Rear Calipers - What to do?

[roccit_53 at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (C Boyko)]

I have the same caliper on the PS of mine that was put on it when I got the
car. It was a junkyard edition. On the DS, WAY different story. Had a
caliper fromt he same source put on, it was junk, they replaced the part on
warrantee, and we went for a year or so on JYversion two, with intermittent
 sieze up. Then  got a set of nearly new ones from a lister, they lasted a
year before they did the same (I'd decided it was time to learn to do them
myself by this point). I got a reman from the dealer, and that one has
lasted without complant since then, likely three years so far. And yours
should not be leaking!

Options? Many A1 chassis cars have drums, my MkI has, pretty sure my Wolfie
has too. I'm sure there is a way to retrofit them, others can chime in as
to how much of the assembly has to be swapped out to do that. I've also
heard that later calipers (Passat??) will work but the bleeder faces up, so
there's a work-around for that. I'm keeping the stock calipers, for now.
And why are they a pain in the ass? Because they are Sciroccos.

Cathy
> Why are these things such a pain in the ass?
>
> In the past two years, I've replaced the rear right caliper on my 16v
> twice, the left once.  I take the car in for a motor vehicle
> inspection, which I need for insurance and registration, and find out
> that both calipers are leaking, the right from where the e-brake
> cable attaches, the left from the bleeder screw, and the shop tells
> me I need to get two new calipers.  WTF, I think, they can't be
> serious.
>
> I'm not very good mechanically, but why are these calipers failing so
> often?  Is it worth going to the dealer to get their calipers (which
> cost over $300 each, instead of the $150 each the others cost)?  Are
> the mechanics doing something wrong to cause this to happen?  The
> e-brake has been seizing constantly, even the day after the last new
> caliper was put on.  Got it adjsuted, thought things were good.
> Guess not.    I've gone to 3 different shops for the work, I find it
> hard to believe that 3 different shops would all be doing things
> wrong, I dunno.
>
> I'm at my wits end with this car, I'm ready to abandon it on a
> roadside - receipts in the past 2 years totalling over $11000, which
> I can't afford, I'm a student for the love of God.  And now,
> replacing new parts repeatedly?  Oh, sorry, only 90 day warranty,
> great.  Don't know if I can stomach it.  A nice cheap Kia might be in
> the works.
>
> Can these rear calipers just be junked completely, replaced with drum
> brakes or something?  Or are there calipers out there that won't
> cause these problems, that will fit on the rocco?  I can't justify
> spending another 300-400 dollars when I have a deep fear that it's
> money down the drain. _______________________________________________
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