Hi,

Just got to a buddies house and my rear calipers seem to have been stuck since i left work. I felt a little resistance while driving and at the lights I usually rest my hand on the e brake and the ebrake had no resistance for about an inch so my brakes are stuck on. When i got out of the car I smelled burning and one of my rear rotors is much hotter than the other. What I want to know is what should I do before I go home and tomorrow morning im going to bring it to the garage to service the calipers. This issue happened on my front calipers on my jeep and it turns out my calipers were finished.

This really pisses me off cause I changed my 4 rotors and pads this summer about 10000k ago.

Specs: 2001 A4, 100000miles.

Thanks,
Michael

 

bump... anything guys

 

The caliper is probaly out to far and wont retract. Only thought that could happen with a pad that was more than worn down. Your more than likely going to have to install new calipers since these probably wont retract.

 

I put EBC green stuff pads on 10000k ago with new brembo rotors.

Im starting to think my ebrake cable froze up this morning because it was the first time its -5 this fall.

 

Ihad this happen on a couple vag cars, the ebrake cable gets stuck right where it goes into the car body,thecable rusts inside the plastic and locks up, u might just need to spray some pb blaster/rust off in there or might have to replace the cables

 

I have the SAME exact problem on 99 A4 with 86k on it. I have been posting several times about this issue with no good response. Just tonight I thought I cured the problem by removing and flushing my old brake fluid with new stuff. I was told that over time the fluid can get moisture in it causing the fluid to expand which then causes your brakes to bind up. Well I did thatwit great results only to be let down after a couple of miles, brakes started sticking and squealing again. I also replaced that elbow vaccum line that comes off the intakeinto your master cylinder which was cracked; thought for sure that was thecause of my brakes not releasing, no such luck as my brakes returned to normal. It is my rear brakes b/c I can hear them squeal andwhen slightly pulling the e-brake up the noise goes away. Hopefully by replacing the rear pads will solve the problem. Calibers should not be in fault with only 86k on them.

 

Cincy, so you're saying that my calibers would be beyond repair because they extracted too far on worn down pads?

 

Bingo, if its the rear brakes dragging its ALWAYS the e-brake on our cars, there may be a 0.2% chance the rear calipers are frozen.

 

Can your e-brake still be of cause even if you don't use your e-brake that much? Is it still in use mechanically when you apply your brakes? Tonight I did not even touch my e-brake and my brakes were binding up.

 

There are several things that can cause the rear brakes to drag including the e-brake.
1. the e-brake rusts against the body and holds the cable
2. the spring on the caliper that pulls the e-brake cable back after releasing the handle
3. the adjusting sleeve rusts or breaks causing the cable to put excess tension on the brakes.