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This weekend, I did a lot of maintenance items for my car: new rear rotors and brake pads, new brake fluid, and a new CAT fuel filter.

I should have taken more pics of the brake pads and rotor replacement procedure, but I was getting frustrated by how long it took me to do these things. I first had to jack the jar up onto four jack stands and take all the wheels off. After looking at the brake pads on the front wheels (which I was planning on replacing as well), I was surprised to find that the rear brakes were worse than the front! Normally, the front brakes wear faster than the rear brakes, since when you brake, most of the weight of the car transfers to the front. This is also the reason some car companies skimp on the rear brakes and have front disc with rear drum brakes.

After some reading on tdiclub.com, the rear brake pads are small and soft, and VW designed them that way. The rear calipers have a piston that needs to be turned while pushing to reset them back to their initial position. I used a Metal Nerd brake capiler reset tool and it worked fine. Since this was the first time I replaced brakes, I made sure to take my time. After the calipers were reset, and the brake pads and rotors were installed, I changed the brake fluid.

Changing the brake fluid is pretty easy, but time consuming. At each wheel, there’s a bleeder nipple thingy that you connect a tube to, and direct to a drain bottle of some time. Using a pressure bleeder attached to the brake fluid reservoir, pressure is applied to the system. You just loosen the bleeder screw a little and fluid drains from the bleeder screw into the drain bottle. I also bled the fluid for the clutch, which uses the same fluid from the same reservoir. The only issue I had was making sure the brake fluid reservoir did not go below the min level. On my car, the reservoir was opaque! I had to keep using a flashlight and opening the cap to make sure the level did not go too low. When it got to the min level, I filled it back up. In the end, I used two 12oz bottles.

I’m not entirely sure I replaced all the fluid, but I’m going to replace it all again in a few months using a different colored brake fluid (Blue). Using a different color just makes it easier to tell when the fluid is new. The old fluid I drained was pretty dark, but after some time, the fluid gradually got lighter. I don’t know if I stopped too early or too late. Hopefully the color change will help that out.

Today I replaced my OEM fuel filter with a CAT fuel filter kit. The installation was similar to a regular fuel filter change, but required some minor modifications. I must have let air into the line going to the engine, because I couldn’t start it after a few minutes. When I first tried starting the car, it started fine and ran for a few minutes. Eventually, it started sputtering and died. After cycling the ignition a few times, I just kept attempting to start the car, letting the starter rest for 30 seconds between attempts. After the first five attempts, I started getting nervous, but it started right up after the sixth time.

Now all I have to do is install my DieselGeek bypass filter kit. While working on my brakes, I noticed that I had some oil on the backside of the engine and on the dogbone mount, directly above my metal skidplate. I guess that’ll be my next troubleshooting sessions. I don’t really notice exessive oil consumption, although I have had to add a quart or so between oil changes. I’ll first try replacing the oil filler cap gasket (the lower one), then the tandem pump gasket. Next weekend, I need to take the valve cover to inspect my camshaft and lifters anyway, so when I reinstall it, I’ll make sure to tighten the bolts to the correct torque values. Hopefully one of those fixes the issue. VW calls it “sweating”.