# 2012 Jetta 2.5 Brake Pads



## kieran123 (Feb 2, 2017)

There seems to be multiple sizes of brake pads for my model Jetta.

Is there any easy way to identify which ones I have?

Options are:

288mm front or 312mm front
253mm rear or 272mm rear

Some come with an electronic wear sensor. What exactly does this sensor do? I assume I don't have a sensor as of now.


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## Thy_Harrowing (Dec 7, 2014)

kieran123 said:


> There seems to be multiple sizes of brake pads for my model Jetta.
> 
> Is there any easy way to identify which ones I have?
> 
> ...



Those sizes refer to the rotors themselves as the pads are matched for caliper/rotor size. You most likely have the 312mm and 272mm but if you want to be 100% sure you should either go measure them or call a dealer with your VIN number handy and they will tell you. The electric wear sensor just warns you when your pads are past a certain wear threshold. On most VW models I've worked on (which have mostly been the generations before yours) there is only one wear sensor on one side because typically the pads wear evenly (unless one side has a caliper issue) so if they are wearing evenly there only needs to be one sensor. You likely have one, maybe two on your generation model, they are pretty standard. There's no wizardry about it man, it just plugs and unplugs. You'll see if you're doing this pad change yourself...

I'm assuming you are if you are buying the parts. You seem new to this kinda thing so you'll want to look up some DIYs on how to change them. It's very easy, anyone can do it if they put their mind to it. But let me offer a couple tips that not all DIYs mention:

A) every bolt on your car has a torque spec which is how tight you should make it. Under-torquing is not safe, they could be too loose and bad **** could happen. Over-torquing is bad too, you could strip the threads for the bolt and then you're screwed, or you could warp something like over-torquing wheel bolts and warping your wheel bearing. Some bolts aren't so big a deal and truly over-torquing them is quite difficult (e.g. the caliper carrier bolts). But some can be over-torqued rather easily (e.g. the bolts on the end of the caliper slide pins). I wouldn't say knowing the torque specs for a brake pad job is a requirement, per se, but it's generally a good habit to know them anyway to be safe. When in doubt, don't overdo it. Just go nice and tight and a bit extra. Oh and btw, the way you measure how much your torqued a bolt is with a special wrench called a torque wrench... you may want one.

B) When you remove the caliper slide pins make sure you clean them and re-grease them with proper synthetic/high-temp break parts grease. Do not skip this step or you'll probably regret it some time later.

C) Make sure you follow proper break bed-in procedures according to the manufacturer of the pad you buy. All manufacturers procedure is a bit different but if you can't find theirs the general procedure is as follows: 1) after installing pads get out on a empty and fairly straight road and use as little braking as possible on your way there; 2) once out there, get up to 60mph and then stomp on the brakes until you slow down to 10-20mph, then speed right back up to 60mph and stomp the brakes until you're back down to 10-20mph again. Repeat this process a total of 10 times. DO NOT stomp on the brakes hard enough to engage ABS but DO stomp on them hard enough to be pretty close to that point. The purpose is to heat them up as much as you can during this process, more on why later. You will notice during the last 4 or so runs that the braking power will decrease (fade), this means you're doing the right thing, you're heating them up. This is only temporary, when they cool they will be back to normal, better actually because of the bed-in process; 3) Once done the 10x let the brakes cool for several minutes (as in keep driving so the moving air cools them but use them as little as possible). After several minutes of cooling you can go park, your brakes are bedded-in.

Bedding-in brakes is necessary to make sure the brakes and rotors surfaces are mated properly which will give you the best performance out of your pads and minimal noise/vibrations from braking as possible.


Any more questions, feel free to ask.


