Generally speaking, I just take the caliper off with the carrier, as the caliepr bolts come undone far easier than the slide bolts.

If you have to undo the slide bolts, the best thing to do is the night before you're planning on doing the job, get a can of you chosen release agent, put the straw on the nozzle and slide it down between the boot and the bolt and give it a good squirt all round. A 6mm hex bit in a ratchet works far better than an allen key. If you can put an impact driver in first and give them a pop with that, even better.

If they're stretch bolts, do you replace them every single time you remove them? Or torque them up right etc?

Best thing to use is a hex on a socket and tap it right in with a hammer, they're generally a better fit

Yeti, on a mk4 which these bolts are referred to you can't take the carrier off, it's built into the knuckle :)

Yeti, on a mk4 which these bolts are referred to you can't take the carrier off, it's built into the knuckle :)

Unless it's a 16v!

Fair point, I forgot we were taking spaniards not germans.

Yeah I know it's different on 16v/majority of cars in the world haha, but this thread tis not an option