Guide for VW Golf Brake Pad Fitting - How to fit pads to Passat/Touran/Jetta

VW Passat/Golf/Jetta/Touran brake pad change - fitting new brake pads guide

To change the brake pads first loosen the wheel nuts and then jack the car making sure you support it underneath with an axle stand or place the wheel underneath the car.

Ensure the axle stand is in a solid location and won't damage the floorpan - I put it under the suspension arm mounting point.

Remove the wheel bolts and take the wheel off the car.
Remove the metal clip spring holding the caliper and pads
Remove the caliper bolt plastic covers
Using a 7mm allen key undo the caliper bolts

You can then remove the caliper making sure to support it to avoid putting pressure on the brake hose
Remove the old brake pads
Using caliper rewind tool move the caliper position so it gives enough space to fit new pads.
Take cap off brake fluid reservoir and make sure you check brake reservoir level as you are winding back and remove any excess fluid.

Fit new brake pads
Fit caliper back onto the carrier and around the brake disc
Refit the 7mm bolts holding caliper to the carrier and ensure they are tightened
Refit the plastic caps on the bolts
Refit spring clip holding pads and caliper
Refit wheel to car and tighten bolts

Remove axle stand and drop car back to floor
Fully tighten wheel bolts

Ensure you check wheel bolts after 30 miles or so to make sure they are tight

VW Golf Door Card Removal When Door Lock Broken

The rear door lock on my VW Golf had broken so the door would no longer open from inside or outside. In order to fix the problem I needed to remove the door card trim so that I could access the lock mechanism and open the door.

Some articles online suggest that you need to break the door card to do so but there is an easy way to do it without damaging the door. You firstly need to remove the base of the rear seat by unclipping it at the front.

This then gives access to the bottom of the door card where you can get to the 2 torx screws that hold the bottom of the door card in place. You may need a torch to see their location but unscrew those and keep safe.

You need to remove the front of the door handle by prising the handle apart so that you can then access the screws behind to lift the handle off the door card. This will then have freed up all the points where the door card is attached to your Golf door frame and it can be lifted off.

VW TDI Intercooler Differences

Although all the VW Golf MK4 TDI engines are of the same capacity at 1.9 litres there are some significant differences between them that are visible under the bonnet/hood in the engine bay. The most obvious is between the PD 130 and PD 150 TDI engines where the intercooler is located in the front (FMIC) on the 150 and side on the PD130 (SMIC).

This video shows the layout of the pipes for both TDI engines

VW Golf TDI Screeching Noise Steering on Full Lock

My 2001 VW Golf TDI was making a screeching sound when the steering was on full lock at low speeds. This was the same problem I'd had with a previous VW Golf a few years back so the diagnosis was much easier. The fix was replacing the alternator clutch pulley and tensioner - in the end I decided to replace the whole alternator instead.

This video shows the noise that the engine/alternator was making with a seized alternator pulley. I'll do another video to show how to replace the alternator.