... and rear brakes again

 Rear brakes failed inspection.  New parts from autozone, rotors and pads.  Seems the lower slide pins on both sides had also seized...  so freed them up and lubricated, rewound the pistons using that brake rewind tool, and put 'em back together.  Next time, just grab new slide pins from the parts store too!  Mileage, about 245k.  

Passenger side CV axle...

 Sorry no photos.  This is more for my own documentation...  

245,000 miles.  Symptoms essentially showed wear in probably the inner right CV joint.  Replaced with DSP axle from ESC tuning.  First accidentally ordered one for an auto trans, obviously didn't fit.  Also sheared off the ball joint bolts, so had to get new hardware from ECS as well.  

After a long wait for shipping, all is back together today.  

Thermostat on the 2003 Golf

Golf had been running cool for a couple of months actually...  suspected a thermostat stuck-open.  Finally replaced it.  It was a pain to drain the coolant (especially since there was a bunch trapped behind the thermostat, so even after "draining" there was more to come when I pulled it out, and thus spilled some to the floor)...  but other than that the job went off without a hitch.  Pretty quick.  

And now the temp gauge swings right up to 190 and sits there perfectly.  Wish I'd done it sooner!