ? The only light that came on was the engine maintainance one. After it cut out there was a check hybrid system message displayed - very helpful and informative !!

[Gerg]

Thanks for the complete response, good to know what the future might hold!

I thought £120 for the 12v Battery was the Toyota fixed-price for any Auris Battery, but I haven't looked for ages at the fixed-price menu   When I looked last year on eBay for the same Battery as you've bought, they were much more.

[KayG]

The 12v Battery price NOW (just checked website) is £120.

When I went in with the problems I'm sure I'd seen it as a fixed price of around £90, when I told them about the fixed price they said that was the minimum and doesn't apply to all vehicles.