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## kieran123 (Feb 2, 2017)

Thy_Harrowing said:


> Those sizes refer to the rotors themselves as the pads are matched for caliper/rotor size. You most likely have the 312mm and 272mm but if you want to be 100% sure you should either go measure them or call a dealer with your VIN number handy and they will tell you. The electric wear sensor just warns you when your pads are past a certain wear threshold. On most VW models I've worked on (which have mostly been the generations before yours) there is only one wear sensor on one side because typically the pads wear evenly (unless one side has a caliper issue) so if they are wearing evenly there only needs to be one sensor. You likely have one, maybe two on your generation model, they are pretty standard. There's no wizardry about it man, it just plugs and unplugs. You'll see if you're doing this pad change yourself...
> 
> I'm assuming you are if you are buying the parts. You seem new to this kinda thing so you'll want to look up some DIYs on how to change them. It's very easy, anyone can do it if they put their mind to it. But let me offer a couple tips that not all DIYs mention:
> 
> ...


Awesome, thank you for the response. I will measure the rotors, and order accordingly.

I assume it's OK to order pads without sensors if I don't care for them? Or will I get dash lights?


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## Thy_Harrowing (Dec 7, 2014)

kieran123 said:


> Awesome, thank you for the response. I will measure the rotors, and order accordingly.
> 
> I assume it's OK to order pads without sensors if I don't care for them? Or will I get dash lights?


Yes you can order pads without wear sensors. But you will get a dash light. It's not a problem though because the wear sensor is just a simple on-off type which means you can turn it off if you cut off the connector harness and then complete the circuit between the two wires by splicing them together and securing by soldering or using any number of other means. Alternatively, you can get somebody with a vag-com unit (aka VCDS) or get it yourself if you plan to get into maintaining and diagnosing your car on your own (VCDS pays for itself many times over if you get into doing your own work even a little bit) and it can just disable the wear indicator light altogether. I have VCDS and if you happen to live near West Chester, PA I could do it for you.


Edit: I mentioned torque specs in the other posts, I probably should have just told you what they were at the time too. So here they are:

For brake pad change only (e.g. not a rotor change) you only have to remove the wheels and the caliper slide pins to pull the caliper out of the way. The wheel bolt spec is 90 ft-lbs and the slide pins torque spec is roughly 30 ft-lbs (that's off of memory but I'm positive it isn't more than 40 ft-lbs and it's not under 30 ft-lbs so just go with 30 ft-lbs, maybe a tad more, and you'll be fine). Don't go more than that. For reference, 30 ft-lbs is basically getting it to pretty tight plus a quarter or half turn. If you're ever putting more than fairly little effort on your ratchet to tighten something you're past 30 ft-lbs unless you're using a tiny short ratchet.

If you're doing rotors too then you need to remove the caliper carriers themselves, those use pretty big bolts that get at least 60 ft-lbs but I feel like it might be as high as 140 ft-lbs "by the book" if I recall. That's pretty ridiculous though, I'd feel plenty plenty comfortable with 80 ft-lbs on my carrier bolts. And then there is the tiny little rotor set screw which is like 4 ft-lbs. It is literally just to keep the rotor in place while you put your caliper carriers back on. It does NOT hold the rotor in after that so you barely have to screw it in and if you overdo it it will strip.


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## kieran123 (Feb 2, 2017)

Thy_Harrowing said:


> Yes you can order pads without wear sensors. But you will get a dash light. It's not a problem though because the wear sensor is just a simple on-off type which means you can turn it off if you cut off the connector harness and then complete the circuit between the two wires by splicing them together and securing by soldering or using any number of other means. Alternatively, you can get somebody with a vag-com unit (aka VCDS) or get it yourself if you plan to get into maintaining and diagnosing your car on your own (VCDS pays for itself many times over if you get into doing your own work even a little bit) and it can just disable the wear indicator light altogether. I have VCDS and if you happen to live near West Chester, PA I could do it for you.
> 
> 
> Edit: I mentioned torque specs in the other posts, I probably should have just told you what they were at the time too. So here they are:
> ...


Thanks again!

I am curious if I even have the sensors, as I for sure need new brakes, but am not getting any warning of such on my dash. I will check when I measure rotors.


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