Front left brake is sqealing or dragging

Can the master cylender or brake line cause this? New brakes. Old brakes squealed as well before I changed it. Please advise

TDI Waggon, 2002
Thnx

Did you inspect the caliper for damage or issues with the piston? Did you lubricate the pins so the system floats freely?

Yes. We changed it for a known good one. I was told it could be the hose so i bought one. Have not installed yet.

Did you clean and lubricate the caliper guide pins when installing new brakes? If not they won't retract properly when you release the pedal.

Good thought. I will check on that and get back.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Did you clean and lubricate the caliper guide pins when installing new brakes? If not they won't retract properly when you release the pedal.

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You asked the question better than I did because he said yes to my questions. lol

timeline said:

Yes. We changed it for a known good one. I was told it could be the hose so i bought one. Have not installed yet.

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Return it. I am not seeing how that could cause the problem. A hose leaks or doesn't and if it was clogged by some weird chance, you wouldn't even have braking, and thus no drag.

You did ask the same question. I always like the "known good" description of what must be a used part.

Yes used part. This morning we pulled the wheel and found the rear pad not retracting. We cleaned and lubed the caliper and check it. It seemed to be more flexible and retracted. After driving 8 miles it began to squeal again but only slightly near a full stop. I will continue to drive it and see what happens. Will definately come back in a few days and report. Thanks guys for the suggestions. I greatly appreciate. btw there are no leaks in the hose. Could a pinched hose cause this?

Did you buy new calipers? I had this issue on my work van. when you get "remaned" parts you get CRAP QC. I took the caliper apart to find sand blasting media (3 grains) stuck in the walls of the caliper that where binding the cylinder from moving back. if everything is working and its still an issue, just take the slave cylinder or caliper apart and clean it out with break cleaner and put it back together making sure to oil everything you put back together with break fluid.

Mongler98 said:

Did you buy new calipers? I had this issue on my work van. when you get "remaned" parts you get CRAP QC. I took the caliper apart to find sand blasting media (3 grains) stuck in the walls of the caliper that where binding the cylinder from moving back. if everything is working and its still an issue, just take the slave cylinder or caliper apart and clean it out with break cleaner and put it back together making sure to oil everything you put back together with break fluid.

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Funny story about my wife's Toyota Sienna. The caliper pin froze into the caliper mount and the pin snapped when I tried to remove it. It was cheaper to buy the complete caliper w/mount rather than just the mount, bolts and the rubber boot (all sold separately). I took the mount with the bolts and rubber boots, and returned the new caliper as a the core. I told the advance auto guys that I was more comfortable using the 12 year old Toyota caliper rather than the new "rebuilt" one.

Cleaning the guide pins was quite helpful. Quieter than ever before but still squeaks a bit near a slowing roll. If it gets worse I will report in here later. Thanks all. GB

timeline said:

Cleaning the guide pins was quite helpful. Quieter than ever before but still squeaks a bit near a slowing roll. If it gets worse I will report in here later. Thanks all. GB

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Hopefully, you not only cleaned them, but lubricated them with brake grease. It's a lot more water resistant than other kinds of lubricants. It looks similar to the grease used for boat winches and sunroofs.

Did you lube the back of the pad where it contacts the piston? They also sell anti-squeal for the same thing.

If you haven't already, a couple hard braking events could help.

Anti squeal? Is that a spray? I'll try hard breaking a few times too bob. Not sure on that lube to the rear of piston. Will check.

My mechanic said "That’s the teves style slider which never sticks, the Lucas/girdling style (like the back brakes) on your car is the one that sticks"

front brake squeal Countinued...

OK
I'm back to loud squeling once again. We are changing out the ABS unit next. Thoughts?

Ive got a squealer, first thing in the morning, my left rear. New Zimmerman rotors, ceramic pads and reman caliper. I have an IR thermometer and before the new parts I was getting 600 degrees F on that rotor, now I'm at about 130-145F.

You'd think that was good but my other rear rotor and the fronts are just slightly above ambient so its still sticking though not like before. I'm going to change out the rubber hoses this week. Both the inner on the axle and from the metal line to the caliper. That's all that's left.

Yea. I would have started with hoses as my mechanic suggested but the part came available cheap. My mechanic EM'd me yesterday, said he installed a 6 speed tranny in an older TDI and he though he could handle the swap of the ABS unit after doing allot of work around the ABS unit. Anyway, if the ABS unit is the culprit, I will know later today or tomorrow.

I do agree, the place to have the best calipers is on the rear. I have one that has been hanging up frozen and locks up in the AM. All I have to do though is pull hard on the EM brake and it releases immediately. I also notice the drag in my milage at about 7mpg when dragging. It's a bit hard to tell when it is dragging.
Would be nice to have heat sensors on the rotors that read out on the dash when at issue.

Lube pad backing (where pistons contact) and the outer edges of the pad backing ears (metal, very little grease), and slider pins.

Hubs have to be clean. If they are not the rotors won't seat flush and you'll end up with run-out (which will cause pulsing issues- pedal feel perhaps, and or noise).

I have no tolerance for less than perfect brakes. I replaced front calipers, rotors and pads on the wife's car recently because the PO's (commissioned) brake job was crap. "New" calipers were likely cheap crap: may have gotten 50k miles in total. Got to the point that one was really dragging: to the tune of at least 1 1/2 mpg FE degradation. I suspect that the same shop that put on crappy calipers also stripped one of the slider pins (I repaired this about 2 years ago).

