If you cannot identify this fixing - should you really be working on your brakes?

Actually a clamp and a pair of water pump pliers works rather well.

Fasten clamp around caliper and piston. Tighten to provide pressure. Wind piston round with water pump pliers until clamp loosens. Tighten clamp. Repeat until fully wound in.

It's a slow, fiddly job requiring a bit of care, but saves buying a tool for each type.

As for leaving it to the professionals, 170EUR for a set of read pads fitted against 20 and an hour's fiddly caliper winding? I'd consider that option when money grows on trees.

Can anybody please answer the following? When winding back the caliper pistons with the correct tool do you have to wind back clockwise, anti-clockwise or does it not matter. Tool I have is handed so can go both ways.

I don't buy VW products so haven't found these splined fittings yet...are they like the old splined bolts as fitted to the idler/adjuster on Ford OHC Cortina/Sierra engines, needed two different sizes when changing the cambelt.

I got a bit cheesed off when they started changing over to hex and torx screws and bolts, but in practice these seldom get damaged like Philips screw heads do, and once you're locked into the screw you can usually undo the thing fully and extract it without it dropping into the most inaccessible part of the car.

A prime example is the 8mm Allen bolts that secure discs to hubs on MB's, these without fail come undone easily on 20 year old cars...invariably when you come to a car fitted with Philips screw in the same place its a case of dig the impact screw driver out and bash hell out of it hoping for the best, most lorry light fittings are now torx, vastly superior to Philips, and stops some halfwit trying to undo these Philips with a chisel/lmatchstick/coin/flat screwdriver/wrong size Philips and chewing the damned things up completely.

Edited by gordonbennet on 09/06/2014 at 15:42

Or even better, this set copes with Torx and spline screw heads that you may come across as well as the more usual hex.

www.drapertools.com/product/33323/Draper-TX-STAR-H...t-(40-Piece)

Had this set for longer than i can remember, good quality, never broken or mangled any of the bits including when I had a pro workshop.