rear brake caliper problem

[NL-TDI]

So I had a problem with weaing out the left rear brake pads. I thought it was the parking brake cable being too tight so I loosened it.....still had the problem.......so I asked a mechanic about it and he says that the guts of the caliper that control the parking brake are probably rusted out and thats a common problem.......so I ordered a new caliper from IDParts.....guess what......still got the left brake dragging.....the only way I can see this being possible is if by fluke the new caliper is bad? Its not the park brake this time cause if I push the brake pedal with the car jacked up and then go try to turn the tire it is very hard to turn. If I hit the caliper with a hammer then it loosens up......anyone have a suggestion on what to do next I would appreciate it......thanks

 

[El Dobro]

It may not hurt to loosen the PB cable more to see if there's a difference. I had mine loose enough that 7-8 clicks of the handle started tightening the cable.

 

[NL-TDI]

Thanks....tried that......the parking brake thingy on the caliper has a stop on it... at its all the way to the stop.

 

[El Dobro]

Try screwing the piston on the caliper all the way in, and pump up the brakes to reseat it. After that, when using the parking brake, pull the lever up lightly when using it. The system VW uses to keep the piston from turning isn't the greatest and the piston may be coming out too far when using the PB.

 

[nforkvw]

Left Rear Caliper Sticking

I got the same problem, at the 20K service check, the dealer said, hey, the left rear pads are about wore out and the right side looks fine, okay,
So they ordered me a new caliper and put that on, new pads both sides, and, a brake flush, and e-brake re-set and adjustment,
Now I got 42K and driving home from work yesterday I kind of feel and hear the grinding noise, I get home and get my flashlight, the left pads are gone, and the right side ones look fine,
I think there is something else going besides the caliper and e-brake, something is making it drag all of the time,
Trying to get hold of service rep now to see if I can get it fixed under warranty from that previous service ticket, a year and half ago,

 

[nforkvw]

Rear Brake Problem

So, I dropped the car off and have the dealer check it out, they say, no problem with the caliper, that I do need rotors and pads $425, at 42K, and they were replaced at 21K under warranty,

I can't believe, that every 21K miles, that I will need new rear rotors and pads? Something is wrong, as I have (2) 2009 VW Jetta TDIs, the other one, same mileage, same driving, needs no brakes, and it is at 42K also,

I can't afford $425 every 21K, just for brakes,

Anybody else having this problem with their left rear or rear brakes like this?

 

[740GLE]

first, step away from the dealer.

I'd say there is an alignment problem with how the caliper mounts, or a binding with the caliper to the bracket (slider) if the dealer replaced the caliper but installed it on a bracket with toofed up sliders or installed improperly you'll still have the same issue. If the caliper can compress it's working, if it can't slide properly it's the bracket.

http://www.ecstuning.com/stage/edoc/GTIrearbrakes.pdf

explains more of the rear brakes and what could go wrong.

 

[DZL_Damon]

Mine is doing this too. I looked through my service reports from when I had free services and they had NOTED that my left rears were wearing far further... but they never mentioned anything to me nor did they do anything about it.

I'm hoping it's just a stuck parking brake cable. I've heard they get sticky.

 

[where2]

I feel lucky then. My wife's 2006 MkV rear brake pads lasted until 60k when they were squeaky every time she backed out of the driveway. My company car is at 80k and the rear pads still look fine according to the dealer service department when it had it's 80k service.

When the dealer told me $250 to put new pads on the rear of my wife's Jetta, I wanted to choke the service advisor through the phone. I asked him what kind of gold plated unobtanium these rear VW brake pads were made from?? I ran the pads on the back of my Corrado for 100k miles and they still had plenty of meat on them. I told him I wasn't sure which was worse, the fact that it needed new pads at 60k, or the $250 robbery you just offered me to swap them out while you've got the car in the shop on the lift? In the end, I had the service advisor toss a box of pads in the back seat foot well for $55 and I "borrowed" the caliper reset tool from the local advance auto parts tool department. Bing, bang, done job in under 2 hours using the trunk jack (my rolling floor jack is buried in the garage). It's nice the factory pads give you new clips, new bolts, and come with anti-squeal backing. I threw a layer of red anti-squeal on them anyhow, since I had it, and didn't feel like going back in if VW's stock material didn't quiet them enough.

