Someone came by, for some wheels, this morning. Said he’d be in a black BMW, but I wasn’t expecting this.... haven’t seen one of these up close and personal, in decades.
Anywho, I decided to dig into the Rotbox. I may need to wake the truck from it’s slumber to pick up some Rabbit parts, and Rotbox is in the way.
I remember the PO telling me he installed new front rotors, pads and remanned front calipers. They’re now covered in rust... they were likely blasted and never replated. The carriers looked very clean...
It took a lot of effort to get the caliper to release insitu.... needed to hammer a chisel through the inspection window, to open it up. Started the car and it was still dragging. Pulled the caliper and needed a lot of pedal force to get the piston to move. Once it popped free, I was able to push it in with a c-clamp, but the last 1/8” was really tough. Repeated the pedal and c-clamp a few times, but it never got better.
Decided to grab a used spare, from the shed. Pushed the piston out with air and pushed it back in. This one felt normal, and it got installed and bled. Sanded the pads on a flat surface (firewall counterweight) with some 80 grit, cleaned up the rotor with the die grinder, relubled the slide pins and cleaned the pad mating surfaces on the carrier, drilled out the broken rotor screw and retapped it, and bolted it back together.
Maybe a year ago, I had the same thing happen to the left side, on the B4. I expected the piston and bore to be covered in rust, but when I finally got the piston out, everything was perfectly clean. The square cut o-ring must have swelled.... I’m curious if this one will be the same.
Did a few laps through the neighborhood and it felt as it should. Tore the driver side apart to ensure that caliper retracted properly, which it did. Drilled that broken rotor screw out and retapped it, also. I install SS screws, nowadays.
Parked it, and called it quits, for the day.
-Todd