I love installing a fresh set of brakes, the only thing better is a fresh set of tires. They make the car feel new again, or at least they do for a few days until something else breaks.
bobl78 ehh, you can’t really feel a difference after a oil change though. Don’t get me wrong, the feeling of getting it done and being accomplished is a good feeling.. but you know 🤷🏽♂️
If Mr.O ever puts away his wrenches, I hope he would consider going into Auto mechanics trade/school instruction. Either at a reputable brick and mortar classroom setup or a online teaching setup. His knowledge and expertise would do other upcoming mechanics a lot of good. Just saying,,
That was the cleanest car as far as rust goes that I've seen on SMA! Didn't even have to use brake cleaner (on camera at least) and didn't need big nasty to tear apart some random, awesome engineered part to get the kanuter valve off. Those inboard pads and rotor were terrible! Glad they had the sense to get it replaced. Wired brake pads..... Never imagined. My wife warps her brakes long before they need replacement. I finally had to go to Arizona and pound rotors out of a meteorite, cross drilled and slotted for '08 Honder Accord. No more warping!
My ex said that I worked on her car for entertainment purposes only, her entertainment. It amused her to no end how many curse words I could come up with inside of an hour.
Good to see ya torqued the wheel bolts!! I worked for VW for 32 years. And i am sorry they scare you. You did a good job!! Other than rusting .....especially in the north east......the brakes last and last. Without rust i have seen those brakes go 80k miles! Enjoy your videos!! I am retired now in Virginia........great place for retired techs. Built myself a little shop. The tractor......mower .......and welding work here is great!! Weather too!! And no more playing beat the clock!! Cheers to you and yours. Keep up the good work!! Rick.
My German car has lugnuts instead of studs, it came with a screw in tool whose purpose is to guide the wheel when you install it. Easy as pie. Some after market wheels are thicker and require different length lugnuts. Between each lug opening on the wheel is a small hole. There is a fixture that allows you to use those holes to perform the wheel alignment off the face of the brake rotor with the wheel on the car.
My girlfriend has 2 VW golfs... same car different bodies...hers are diesel and you should see what it entails to change the radiator! I've done the radiator, control arms, brakes on all 4 corners, and windshield wiper transmission and motor! Our rotors had Phillips head screws! Great job as ALWAYS Mr. O!
This is the standard Bosch brake system used on most small European cars. The giveaway is the 7mm hex bolts on the pins and those anti-rattle clips on the outside. I don't know why Euro cars don't have wheel studs, but I have never worked on a car with them!
Really rare to see you working on anything Euro. And 😱 Actual torque to spec! (great stuff as always, Eric - name me one other garage that would bother doing a proper job scraping those stickers off!) Hope you guys are keeping safe atm.
I use copper grease applied to the pad edges that contact the carrier bracket , piston and caliper. Also red rubber grease for the sliders. Anything else applied to the sliders will eventually swell the rubbers and hinder movement. We usually fit after market discs that always come all greasy ,I was disappointed you didn't crack open a can of "sound effect!" brake cleaner! Damn those genuine dry rotors. 🙂
I enjoy watching a lot of different mechanics but you’re videos are the best because you don’t sound scripted and don’t talk like all the others who all seem to be trying to imitate each other. Keep keeping it real.
for entertainment purposes only folks.... was just gonna shut the pc down when sma pops up in the notifacations... couldnt wait till the morning.. had to watch it now....
Just like a normal job that one Eric here in the UK, bought a repair kit for the 9 mm slide threads , cost me £65 about 10 years ago with 10 inserts in it , seed a good idea at the time , never used it , looks good in a drawer in one of my tool boxes though , most suppliers and dealers are closed here in the UK, so it's time to do all those jobs at home we never get time to do , take care and keep your great family happy, stay safe Eric
Hi Eric, when you are Torquing the wheels I noticed that you have the vehicle on the ground. The proper way is to torque the wheels while the vehicle is still on the lift. The reason is that there is not to have any weight on the wheels at all. Thanks and I always watch your videos.
