VW POLO: brakes

BRAKE PAD REPLACEMENT

Wear and tear on any car is expected and is a natural part of everyday motoring. In most cases when a car goes to the VW service agents for a service, they will often advise on the condition of the brakes pads but very seldom if ever replace them. So it is very likely that your car's brakes pads may reach end of life somewhere between services. This means that you either have to take it back to the service agents for them to replace your vehicles brake pads and that at an exorbitant cost or you do it yourself. Considering that break pads are very straight forward to replace and can be done within and hour. Here I'm referring to the front brake pads. It is also very unlikely that all four brake pads will require replacement at the same time. On a level of 1 to 10 where 10 is the most difficult, Brake pad replacement weighs in at around 3. If you can change a tyre you should be able to replace your own car's brake pads because it has less than half the amount of bolts of one wheel.

On my VW Polo 2.0L Highline each brake caliper is secured with only 2 bolts and I'm almost sure that goes for most other VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat vehicles too. The tools required is a 18 mm socket and a power bar, a jack, 2 jack stands and a wheel brace. Ok, perhaps a large hefty screwdriver with which to prize open the brake piston completely.

The brake pad wear light is clearly visible right in the center of the instrument cluster.

When my dash light came on I knew I only had 2 mm of brake lining left because the last time I fooled around with my VCDS software and my "Dual-K plus CAN interface cable", I specifically selected 2 mm before the warning is sounded. Anyway when the brake pad replacement light went on, I made my way to the VW service agents to get a set of brake pads because I was going to replace them myself. As can be seen in the image below the brakes are genuine Volkswagen Brake pads made in India for VW, SEAT, and SKODA.

Genuine Volkswagen Brake Pads for 2.0L vehicles

The incorrect brake pads for a VW Polo 2.0L Highline

They weren't too expensive and considering what they do, they are actually worth every cent. The spares agent supplied the "correct brake pads" for a VW Polo 2.0L Highline and when I opened the box back home, I was convince they were the ones I needed because the brake pad box listed several other 2.0L VW vehicles amonst which are New Beetle / Cabrio 1998 - ...., Bora / Variant / 4 Motion 1997 - ..., Caddy 2004 - ..., Golf / Variant / 4 Motion 1997 - ..., Golf Plus 2005 - ..., Jetta 2005 - ..., Polo 2001 - ..., Polo Limousine (Stufenheck) 1996 - ..., Seat Altea 2004 - ..., Seat Ibiza 2002 - ..., Seat Leon 2000 - ..., Seat Toledo 1999 - ..., Skoda Fabia 2000 - ..., Skoda Roomster 2005 - ..., Skoda Octavia 1999 - ...

I was always under the impression that the Skoda Octavia was the same as a VW Polo GTI hence I figured the brakes were the correct ones but I was mistaken. As luck would have it, when I stripped out the worn front brake pads they were completely different from the the new brake pads that I just bought.

Worn brake pads with slightly less than 2 mm of bonding left.

So off I went back to the agents to get the correct brake pads. Unfortunately they didn't have any so I had to get an OEM set elsewhere. After much shopping around, I eventually found the correct ones made by Vika. They were an exact match to my sample brake pad.

The correct brake pads after the exchange

The correct Brake Pads for the VW Polo 2.0L highline

The correct brake pads with the sensor connector in the foreground

The three pads without brake pad thickness sensors.

Now that the I had the correct pads, I cleaned out the excess dust, squirted a bit of molyslip synthetic grease into the spring clips where the two little wings of the brake pad slides in, and fitted the new brake pads in like 45 minutes. I connected the brake pad sensor plug and I made doubly sure that I torqued the bolts securing the calipers. I pumped the brake pedal a few times to make certain that the pistons advanced against the brake pads and I even topped-up the brake fluid. After replacing the wheels, I was back on the road in a jiffy. It took me way longer to go buy and exchange the correct pads than it took to actually fit them.