Ceased rear brake calipers

[Nastypsychoboy]

Sup,

Thought i'd treat the old girl to an Audi service recently and was anticipating the usual £650 bill as the rear pads were being changed too, but just had an expensive report that the rear calipers have ceased, so they cant get the pads off and want to bill me for a new set of calipers too (£500+!). I am slightly suspicious that this just be a way of rincing some more money out of me, so before i put the misses back on the game.....

Has anyone had similar rear ceased caliper problems? And how did you go about fixing them?

I was thinking about doing a bit of DIY and removing the calipers myself and just using a hammer to get the pads off even if destroying them is the only way, im guessing im probably going to require specific specialist tools to do that, is that correct? & is this course of action advised?

Or can anyone reccomend somewhere down South that may be able to sort this?

Any advice would be appreciated, cheers

A new day, a new problem......

[davs4]

All depends on if they are ceased or dealers making a profit........If you are mechanically minded you could do it yourself by releasing some of the pressure/fluid from the bleed nipple to aid in the retraction of the caliper. Once the caliper is free and you presuade the pads out you will need a tool to retract the piston fully.

[rickoshea]

Edit, Replace, ceased with seized.

[RS4KILLA]

seems to be a common problem with most audis

[Blue_Thunder]

There is a DIY write-up floating around somewhere. Think it's on Audiworld. Potentially a lot of work if you strip it right down.

The new seal kit is only £12 per caliper. A caliper winding tool will set you back about £25 from Halfords, although think you can pick them up slightly cheaper from eBay.

I tried my winding tool on a seized caliper and it was useless. Heat and hammering required to free up a seized one!

[Nige_RS4]

I bought a pair of new rear calipers for my RS4 directly from Audi and they were only £120 each!!!

[grizz]

New calipers are £163 + vat each ..

[Nastypsychoboy]

Ello,

Seized, seized, seized, durrrrr.

Thanks for the posts, so im looking at £383 for the calipers, matey at audi said £500 so he may have been quoting for the pads too.

Its funny(or ridiculously unlucky), just seem to go in to get one problem sorted and there are 3 more problems lying in wait to give me an expensive surprise, i told them to leave the calipers and put it through the MOT, which the brakes went through(?), but it failed on the front suspension arms, so they have to be replaced to pass the MOT, bye bye £400.

What gets me is that it was in there about a month ago, having the front suspension fully tested and checked as i hit a pothole which buckled one of my wheels (thats 2 alloys in 1 year, potholes - 2 me - 0) and i was sure there was suspension damage, but they said it was fine and that it was just the wheel that was damaged and gave no indication that i might need to replace the suspension soon.

I do appreciate that it is quite an old car but it just seems these take alot of effort and money to maintain, no doubt the engine is amazing and surprisingly rapid, but im doubting if the cost is worth it, think i might just sort it and get an upgrade

[Brisel]

I had to replace one of my rear calipers after it seized up - the Audi dealer wouldn't touch it as I'm running Ferrodo DS2500 pads despite the discs & calipers being OEM. £140 + £40 labour later & I'm back on the road again.

Only using the car once every couple of weeks doesn't seem to agree with it despite being parked under cover then being spanked when I do take it out. Hey ho.

I only use a franchised dealer as there isn't a local independent.

To the OP - where in the South are you? I'm sure that there is a good local tuner who would be able to fix you up without you having to sell kidneys to pay for the parts.