- #166 of 177
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Re: Anyone have collateral damage due to the heat buildup? [07wolfie]
by thess02
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Oct 22, 2009 (5:45 pm)
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Replying to: 07wolfie (Oct 22, 2009 12:09 am)
I just replaced the rear brake pads on my 07 Jetta. I never noticed any heat issues with the brakes. The left rear pads were wearing slightly faster than the right rear pads....down to 5mm thickness. I just went ahead and changed them. Bought a set at Autozone OE equivalent rear pads for $21.00. Good semi metallic pads with a lifetime replacement warranty. They wear out...you take the old pads in...exchange for a new set. The pads at the dealership were $66.00 here in South GA. You do get new caliper bolts and shims with the dealer kit....but not with the Autozone pads. I reused the original caliper bolts which looked perfect and applied new blue loctite. These are not self locking bolts so if you reuse them...you must reapply the loctite. I think the problem with the rear pad wear is actually being caused by the calipers. The parking brake rotates a threaded piston within the hydraulic caliper piston and I noticed a bit of roughness in the left rear caliper on my car. If you are familiar with rear disk brakes you know the parking brake piston needs to be turned in to gain clearance for the new pads. That's where I noticed a bit of roughness...rotating the piston in. I did not remove the rubber dust seal to look further though. My pads were not dragging as yours seem to be.....thats why you had heat buildup. I did notice my parking brake cable was initially improperly adjusted. Look at this area too....I readjusted the clearance on mine. Get yourself a manual...the brakes aren't difficult to work on.
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- #167 of 177
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Re: Early brake pad wear 2008 jetta [joejoe8]
by thess02
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Oct 26, 2009 (11:42 am)
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Replying to: joejoe8 (Aug 25, 2009 10:24 am)
I'm surprised you or your mechanic didn't notice brake pad wear before the pads were worn to metal. Check pad wear every 10,000 miles max. I believe new pads start with 13mm of pad material and the manual specifies minimum pad thickness at 2mm. New lifetime pads at Autozone cost $21.00...for both rear wheels.
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- #168 of 177
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rear brake calipars
by madfisherman
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Nov 24, 2009 (7:41 am)
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- #169 of 177
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rear brake calipers
by madfisherman
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Nov 24, 2009 (7:45 am)
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trying to change brake pads and can not get the piston to collapse. Tried turning and pushing but will not move. Even tried to loosen the bleeder and still will not move. any suggestions???
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- #170 of 177
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Re: rear brake calipers [madfisherman]
by thess02
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Nov 24, 2009 (8:34 am)
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Replying to: madfisherman (Nov 24, 2009 7:45 am)
What needs to happen is the inner piston needs rotating in for the rear brakes which I will assume you are attempting the pad change. You will need a rear disk brake service kit that has the tool and adapters to do this. I bought a complete tool kit at Harbor Freight for a bit more than $20.00. The piston for the parking/emergency brake extends by rotating. You need to rotate this inner piston back in to gain room for the new pads. Do you have a shop manual?
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- #171 of 177
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Re: rear brake calipers [thess02]
by madfisherman
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Nov 24, 2009 (10:00 am)
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Replying to: thess02 (Nov 24, 2009 8:34 am)
After a long cool down and a sandwich I saw that the piston was cocked. I was able to straighten and use a screw driver and channel locks to screw back and make room for the new pads. thanks for the advise. madfisherman
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- #172 of 177
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Rear brakes
by thess02
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Nov 24, 2009 (4:23 pm)
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madfisherman, If you need info out of the Bentley manual, let me know. I picked up rear pads at Autozone for $21.00 with a lifetime replacement warranty. They work well and are a bit quieter than the oem pads.
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- #173 of 177
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Brake update
by jeffyscott
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Nov 25, 2009 (6:12 am)
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I've been noting the status of our Jetta's brakes here, just to indicate that not all have had the rear brakes wear out prematurely. We have one of the earliest builds of the current model, a 2005.5 bought in May 2005. Yesterday, with about 34,000 miles on it, we got 4 new tires put on at an independent shop and we had him check the brakes. The brakes were said to be still in great shape.
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- #174 of 177
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Re: Brake update [jeffyscott]
by thess02
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Nov 25, 2009 (7:14 am)
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Nov 25, 2009 6:12 am)
It seems there is a problem with the rear brakes wearing faster than front brakes from all the posts on this site. I had over 50,000 miles on my Jetta and could have gone another 10,000. I elected to go ahead and change the rear pads since they are inexpensive. The driver side rear pads were wearing faster than the passenger side pads on my car. This I attribute to issues with the parking brake setup. The parking brake cables were adjusted too tight from the factory on my car (2007 base Jetta). I posted this earlier. I think most dealerships will not attempt a parking brake cable adjustment because of the time and hassle though. The rear of the center console has to be taken apart to accomplish the primary adjustment...then procede to the arm on each rear caliper. This isn't difficult but is time intensive. It's faster and easier for them to replace pads and rotors. I do all work on our vehicles and have had my VW dealership only touch my car for warranty covered issues...minor problems which my dealership made worse by sloppy/incompetant work. I'm an aircraft mechanic and consequently I'm pretty meticulous. The Jetta brakes aren't difficult to work on for the average home mechanic. Buy a Bentley manual online.
