Hella Pagid 355025331 Rear Brake Pads, VW & Audi

The Hella Pagid 355025331 is a low-metallic rear brake pad set built for the VW Group platforms that share the 3C0698451 caliper design. If you're running a VW Tiguan, Passat, CC, or an Audi Q3, this is the part number that gets your rear brakes back to factory feel without guesswork. It's a full set for the rear axle, so one box covers both rear wheels.

Low-metallic friction material is the workhorse compound on these cars for a reason. It bites early, holds up under repeated hard stops, and shrugs off the heat you build coming down a grade with a loaded car. You get honest, predictable pedal feel from a cold morning start right through a long highway run. It isn't the quietest or the cleanest compound out there, and it'll leave some dust on the wheels, but the trade is stopping power you can lean on.

Fitment matters more than anything with brake pads, and the VW Group rear-axle family is wide. This same 355025331 shows up across the Tiguan, Passat, CC, Golf, Sharan and Audi Q3 depending on model year and brake package. Because the range spans roughly 2008 through 2018 and several trim and drivetrain combinations, check your VIN or the current pads against the OE number before you order. The pad references OE 3C0698451E along with supersessions 5N0698451, 1K0698451L and 3AA698451A, so if your old set or your parts diagram lists any of those, you're in the right place.

These are cut to the rear caliper pattern used on these platforms, with a pad width of 105.5 mm and a thickness of 17.2 mm. The set weighs about 1.3 kg. Hella includes the caliper mounting screws and the small fitting accessories in the box, which is where the "with mounting hardware" in the listing comes from. That's the stuff that's easy to forget and annoying to source separately once the wheel is off.

A word on wear sensors. On most of these VW Group cars the brake wear sensor lives on the front axle, not the rear, so a rear pad set like this one typically doesn't carry a sensor and doesn't need one. If your specific car does use a rear sensor, plan to reuse or replace it separately, since it isn't part of this set. When the data is silent, treat the sensor as sold separately rather than assuming it's included.

Who's this for? Anybody doing their own rear brake service on one of these cars, or a shop that wants a known-good pad without paying dealer prices. If your rears are down to the backing plate, squealing, or just past their service life, a fresh set of low-metallic pads restores the bite. Inspect your rotors while you're in there. If they're grooved, below minimum thickness, or heat-checked, replace them too, because new pads on tired rotors won't feel right and won't last.

Bed them in before you trust them. After the install, do a series of moderate stops from around 35 mph, easing off before a full stop, to transfer an even layer of friction material onto the rotor. That break-in step is what gives you quiet, even braking and keeps pad life where it should be. Don't drag the brakes or park hot with the pedal pressed during the first few hundred miles.

Hella Pagid brings decades of European braking supply to the aftermarket, and these pads are engineered to OE fitment and friction standards. That means the pad slots into your caliper the way the original did, wears at a sensible rate, and works with your car's existing hardware. It's a straightforward, reliable choice for keeping a VW or Audi stopping the way it did when it left the lot.