BeavisJem 0 Posted June 4, 2004 I had MOT about 2 months ago and the reason my car failed was because of a rear caliper not working on one side, i knew somthing was wrong because the car would roll on a hill with the handbrake fully on. Ok now they said they had replaced the handbrake cable (15 for cable £35 labour 1 hours labour) now my handbrake is being weird again, i am creeping down hills with it on and there is about an inch of play before the clicks start. Then you ahve to pull about 5 clicks and its on. What should i do about my cable? Could the garage really change the handbrake cables in an hour as i a think they didn't, don't you ahve to take out the center console when you change them, when i put my carpets in i couldn;t put the console in right because of a couple of lugs were broke so i modded it to fit, the thing is its still fine and that took ages to get it right, which makes me think they haven;t change the cables. Any ideas Beavisjem Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kvwloon 0 Posted June 4, 2004 Easy to see whether the cable has been changed, just take a look under the car and you can see where it attaches to the caliper, does the cable outer look clean? Is the rubber boot at the caliper end looking new and in one piece? It is feasible to change the cable quite easily in 1 hour, and it sounds like they charged you the right price for it too, about £15. Sounds to me though like you have the known problem of a seizing caliper handbrake mechanism...... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BeavisJem 0 Posted June 5, 2004 Bugger :( Will ahve a look at the weekend. Whats the best way to fix it? Beavisjem Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kvwloon 0 Posted June 5, 2004 It can sometimes be possible to exercise and free off the mechanism, but if it works at all will probably just be a temporary fix. Sounds like youl'l probably need a new rear caliper I reckon. If it's the early type I would replace them with the 'later' type, which is basically Mk3 Golf and is less prone to the handbrake mech seizing, instead of the 'early' Corrado / Mk2 Golf type. This way it's a straight easy swap. Some people advocate replacing with Mk4 Golf calipers but I beleive that's more trouble. I replaced my 'early' type calipers for the Mk3 Golf type 4 years ago and they've been perfect ever since. It's not majorly expensive or difficult to do, apart from the caliper attachment bolts with stupid allen key heads on them. Make sure you thoroughly soak the bolts with WD40 or similiar, to save rounding the heads off. If you get majorly stuck I'm local! Just to see if it's the caliper mech seizing or not, get someone to apply / release the handbrake (on a level surface!!!!), while you take a look under the car at the rear calipers. Where the cable attaches to the caliper there should be a kind of bracket. Does this move 'on' and 'off' as the handbrake is released? If when the handbrake is released the cable kinks / goes slack and the bracket stays still, the caliper is seizing. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dr_mat 0 Posted June 5, 2004 The best way to tell if there's sticky calipers about, in my experience, is to just see how the car rolls.. If it doesn't wanna roll, and seems to come to a halt at junctions, even when you feel it should continue to roll, chances are you've got a sticky caliper. Also if one brake disk is hotter than the other, or if one side is wearing pads down more quickly etc etc.. In my experience, a sticky caliper can sometimes come free and behave perfectly, only to be screwed up again a day later... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dubster82 0 Posted June 5, 2004 corrado handbrakes.... rubbish change your calipers for MK4 Golf ones i say Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henny 0 Posted June 5, 2004 hear hear.... 8) (yes, I've got MKIV rears on mine now, and they took an extra 2 minutes to fit compared with the usual MKII or MKIII replacements... 8) ) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kvwloon 0 Posted June 6, 2004 hear hear.... 8) (yes, I've got MKIV rears on mine now, and they took an extra 2 minutes to fit compared with the usual MKII or MKIII replacements... 8) ) Fair do's, no experience of fitting Mk4 one's myself, only Mk3. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henny 0 Posted June 6, 2004 they are exactly the same to fit, except the brake pipe in on a banjo bolt rather then theaded staight into the caliper, so you need to change the flexy pipe at the same time to take account of that... Other than that, it's identical to do... 8) Same pads, same number of bolts, the lot.. 8) :D Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