That would be my order of attacking this problem.

Be sure to change brake fluid every two years.

UhOh said:

Lube pad backing (where pistons contact) and the outer edges of the pad backing ears (metal, very little grease), and slider pins.

Hubs have to be clean. If they are not the rotors won't seat flush and you'll end up with run-out (which will cause pulsing issues- pedal feel perhaps, and or noise).

I have no tolerance for less than perfect brakes. I replaced front calipers, rotors and pads on the wife's car recently because the PO's (commissioned) brake job was crap. "New" calipers were likely cheap crap: may have gotten 50k miles in total. Got to the point that one was really dragging: to the tune of at least 1 1/2 mpg FE degradation. I suspect that the same shop that put on crappy calipers also stripped one of the slider pins (I repaired this about 2 years ago).

That would be my order of attacking this problem.

Be sure to change brake fluid every two years.

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Thanks. Tried some of that. Where is PNW?

timeline said:

Thanks. Tried some of that. Where is PNW?

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With brakes you pretty much have to do everything right. And, as I did, sometimes you just have pitch everything out and start from scratch (with good parts).

On my car I'd had some noises following new rotors and pads on the front: brakes were so bad when I'd gotten my car (at only 114k miles) that I had one pad separate from the backing. I wasn't happy. Pulled pads and gave them more grease and they've been quiet now for over 40k miles: the amount of grease you get with pads is pathetic- I broke down and bought a container of brake grease (at the time I had next to nothing in the way of a shop, storage space was limited- all my work was done outdoors, and a fair distance from that shop).

PNW = Pacific North West.

stear clear or reman calipers, 2 times i have had to take them apart to get sand from the blasting process they do when they rebuild them. 3 grains of sand in the caliper. ***. STAY AWAY FROM REMANUFACTURED PARTS. its easy to rebuild a caliper, SO EASY, never buy or trade in for another one. copper antisize on all the pins and lub points too. use brake quiet gel on the backs of the pads too.

Thanks Mongler98

Mongler98 said:

stear clear or reman calipers, 2 times i have had to take them apart to get sand from the blasting process they do when they rebuild them. 3 grains of sand in the caliper. ***. STAY AWAY FROM REMANUFACTURED PARTS. its easy to rebuild a caliper, SO EASY, never buy or trade in for another one. copper antisize on all the pins and lub points too. use brake quiet gel on the backs of the pads too.

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DO NOT put anit-sieze on the pins. You want silicone-based grease. There could be other concerns such as degradation of rubber.

Regarding pins, they should not show any signs of pitting or scaring. Expensive B*st*rds!

I would figure that rebuilt calipers from supporting vendors ought to be fine, though I can't say that I am aware of any. Like I said, I went OEM, direct from the dealer (1stvwpart.com - cheaper than walking into the dealership, but still expensive- peace of mind is well worth it).

Happy Thanks G

120K miles of use on copper and silver antisieze and never had a boot fail or dry rot due to it. I have used regular grease, garage door lube, ect.
I did have a set of rack boots dry rot and crack in 2 months of use for NO reason what so ever, no oil or anything was on them or leaking. it was just some rip off crap from GAP, i called them and they refunded me and informed me who the OEM suppler was. 80K later and there just as new as the first day out of box.
dont know what you mean or your experience is UhOh but i have never had an issue with antisieze other than trying to get it off my hands. This is what is used on high performance brake sets due to heat issues cooking other products.

Mongler98 said:

120K miles of use on copper and silver antisieze and never had a boot fail or dry rot due to it. I have used regular grease, garage door lube, ect.
I did have a set of rack boots dry rot and crack in 2 months of use for NO reason what so ever, no oil or anything was on them or leaking. it was just some rip off crap from GAP, i called them and they refunded me and informed me who the OEM suppler was. 80K later and there just as new as the first day out of box.
dont know what you mean or your experience is UhOh but i have never had an issue with antisieze other than trying to get it off my hands. This is what is used on high performance brake sets due to heat issues cooking other products.

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http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=389265
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=181240

I'm not going to read the whole thread to see if this has been mentioned.

I recently had a problem with my motorcycle's front brake sticking on. It turned out that one of the brake lines had failed internally so that it formed a kind of check-valve in the hose.

If I applied the brake gently, it would be okay. If I applied it firmly, that would cause an internal bulge in the line that blocked the return flow of fluid, making the brake drag.

After messing with it and squeezing the brake repeatedly, I eventually managed to actually burst the line.

A brake the sticks on, for no apparent reason, could be a failing flexible hose.

Boots will deteriorate over time and road abuse like salt, whatever. 4 years later pins still as freely as the first day i rebuilt them, no issues with boots on the pins. its an autocross car and i get the brakes extremely hot by the end of the day. I guess if you kept the car forever that they would rot over time and age exposure. But on a daily with decent parts i dont think it matters honestly. I also did not use very much, enough to get the pin in and wiped it all out. i bet you would be in bad shape if it was packed full though. Same thing with Vaseline and rubber orings. we use it all the time but its "bad" they are both petro based. Technically antifreeze, all water based stuff is bad for your car when they sit in a garage, thats why jay leno uses that snake oil coolant so that it never degrades the aluminum and what not in his 1900's cars. If i did them again i would use some silicone based stuff but i have not seen an issue yet.