There's apparently some serious variability in the wear on this model...

 

[Smokey320]

Im having the same problem. I replaced the rear pads today, the rights had about 50% left and the lefts were down to about 10%. Yet when I installed new pads and reassembled, the tire spun freely no matter what I did, I couldnt get the pads to drag. Tried playing with the ebrake, pressing the brake and even drove it. Seems to be fine now. I plan to file a complaint with NHTSA, not sure if they will look at it as a safety issue though.

 

[bernie165]

So, I dropped the car off and have the dealer check it out, they say, no problem with the caliper, that I do need rotors and pads $425, at 42K, and they were replaced at 21K under warranty,

I can't believe, that every 21K miles, that I will need new rear rotors and pads? Something is wrong, as I have (2) 2009 VW Jetta TDIs, the other one, same mileage, same driving, needs no brakes, and it is at 42K also,

I can't afford $425 every 21K, just for brakes,

Anybody else having this problem with their left rear or rear brakes like this?

+1 - and I loosened the e-brake too. I started pulling on the ebrake handle more than I would normally want to in order to rotate the return spring more - and since then no problems.....but I still don't understand why its exclusively on the driver side.

 

[Smokey320]

I filed a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today and the lady I spoke with told me she was looking at at least 13 similar complaints regaurding the back left brakes. I dont know how many complaints its takes before they force a recall but the more the better. Heres the hotline - 1-888-327-4236, 1-800-424-9153, takes about 15 minutes.

 

[Smokey320]

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/complaints/results.cfm

 

[bulabula]

Hmmm, I've had the same issue with my Jetta. Thanks for posting this.

 

[tdi_addict]

Same issue here....Left side worn out and right side still 75% good

 

[john_tsouris@hotmail.com]

There are actually two problems being described here, and both have to do with a crappy caliper design.

My first set of driver rear brakes lasted about 20k. This was due to me putting the parking brake on full power. It does not return all the way back to the starting position, and it wears out the brakes.

I then started to only put on the parking brake just enough to keep the car still. I then got about 220,000 miles out of the brakes, with about 30% pad left. Nice!

But at this point, due to only moving the parking brake caliper arm a very small fraction of its full travel, this caused the parking brake arm to freeze up. This causes the parking brake to freeze 'on' and a loose parking brake handle. I have a nice picture of a red hot rotor thanks to this. Very pretty.

You have to work the parking brake arm with a pair of pliers to loosen it up a bit, or disassemble the caliper and clean it out. A fresh fluid change wouldn't hurt, and neither would a new caliper.

The good news is, if you don't gorilla arm the parking brakes, you can get 200k+ out of the pads. Come to think of it, 220k out of calipers isn't too bad, but my daughter's Jetta is running 240k with no problems at all.

 

[NL-TDI]

Well nice to see I'm not the only one with this problem. Planning to do the rear rotors and pads in the spring and see what happens with the left side then. Guess I wasted my money buying a new caliper....o well....very strange this problem is. Thanks everyone for your posts

 

[tdi_addict]

Mine are still hot. Found the problem is the cable is not allowing the lever to go to the completely off position. I hammered it off and the wheel turns freely. I unhooked the driver side cable and the lever springs back perfectly. Gotta be a ebrake cable problem. 130,000 km and on its 3rd rear brakes! Will try to free up cable or move actuation arm on caliper forward to require more pull to activate.

 

[chudzikb]

Who uses the parking brake? A wise friend of mine once told me, never in the winter as they freeze up. So, I just stopped using, never had any problems because I don't use the parking brake!

 

[NL-TDI]

Still happening. Frustrating

 

[williamgd2]

The dragging left back brake will definitlly kill you millage. I hope my car doesn't develop that and I hope you guys or gals get it figured out.

