[Vwdiesel] '01 Golf binding brakes (left rear)

[Rolf Pechukas]

update:
well, I dug in there w/o the tool
here's what I found:
outside pad almost down to metal - sliver of pad left
inside pad almost down to nothing! sliver of METAL left!
yikes, the guys who looked at this a week ago did NOT warn me it was  
that bad!
almost wore completely thru the pad backing plate
as it is, the bottom edge of the piston was hitting rotor and is  
chewed up a little
pulled the scraps, removed the caliper, TRIED to remove the mounting  
plate, but could not get the lower 8mm allen bolt off, so could not  
replace the rotor
put fresh pads, and compressed the cylinder by clamping with a 12"  
woodworking clamp and turning the piston with a vise-grips
boot was also pretty torn up
will likely need a new clave cylinder - eesh
anyway, got it back together, but was concerned when pumping brakes  
did not make piston come out and compress pads
e-brake had little resistance - came many notches up when it normally  
comes up 2 or 3
tried driving to pressurize the system - not so good - I have a mushy  
pedal and not so good brakes
I can make it work with a couple pumps for limping around town, but I  
need to get back in there and fix
guesses: bit of boot binding the piston? need a bleeding (duh)?  
somehow piston beat up from encounter w/ rotor and is binding in its  
bore now?

help??
thanks
Rolf in MA


On May 18, 2009, at 12:58 PM, Tad wrote:

> There are two types of special tool available.. one is like a big  
> screw compressor with a device built in to also rotate the face of  
> the piston.  The other is just a little metal 'cube' which helps you  
> turn the piston but does nothing to compress the sucker.
>
> I tried it with the cube (which is what Autozone gave me) and failed  
> miserably.  I guess I wasn't clever enough, or didn't have the  
> correct variety of c-clamp.  Of course if I knew how the stupid  
> thing actually worked that would have helped.  Brian makes it sound  
> easy.
>
> If I were you I'd spring for the tool... I got one at Harbor Freight  
> for 20 bucks on sale and works on most cars.
>
> The problem you may encounter (like I did) is that when you get down  
> to metal, the piston is extended too far to properly install the tool.
>
> This all may be moot since it sounds like you might have extended  
> the piston so far as to get it stuck.  Hopefully it's just the slide  
> though.
>
> On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 8:14 AM, Rolf Pechukas <rbp at 4u2bu.org> wrote:
> OK, still working thru the 'issues' PO left me with on this Golf
> left rear brake metal on metal - maybe sticking e-brake line wore down
> the pad?
> been running that way for a week, building a shopping cart at
> autohausaz - getting a bunch of parts including pads/rotors
> didn't think I'd burn thru metal backing in a week
> but this AM stepped on brakes @ red light and got the 'seized rotor'
> grab
> loosened it by reversing and scraped my way down the rd, but need to
> do these asap
> I can get pads and rotors locally, but looks like I need a special
> tool to compress caliper
> anyone do these without that?
> they loan it out at AutoZone, but it a drive to get there and I don't
> want to totally seize that left rear getting there
> what does it mean when you get that wheel grab anyway? about one more
> pedal push from a meltdown? that's what it feels like
> thanks for any suggestions,
> Rolf in MA