Rear hand brake

Golf TDI MK4 2003


A young lad borrowed my VW and drove it a few kilometers with the rear hand brake on, trailing smoke from the brake pads.


Since then the hand brake does not work.


What am I looking at to fix this? There seems to be lots of material on rear brake pads.

Possible stretched cable, possible overheated and froze the calipers. Hard to say, you may need to pull on yhr handle while someone watches the rear calipers to see if the brake linkage is moving with the handle.

It is not a cable issue but the E brake shoes are toast. Where can I get these online? I've looked everywhere. Does anyone know where I can find an online parts fiche?

Parking brake shoes?
You mean the rear brake pads?
Pretty much every company that makes brake pads makes pads for an '03 Jetta.
I like Jurid.
Here's a Canadian supplier:
https://partsavatar.ca/category/rep...tors&t2=Brake+Pad&t3=Rear+Brake+Pad&year=2003
Out of these I'd go for the HELLA/PAGID

Yeah, these don't use parking brake shoes. They use the regular disc and pads as the parking brake.

The Parking brake caliper levers are most likely stuck in the on position. That puts slack in the cabin lever. If you release the cabin lever the caliper lever will remain in the ON position and wear the pads down until you yank on the cabin lever again.

I see this on many, many cars that come in.

The fix is new calipers because trying to lube up the caliper levers to loosen them is usually a short term fix. The sealing surfaces on the shaft get pitted and invite the elements to muck up the works.

Time to replace the rotors, pads, and rebuild or replace the rear calipers. Also, check the rear wheel bearings. Overheated brakes can cause lots of unseen damage.

My 82 MB 300D had rear e-brakes shoes, and rear disc pads. It had a true, separate, cable operated e-brake system.