Originally Posted by Motoxr392

It is possible to replace the rear pads without any software. It took me a lot of figuring out, but we figured out how to get the caliper piston in without damaging it. Basically, we had to unbolt the electronic motor from the caliper (2 torx screws). The motor assembly pulls straight off with a little persuasion to reveal a spline drive input on the back of the caliper. We used a torx bit (allen would probably work too) to screw in the e-brake piston (the e brake motor operates a piston on a screw,internal to the actual caliper piston). Once the screw is all the way in, the e-brake piston is backed off, and the caliper piston can be pushed in easily.

Originally Posted by Motoxr392

Oops didn't see the earlier post! Wish I woulda seen it a few hours ago!

Originally Posted by haloguy628

Find somebody with VAG-COM and do the retraction/calibration procedure. The procedure not only retract the piston, it also calibrates the position of the piston after new pads are installed by cycling the piston back and forth few times.

When you just mechanically retract the piston the ECU loses this information and can not determine where exactly the piston is. This can cause problems not only with braking but also affect the ABS system.