[s-cars] ebrake cable brands?

[JAM]

I learned the hard way not to get cheap brake cables.  My 99.5 Jetta TDI
needed cables so I looked on Ebay (among other places) and found Bruin
Cables.  I liked their cheap prices and liked equally that they were made in
the US in Wisconsin.  When I got the cables, I found that they used a rubber
grommet with a hole in it that the cable slides through instead of the
accordion end as the stock cables have to keep water & contaminants out of
the housing to keep them from rusting or water freezing inside them.  On the
mk4 Jetta, I found that these are particularly important since in VW's
infinite wisdom, they made the ends of the cables that hook to the caliper
turned upward so that the housings were that much more susceptible to
contaminants getting into the housing itself.  The Bruin cables lasted for
about a month before they started freezing and I had to exchange them.  It's
funny that in the picture on Ebay, they showed accordion ends on these
cables.  I contacted them to warranty the cables and when I told them why I
thought it failed, they told me they had never had a problem with
contaminants getting into the cables due to the grommet before.  They sent
me a replacement cable, I installed it and wouldn't you know, the other
cable started freezing about a month later.  
After that experience, I shopped on Amazon and got a Beck/Arnley set that
also appeared to have the accordion ends but when I received them and took
them out of the box, they had the same style rubber grommets.
Unbe-friggin-lievable!  I tried again and ordered a set of Gemo cables and
finally, they had the proper ends on them.  They've lasted for a few months
now.  
Luckily on the Jetta, it's relatively easy to change brake cables.  It's so
easy on that car that my 8 yo daughter replaced them with my minimal
assistance....yeah, I know...she's awesome.  :-)  I would hate to have to go
through all this on my old S6 or present urq more than once.  I remember
doing that job on my S6 once & remember that I didn't want to have to do it
again!  
HTH,
Jason Mawhinney
03 A4 avant 1.8tqm
99.5 Jetta TDI
83 urq
70 MGB
96 F250 4x4 PSD


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of mtgadbois at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 2:27 PM
To: erikaddy at yahoo.com; trgreen at comcast.net
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] ebrake cable brands?


 

Tom & Erik,



I did this job some time ago.  Somewhat nasty but here are the lessons I
learned and then posted:

http://forums.quattroworld.com/s4s6/threads/14396.phtml

BTW, the ebrake cables were bought on Amazon - so far so good.

Mark near Chicago


 
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