I bought my '98 about a month ago and was happy about how new and perfect the front brakes look. Now I just realized why - the front brakes aren't receiving any pressure during braking. I found out when I painted over the rust that was on the rotor hub and I oversprayed onto the rotors. After driving a couple of days the front rotors still had paint where the brake pads should've been rubbing! The rears are doing all the work. It shows - the rear rotors are really worn. During normal driving I didn't really notice anything wrong. Anyway, I'm used to older cars with proportioning valves, but with ABS I'm a novice. Anyone have any ideas where I should start looking? I have no desire to have a dealer take advantage of me unless I have no other options. Thanks in advance...

 

This sounds very odd. You painted your rotors??!!

The pads should have sensors that will keep the ecu notified of any brake changes - you don't have any warning lights?

How many miles are on the car?

 

Yes, I painted the rusty part of the rotor where it meets the wheel (no pics - sorry). Some paint oversprayed onto the rotor.

Only the airbag light is on - planning on getting a VAG-COM soon to work on that.

 

Just turned 100k on the odometer but by the way the rears look, it's been this way for quite a while.

 

Sounds to me like you'll need to do a complete overhaul of the front pads and check the calipers to see if they are functioning properly. This will mean R&R with a hands-on approach and eye-balling the parts directly. I'd inspect the lines, too.

 

I originally thought the same thing, but what are the chances that both front brake calipers would stop working at the same time? Do you think that the ABS module could be bad? I know that I'm being an armchair mechanic at this point, but I'm just trying to figure out where to start troubleshooting.

 

Yeah... it's possible, but you should have an ABS warning light that would have alerted you. At least some sort of CEL should have come up. But hey... it's worth checking.

Do you have access to a VAG-COM? That should help with the initial DX.

 

I don't have a VAG-COM yet. I've been trying to learn about it. Do you recommend the $229 kit that Ross-Tech sells? Not sure exactly what I need or want.

 

It depends on your budget and how fast a laptop processor you have.
If you have questions, you can always ask them at Ross. They are a bunch of really cool people - I've met them in person at their house and they were really super people.

 

yikes!