So my friend just bought a 99 A4 and there seems to be something funky with the hand brake. When pulling it up, there isn't any tension for about 10 clicks. Also, when fully released, the light on the dash is still on saying that the brake is still engaged. It feels like the brakes rub slightly has if they are still engaged. I had a couple hand brake problems in a VW i owned a while back.

Has anyone else had or heard of this problem? If so, how do we fix it? Any suggestions?

 

The parking brakes suck. The spring in the caliper is most likely frozen and will not release till it thaws. You need to place it in a garage to warm up. Some say drive it slow till it heats up and releases but you can overheat a pad and it will crack and crumble. Best solution is to not use them in the freezing weather until you replace ne bad or both rear calipers (about $140 per).

 

Yeah that's what happened to my VW. Except since then I moved to Southern California. It isn't frozen unfortunately. Is the spring or cable just snagged or stuck or something?

 

The spring can still rust and bind. You can rent a brake caliper tool and see if the piston will retract or not. If not, you need a new caliper. I had a bad one and it wouldn't budge at all so I replaced it. This was in the summer btw

 

Awesome. I can give that a try. But would that explain the dash brake light still being on. When it happened to me, as soon as I released the brake, the light went off but the brakes were still stuck. In this case, the brakes are just rubbing when the brake is off but the light always stays on.

 

Also there are adjusters under both sides of the car about 1/2 under the rear doors. They are a pita to adjust but might help if just stretched cable