I'm doing brakes on a 2000 VW today, my first brake job on a VW and it looks pretty simple. An elderly lady called me yesterday to see if I work on other people's vehicles because I always have some vehicle sitting out front that I'm working on to flip. She said that her husband has vertigo and can't do it I told her that I would help them out. I'm watching videos just to make sure it's nothing weird to do the brakes. Thanks for the great video as usual.
You said that Chryslers use a similar brake pad wear system that turns on the brake light when it’s time for a brake service. Now I know for sure it’s time to service the front brakes on our ‘05 dodge van! Thanks for the information!
As a Pattern Maker I have been designing/building tooling for foundries for over 30 years now. We do a LOT of brake calipers and anchor brackets for all different manufacturers. The design of the both the calipers and brackets on this VW was unlike anything I have seen. Another excellent video!
OH NO!!!! A brake job with no , wait for it, BRAKE CLEAN!!!! I'm losing my mind over here!!! Eric O. How could you? Lol. Great video as always. I've learned so much from you through your videos. Please keep up the good work.
I wish you were my mechanic. I cringe ever time I have to get repair service because of the incompetence around here. They either don't know, don't care or both. Thanks for showing us the right way to do these repairs.
Mr. O is a class A mechanic! I enjoy watching him, it beats me working now that everything has come to a stop here in California, I'm home staying safe and binge watching him work. The only thing I do different on brake jobs is I open the bleeder as I push the piston back in. You only need to wipe out one ABS unit to learn that lesson. It has a better chance of survival without dirty old fluid rushing back through it. The other thing is I never bleed brakes by full stroking the brake pedal, this saves many master cylinders. I guess I see lots of older cars because I'm not in the rust belt so these issues pop up more often here.
I can't get over how clean that hub was, no rust removal necessary. The Saturn L-series used almost that same brake set up and those weird wheel stud/nut combination. It always made tire rotations fun, as you would loosen the last one you had to be ready to catch the wheel before it fell off.
I drove wrecker for AAA for a while and I still remember the first flat change I did on a Rabbit. Seriously thought I'd broken off the stud or something. Then we were on unlevel ground and was a royal pain to get the spare mounted. Did LOVE towing those old VWs. Easiest car on the planet to hook. No laying in the mud just two T-hooks and a 4x4 and away you go!
Believe it or not but volkswagen actually is German for people's car love the videos dude nice to see another PROFESSIONAL working instead of the hacks that give us a bad name
Thank you Eric for at least one video a week. I know it probably always seems like something that is not that interesting to you but it always Very interesting to me
Think of a Newton Metre (Meter) as a medium sized Apple at the end of a 39.3" lever. That's quite accurate. Great vlog Eric. Stay safe all and thanks for sharing.
@@qcan8468 Unfortunately Figs didn't, nor do they now grow in England, so Sir Isaac Newton had only an apple tree to sit under.!!!!!!.🍏 An apple is generally calculated as equal to 0.225 pounds (Ibs).🍏
Bosted Tap well done. Of course we can always convert. An average fig is .11 pounds or 9 figs to a pound. I think this Stay at Home order is making me a little stir crazy!
Little tip for stickers like that - take a propane or map gas torch to it for 5 maybe 10 seconds. Not trying to burn it just heat up the glue. They'll come off in one piece and there will be no sticky residue left behind.
It is a brave man who works on the modern Beetle. Years ago I had a boss who owned a VW dealership and I promise you that service department was the big money maker, even during the bad recession. Made big money. Parts are crazy expensive
Your a better man than I am I do NOT let a VW come into my shop I'm not buying special tools just to work on them I'm talking engine and things brakes are fairly straight forward. Love your channel keep safe to you and your family Eric
I have an old chopped off inner tie-rod that threads into the stud holes. Keeps the rotor aligned when the screw is cut off and lines up the other holes nicely.
The threads on most inner tie rod ends are the same as most Euro wheel bolts. Cut the ball and socket off and they make studs to make installing the wheel much easier.
