RE: Rear calipers...rebuild or replace?

["Neal Tovsen" <sixteen.volt@gte.net>]

The rear calipers are one of the notorious trouble-spots on 16v Sciroccos.
According to the almighty Bentley, you cannot rebuild rear calipers. I
haven't heard of any rebuild kits that are available. I do know from
experience that the e-brake mechanism in particular is NOT
rebuildable...even by remanufacturers! Apparently it works off some sort of
cam-like mechanism, and you cannot open the caliper to replace it.

I spent a lot of time on this issue and talked to various people. The
consensus seems to be that you have two options:

1) Buy new calipers. I can't remember the price, but I seem to remember that
Potterman quoted me somewhere around $150 each. Ouch. On the other hand, you
KNOW they'll work and they should last a long time.

2) Buy remanufactured calipers and find one of each with a working e-brake.
This is the route I took. I paid about $60 each for remanufactured calipers
from a typical parts store. They came with a lifetime warranty, and I
continually returned every caliper until I found one for each side that had
a working e-brake. Though the normal brake worked fine on all of them, I
went through three/four calipers on each side until I had working e-brakes.
Both my GF and I can now fully replace and bleed both rear brake calipers in
15 minutes...blindfolded, in the dark, using nothing but our eyelashes and
nostril hair! :) We realize we'll probably have to do it again someday, but
it has been over a year without messing with them, and we do still have the
lifetime warranty. Fortunately, they are truly quite easy to replace.

Whatever you choose, good luck!


Neal
'88 16v



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> [mailto:owner-scirocco-l@scirocco.org]On Behalf Of Ron Pieper
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 1:04 PM
> To: Scirocco.org list
> Subject: Rear calipers...rebuild or replace?
>
>
> Getting around to redoing the entire brake
> system...before I dig in, should I rebuild or replace
> the rear calipers?  They do not leak.  At least one
> e-brake mechanism is shot.
>
> Is there anything repairable in there as far as the
> e-brake?  What is it that causes them to go bad?
> Rust?
>
> TIA again,
>
>
> =====
> Ron
> '87 16V (Victor, the Famous Cheap Scirocco - ausgezeichnet!  unglaublich!)
> '93 Cab (Teufelhasen, soon for sale)
> many, many, miles and busted knuckles on seven more past watercooleds...
>
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