Hey guys I've been experiencing problems with my front brakes for a while now and think I may also have some associated problems that may be linked to the same issue. My front brakes calibers have been sticking, holding and not releasing after use. It produces just enough to feel it dragging, holding my car back with a slight pull to the left. After highway driving my wheels will be extremely hot to the touch, constantly coated with brake dust.

I have also been experiencing in my opinion associated problems that may be all related to this brake issue. Vagcom always indicates a faulty brake signal, which I have replaced but has not cured the fault.Minor torque converter slippage, inconsistent shifts, inoperable cruise control. Under load when boosting I also hear a hissing noise coming from my master cylinder, firewall area. When the car runs absolutely great, I notice: no drag, better shifting, more power (boost/vaccum??), car doesn't pull to one side, cruise control works as well. I have checked all vacumm lines and everything seems (visually) to be fine.

Would a faulty vaccum line or leak cause my brakes to not rebound..?? Causing them to remain stuck?? Since my brakes do stay on slightly would this alter my transmission's thinking in it's shift points?? Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks again.

 

A dragging brake will make the speed sensor give screwing readings which I'm sure willscrew with the cruise control andtraction control system..not to mention the quattro.A dragging brakewill also cause the car to pull to the side which is dragging.

Have you pulled the calipers and inspected them? If so, how did the piston and brake pads look?Were the boots around the caliper piston in good shape, any tears? Any uneven pad wear? Is the driver side pad wear about the same as the passenger side? Is the in board pad wear similar to the out-board pad wear?
Have you triedbleeding the brakes? I don'tthink thiswill help but it's worth a try.
Have you inspected the area around the ABS pumpwhere all the brake lines are screwed in? Any leaks there?
Have you checked to see ifthere are any ABS codes stored?

That's everthing I can think to check.

 

well for the brake caliper, take it off and then have sum1 pump the brake once to see wut it does. but i thinking it's ur caliper pins that are bad. grease them and see wut happens. also i wouldn't do anymore highway driving with that car untill u get that brake fixed or else u'l have more problems than just the brakes rubbing

 

So I could eliminate a vaccum leak as a source? Reason I ask is b/c I have removed both calibers already and checked them; both seeming operablebutno leaks orabnormal pad wear.

 

What else can the speed sensor on the brake caliber affect? I already replaced the passenger's side one after damaging it on a wheel bearing replacment. After damaging it, it triggered the brake/abs light to come on, engaging the abs to kick on while braking at slow speeds. After replacing the sensor my light went out and everything seemed normal. I never did an abs scan on my vagcom to check for any fault codes. If there still was a fault code present, it wouldn't make my car react any differently would it?.....god I hate to love my car. [&o]

 

well the hissing noise is most likely a vacuum leak. see if sum1 could rev ur engine while u search for it.

 

If one brakepad is dragging you will have some uneven wear...if nothing else,unequal wear between the passenger and driver side pads. If you have no uneven wear you do not have a dragging pad.

 

Check this for diagnosing with VAG-COM.

Sounds like one of the ABS senors has broken down if you have access to VAG this can be tested. Go into
brakes 03
Read measured value blocks 08
001
this will display the readouts of the ABS sensors for all four wheels, then just drive the car while monitoring the read outs and see if any are diffrent to the rest. If so the ABS sensor requires replacment.