I think i need to sort my brakes out..

[Badger 0]

So i had just had me new tyres fitted on to me refurbed Speed lines and i thought i would take it for a quick blast and pop in and see me mate at his garage. When i got there his car park was full so i parked in front of the parked cars and wondered in for a chat, taking a momment to glance over me sholder to check out be new rims and tyres. :luvlove:

 

His Car park is on a bit of a slope, well a bit more than a slope but not quite a hill, and after a brief chat we walked across the garage past his open doors to admire my wheels and then on to the office for a brew.

 

We had been in there no more than two minutes when this bloke huffs and puffs in through the door and starts shouting "whos is the Golf". Well i held back my outburst of "It's a Corrado" :bad-words: just long enough for him to tell me how he watched it roll backwards out the car park across the road and into the opposite companys carpark!

 

Shite! :pale: When i got to the car the hand brake was still on but you could just about push the car forward. Luckerly it didn't hit another car or anybody. So after me new tyres and wheel refurb brakes are now at the top of the list of jobs to do.

[Supercharged 2]

Always park in gear mate, especially on a slope - someone was killed locally in a similar incident recently!!

[Walesy 0]

Yep, I know exactly how that feels mate!

 

I had the same thing at a spot on top of a cliff overlooking a beach - I popped off for a 'cigarette' with my mate and wife and was interupted 5 mins later by some guy asking If it was my Corrado that had rolled backwards down the cliff and was literaly stopped by an inch as it just caught the corner of his bumper :eek: - If it hadn't have been stopped by that guys car it would have rolled off the cliff and landed on Jamie Olivers 'fifteen' resturaunt and could have killed alot of people :eek:

 

 

I was parked on this spot but facing uphill

 

 

 

Needless to say, in the 18 months since it happened i've never left a car out of gear!

[vornwend 0]

Happened to me in Hotel car park with my old 16v. Was blissfully ignorant until I went out the following morning and saw it surrounded by cones, 20 yards from where I had left it - I hadn't told the hotel my registration so they had no way of contacting me :confused4: I had the handbrake on too.

 

Anyway I never ever leave the car out of gear now, slope or no slope. Sounds like you had a lucky escape this time :)

[Adz The Rat 0]

Wow you were lucky it didnt damage the Rado or hurt anyone.

[Guest]

VW rear brakes are renowned for this! cooling off and rolling away,

 

I had a Skoda VRS do it to me at work the other week and it missed an 08 plate vectra by about a foot :shock: it had been sat there 10 minutes perfectly fine while i was speaking to someone 20 feet away!

 

my old Golf Rallye did the same to me off my in laws drive! came out and thought it had been nicked :gag: then saw it 25 yards down the road :shock: it missed a parked car by about an inch and came to rest up a kerb which luckily did not come into contact with my RC`s with the cost and rarity of Rallye bumpers and panels that could have been a serious disaster :mad2:

 

I always leave my cars in gear for this reason but when you have a momentary lapse of concentration they always do it!!

[Badger 0]

Bloody hell! I can't believe that this is so common. What causes it? Did VW know about this and if so did they ever have a recall to fix it?

 

Defo going to sort the brakes out starting with the rear calipers. Whats the crack with these mk4 calipers, do they bolt straight on?

[Walesy 0]

Yeah, you need a goodridge hose conversion kit though

[Badger 0]

Why do i need to use the goodridge kit?

What sort of money do you think that we are looking at?

Standard discs, mk4 calipers, goodridge hoses, set of pads.

Can i get all these from the same supplier?

[Guest]

You might not need new brakes, it is common for handbrakes to fade on any car especially as they cool down after a bit of a blat when they are really hot, the "shrinking" effect of a cooling disc and pad just allows a bit of a gap or slight movement and if its on an incline then the weight is enough to make it roll away :wave: best to leave it in gear anyway as a handbrake cant be 100% trusted even on new cars

 

Trains and lorries do it aswell even on air brakes!!

[Walesy 0]

Why do i need to use the goodridge kit?

 

Because the MK4 calipers have different connections.

[Philuk 0]

as someone said before its because the brakes are "hot" when you apply the handbrake. metal expands when hot and contracts when cold. Biggest hate about rears discs is this. When giving it some beans the discs get hot and expand. you finish and have a massive smile when you pull up on an incline and apply the handbrake, you wander off and during this time the discs cool down and contract. this means the pads are sat where they were with "big" discs and the discs are now small. so no handbrake power.. wasiest way round it, leave the car in gear lol. Lucky buggar you are tho!

[Alexander 0]

How much of the rear brakes are actually used during normal driving tho? I was always under the impression it was the front brakes doing most of the work?

[Philuk 0]

yea its usually about 20% of brakingn is done by the rear. but if giving it some teddy there still gonna get pretty toasty touch em if u fancy after giving it some beans! lol - Edit dont,. i dont want anyone blaming me when they have no fingerprints any more! :D lol

[dr_mat 0]

It's actually because VW were too cheap arsed to fit a proper drum brake mechanism for the handbrake like many other companies have been doing for years.

There's nowt really wrong with your brakes, you just assumed that VW made thoroughly engineered cars.. ;)

It's worrying - they only just pass the handbrake test on the MOT time after time, despite me knowing full well they're working absolutely to specification..

[Guest]

Yeah agree on that point, Mercedes and a few others all have a seperate handbrake mechanism for this very reason!

[Philuk 0]

even porsche back to the late 80's i belive have had this! probably not the only manufactor to have done it! lol