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- #175 of 177
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Re: Rear Brakes? [ajsvwjetta]
by dgh53
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Nov 28, 2009 (6:42 pm)
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Replying to: ajsvwjetta (Sep 23, 2008 2:32 pm)
I don't have a 06 Jetta, but I do have a 1999 1/2 and 2001 Jetta, and a 1998 New Beetle. Both of the Jetta's do like to wear the rear rotors and pad out way to early. I would assume your brake's design is the same as these earlier brakes. VW did several things wrong on the rear brakes of the Jetta's, Golfs,Rabbits and New Bettle I have one of those to a 1998. First off the rear brakes probably are getting too much pressure. Here is how VW made the design mistake. The VW's and Jetta's that are pre ABS had a rear brake portioning valve. VW engineers took the portioning valve out on the ABS cars mistake number one. These gee whiz VW engineers reasoning was if the rear brake's start to have too much brake pressure which would cause the rear wheels to lock up and spin you around like a top the ABS brake pressure control circuits would back off the brake pressure with the new ABS system. It will be handled by the new gee whiz ABS unit and it's associated sensors, right. Too fix the problem correctly VW needs one to add the portioning valve back in to the rear brake system. Two the rear brakes have guide pins hidden under those rubber boots that need cleaned and lubed more then anyone is saying. The VW dealers would rather have you back for their costly visits they like your money as much as the next guys. I have had these pins all siezed up and binding the calibers up with low mileage on the 1999 1/2 Jetta. It is real easy to tell if your rear calipers need looked at, for one of many problems I will explain more of how to check and what are some of the fixes. If you don't have a floor jack get one. Now at each rear wheel roll your floor jack under the rear hinge points for the axle cross member, the two vertical steel plates welded to the car where the pivot bolts go through are an excellent place to jack on. Jack the car one side at a time, get one wheel in the air. Put a safety stand under the rear axle cross member. Now parking brake off. Grab the rear wheel and give it a spin by hand as hard as you can. Now the pads have some friction the wheel in my experience should just about go one spin anything less and your pads are dragging too much. Ok one make sure your parking brake cable is not rusted up. Look at the caliper the parking brake lever sticking out of the caliper you will see it has a stop where the arm returns to touch the stop after you release the parking brake. If the arm is not against the stop get the parking brake cable off the arm, or I should say get the end of the cable out of the groove it is in and see if the parking brake arm on the caliper will go back to it's stop. If not take the caliper off and go get a new one or a rebuilt one. These arms must come back onto the stop to release these calipers. Now look at the rear caliper guide pins under the rubber mounting pins pull the boot back gently and see if the pins are free. If not clean them up and relube. I use high temp anti-seeze VW has an official grease which I think is crap in my opinion but you should use what they say if you think they are smart over there in Germany in their brake department, Not. The calipers are junk by design the guys that are getting over a hundred thousand are the Jettas, GTI, and Golfs with no ABS and the old rear brake portioning valve is actually on their car. The guide pins have stayed totally clean from the environment these guys are driving in, and also their parking brake calipers arms were put on right at the caliper brake factory the arm is coming back to it's off stop and their parking brake cables are not rusted solid. Which many of these VW do this includes the Jetta, GTI, Golf, New Beetle, and Passat. The VW mfg, dealers, owners need one to make sure all the calipers parking brake arm's at the caliper comes back to the release stop . Two the parking brake cables need to be stainless steel not the crap steel VW is using now. Three the Caliper mount pins need to be cleaned and lubed at least inspected annually if you ask me. I jack the rear wheels up once a year and give them a spin, if too much drag start tearing into the thing to see if any of the items I have said are accuring. The parking brake cables rusted, caliper mounting pins jammed up under the rubber boots, rear calipers parking brake arm not coming back onto the off caliper stops. The caliper itself if you ask me is defective in the adjuster screw inside the calipers piston. If the adjuster screw inside of the piston is not lubed and free the piston can not contract the slight amount designed into the caliper piston design and this will cause too much pad drag and the premature wear. VW has a problem here and they will pay for it if you get on the horn to the VW office. They did on my very first rear brake pad wear call. My first problem with the rear brakes was a brand new Jetta in 2001 that I bought new then like at 14000 miles rear pads were worn out. I changed the pads and reset the parking brake adjusters back in and VW sent me money for the pads and they also paid me for one of those brake reset tools. I rented the tool from Autozone but ending up keeping it seeing as I thought that I would probably annually being revisiting my VW's rear bakes. Well jack up your cars rear wheels and give them a good hard spin. The real bad calipers drag the wheels so bad your wheel is too hot to even touch after a very short drive. VW of America is trying, but the VW engineers have not got a clue. Salt eats parking brake cables, dirt gets under their guide pin rubber boots, and the parking brake piston wear adjuters screws are preventing the piston from releasing the application tension on the brake pads after a braking application. We won't even get into their ABS electrical wire crap problems. Yes your VW has headaches in it. Find a honest VW mechanic get away from the dealers that tell you your a bad driver, no they are bad dealer mechanics they don't even know what they are looking at for the problems. The rear calipers do need redsigned with stronger spring to pull the parking brake cable arms back on to the off stop. The parking brake cables need to be stainless to hold up to and resist the rust that happens too them. VW needs to put the portioning valve back into the rear brake lines. The ABS system is not full proof on these cars. Also VW needs to design into the parking brake adjusting screw inside the rear caliper piston a more robust system to spring the rear calipers piston back away from the pads after brake application. The internal brake adjuster screw spins out as the piston travels out with wear of the pads. Problem is VW knows the adjuster screws internal threads drag too much to allow the natural tendency of the piston o-rings to roll back the piston to the pre brake application useage position of the brake. I have had to replace several calipers to get the calipers that realease the pads tension properly after braking application. All the rear parking brake cables rust.
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