Changing Rear Brake Pads & Discs - Anyone Done It Themselves?

[mikegti77]

I am looking to change my rear discs and pads over the Christmas break, I have done this before on my previous cars so no problem with the basics, but, never before on a car with an electric handbrake. 

Can anyone who has changed their own rear pads on the Mk7 please advise on how the electric handbrake issue is dealt with please?  I know there is a 'maintenance setting' to unwind the handbrake via OBD11 (which I have), but...

1) Do you put the calipers into maintenance mode, then turn off the ignition, carry out the work, then turn ignition back on and set handbrake back out of maintenance mode? - will this cause any problems?

2) Or, do you need to permanently leave the ignition / OBD11 turned on while you change the discs / pads? - and therefore have the battery on charge to prevent it going flat?

I know you can remove the electronic motor from the caliper altogether, but I wanted to use OBD11.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks 

[clubsport]

There are a few youtube videos going through the process, have a look on there.

[mikegti77]

For completeness, thought I'd updated this.

I changed the rear discs and pads using OBD11.  Once the parking brake is set into maintenance mode, you turn off the ignition. It is recommended that you connect a battery charger at this point as the OBD11 dongle is still powered via the car (I suppose you could remove the dongle, but I followed the OBD11 instructions).  However I decided not to connect a battery charger, and after around 3 hours the battery was fine.

Once finished changing the discs and pads, close the parking brake motors out of maintenance mode.  You will get an error on the dash about the parking brake function. A manual cycle through releasing and applying the parking brake sorts this.

[Finglonga]

Good info, will be doing mine in the next few months. My OBD port is off when the ignition is off so won't need a battery tender.