The no wheel studs derives from production simplicity. Using a bolt (1 item) instead of a stud and a nut (2 items) means there are half of the products to be sourced. Using this formula on a few areas in the car and you can save a whole team of workers in the procurement/sourcing department when scaled up to the numbers that VAG produces. This also increases production security as you don't need to rely on 2 separate parts to show up before you can bolt the wheel on and ship it down the road.
Another thing is that if wheel works loose then it woun't brake bolts they just come loose. Then You could take one bolt from every other wheels andfix loose wheel properly and drive carefully home. But studs might brake. On otherhand VW jack is garbage.
In these crazy times we need something normal. Few things are more normal than an Eric O SMA brake job! Thanks! But where is the brake clean? Stay safe!
im a big fan of your old school to modern mechanic skills very informal and helpful i have a 2013 VW 2.5 BEETLE and 1993 chevy K 1500 5.7 so in a sense you have helped me along the way im on the other side of the country in Colorado its amazing when we watch how many cars and pickups you work on are rusted out bottom to frame they dont use salt here... whole Family enjoys watching you work your magic on your clips with walk through on hand step by step instructions wish there were auto shops like yours here ..great work and sense of humor..it feels like were visiting your shop when we watch love the show..
I didn't get as tired watching you do this brake job, must of been a lot easier.....V Dubs with no rust ??? What's the secret ??? Can't charge very much for as simple a job as this was !!! A Burger King Whopper Combo coupon should of been enough !!!! Nice to see that you're not racist toward foreign imports !!!! Are you ASE certified ??? I don't ever see a ASE patch !!!!! I do know a few mechanics that are ASS certified, you probably know a few too !!!!! Good job, Eric !!!! Especially like that you torque stuff and convert it into ft-lbs for the USA viewers !!!! Can't wait for the next SMA video !!!!!!!!!
Eric was so happy that in this video you mentioned the wheel stud. I work as a tech at a Hyundai/ jeep dodge Chrysler dealer and what I hate more than anything else is the wheel bolts and wheel locks I have invested in a set of lisle pilot pins they really come in handy and wheel locks when I remove them I do it while the veh is still on the ground with a breaker bar in stead of the air wrench
On this type of lug bolts to help guide the wheel back on the hub, I get a long bolt that screws into the lug holes. Cut off the head, cut a slot in the end, then screw it into the hub. It guides the wheel onto the hub in just the right place for the lug bolts. It's especially useful when the wheel doesn't want to sit nicely while screwing in the lug bolts.
I've done thousands of brake jobs, watched hundreds of SMA brake jobs and yet still get excited when I see another one uploaded! Ha! Don't even get me started on the stud-less wheel hubs...
Thank you Eric. Off topic, if you ever get a chance to work on a Honda or Acura with a blower motor power transistor control, can you make a short video on testing the power transistor control wire voltage with connector unplugged and plugged in and back probed. This will help everyone know what the known good AC Control Unit sends down that wire to the power transistor. There are a few videos on RU-vid about the power transistor but nobody has tested this control voltage with connector unplugged and plugged in and back probed on each speed setting. Have a blessed and safe week to you and your family.
On a quiet night near South Main Auto Repair, you can hear a Volkswagen rust..... I've got a garage full of tools but every time I tune into your videos I feel like I need a lot more.......
Great commentary, I couldn't work and do a job properly while charging a customer on an hourly basis and give an instructional video at the same time, not to mention setting up and positioning the camera: 10 points for your efforts...
That's funny because I just replaced the front brakes on our Subaru Outback. I got them from Rock Auto. The ones on it were NOT OEM anyways. Because we live in Northern Michigan, I got the Coated brake Rotors and Ceramic Brake pads. The ones I replaced only lasted 2 years because that's when we purchased the car and it stated in the paperwork they said they replaced the brakes. They also said they had replaced the rear brakes but when We got it home, they were all rusty and worn out. I immediately called the dealer and they had us bring it in and do the brake job they" Forgot" to do.
Same caliper as on an old Mazda3 (and presumably a ford focus too). Always fun when the inner pads piston clips rust through after a couple winters and start to float around. I think that might be one reason for uneven inner wear...though that car as a whole looks pretty freakin clean for the northeast.
