Needed to do the rear pads on the Passat W8 wagon this weekend to get it to pass state inspection this month, they were thin ut honeslty probably had another year or so in them as much as I drive this car (3K a year). Bent my Harbor Freight piston tool, the handle portion, so just cut it off and used too nuts. Had to attach the lower slider bolt and use an impact socket to get all the counter forces right, holy cow was this hard. Used a huge breaker bar to get it to start spinning (right side). Left wasn't as bad and just used an impact gun to retract it. Fresh VW pads, greased the pins (which were smooth/moved easily), all set. Just need to flush the fluid/bleed it. Front pads look ok so not messing with them.