My brakes were squesling and I figured out it was my rear right brake shoes. They were completely gone!!! The rear left still had about half of the pad left. I replaced both sides last night but I day I got home from work and the rear right was smoking. My automatic assumption was a bad caliper but I would like be more certain before I replace it. Could it be anything else or is it the caliper? Also, autozone is the only place I've found who can get the caliper and they want $100 (Volkswagen dealer wants $210). Is there somewhere else I should check. Thanks!

 

Possibly a seized caliper? If you ate through the pad really quickly, could be a problem with the caliper not releasing completely and the pad constantly being in contact with the rotor. How is the pedel feel when braking? Any pulsing (typically due to warped rotors)? From the sounds of it, either a bad caliper. Could be something as simple as a missing release spring. I'm not sure if Audi's have these (I've only had my A4 for going on 3 weeks now!), but my old Nissan had release springs on the pads to help push them off the rotors when you released the brakes.

Hope this helps, good luck with getting everything back in shape!

 

Colasped Brake flex hose which doesnt allow the fluid to Come back
in the hose can coz sticking brakes but I doubt that very much
90% of the time its a Bad caliper

 

My money is on a seized caliper that isn't retracting. Now that you have new pads, the calipers want retract far enough.

You did use a brake tool to turn the calipers back in when you replaced the pads didn't you?

 

There is no pulsing when I brake so I feel confident my rotors aren't warped. After my brakes cooled down I jacked my car up and could turn the tire freely. They obviously expanded when they got hot and the caliper wasn't releasing. I actually used needle nose pliers to turn the caliper in (poor man's brake tool lol) it was a little more difficult than using the correct tool but not bad. I ordered a caliper today and it'll be here Saturday. I sure hope it fixes the problem. Another question for the mechanics out there, on the other side I wound up having to put the old pads back on because the piston turned in to a certain point an then it would just turn in place without retracting (maybe with the correct tool I could've pressed in as I was turning). Not a huge deal because I still had plenty of pad left on my old ones but I'd still like to know what was going on. Thanks! I love this forum!!!

This maintenance crap is eating into my mod funds!

 

You got to turn and put pressure on the piston for it to go back in