 

[4Chin]

When I bought my car the left rear was to metal while the right had 3/4 pad left. Had the pads changed and now have 20000 miles with even wear. Weird. If it stops wearing right I'll check the E-brake too.

 

[Elfnmagik]

If the parking mechanism is fully up against the stop it may be actuating the brake. Mine would anyways.

See bold in the post below:
https://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3452149&postcount=1

 

[NL-TDI]

Ok folks I might have this fixed!

I got at the brake again today and had to buy new pads again for the left rear. Rewound the caliper all the way in. I even took off the rubber brake line and blew it out to make sure it was good. Anyhow when I was installing the new pads I noticed that the new slider clips were very tight and the pads would not move hardly at all. So I tried installing the pads without the clips and well they now work great!! No more sticking brakes!! I think without the clips for some reason there is now just enough clearance for the pads to move freely. Working good for now anyway.

 

[sebz]

http://www.ecstuning.com/ES1218784/

try this

 

[bustNfuel]

I replaced my rear brake pads today, with 53K miles on them. Right rear 60% remaining, left rear inside pad down to the rivets. Thankfully it's a brass rivet so the rotor is still good.
Changed them myself. Rented a caliper reset tool at AutoZone. Took me about 2 hours since I wasn't in a hurry. Drove it to AutoZone to return the tool, and shot the rotors with my Raytek thermal infrared gun (reads the temp on an LCD digital display).
Left rear brake rotor 230 degrees F, the other three rotors were even temps at 130 degrees F. Left rear is dragging already.
This car is not driven in a corrosive (winter road salt) environment so corrosion is not an issue. Parking brake returns to the stop.

I'm not thrilled to see other reports of left rears dragging. Hope to find a solution, as it seems replacing the caliper does NOT take care of the issue.

 

[bustNfuel]

It's 1 AM and I'm driving home from the airport, about 20 minutes at interstate speed. Stopped at a traffic light after I exited the interstate and was engulfed in smoke. Thought it was strange to kick up dust like that on pavement..then smelled the acrid aroma of hot brakes. Pulled over in a parking lot and checked the brake temp with my handheld Raytek infrared thermometer. 720F +!!!!! The other 3 brake rotors were 120F.


Time to start researching this issue again.

 

[jfd3220]

My DS rear is sticking too

Has nobody found a solution to this? I've noticed my fuel economy dropping by a couple of mpg the last couple of fillups and yesterday I started hearing a humming sound from the driver's side rear brake. Sure enough the rotor was red hot and could barely rotate the wheel when I jacked it up. I didn't have time to do a proper service so just rotated the piston back in and went for a drive. It's still dragging. The e-brake lever is seating at the stop, so that's not the issue. I don't see the point of changing the pads/rotor/caliper if it's not going to solve the problem. Has anyone figured this out?

 

[bustNfuel]

Has nobody found a solution to this?..... I don't see the point of changing the pads/rotor/caliper if it's not going to solve the problem. Has anyone figured this out?

I took my Jetta in to a local VW dealership's service department and had them do the 'free' brake checkup. I told the tech what I had done (new pads, adjusted the e-brake cable). They found nothing wrong with the brake booster or ABS system. I was quoted almost $400 to replace the brake caliper. Forget that! I ended up buying a new TRW (what the OEM part is) from IDParts.com for about $140 and installed it myself. Replacing the caliper fixed my problem. Maybe the internal mechanism of the parking brake in the caliper itself was not retracting? I don't know for sure.

Still noticing a drop in fuel economy over the past several months as well. Even after replacing my dragging caliper my fuel economy is 5 MPG average less than it has been over the course of the past 54K miles. Maybe my other rear caliper is dragging some...

 

[jfd3220]

Well, I replaced my rear caliper yesterday, along with the rotors and pads on both sides. Still dragging! There was a strong burnt pad smell when I got out of the car this evening. The e-brake cable is still going all the way to the stop. I'm going to try backing the piston out and not using the parking brake at all for a couple of days and see if that changes anything.