I hadn't used my Octavia for some weeks and when I drove away this morning the rear brakes were stuck on. I put it down to the freezing temperatures we've had for the last week and thought that they would free off. I left it at my garage for its MoT and mentioned it to the mechanic owner, asking him to have a look.

He wasn't there when I picked it up but when I got back home I had a look at and touched the offside rear disc; it was HOT! I spoke to him later and he said that he had sprayed the handbrake mechanism with WD40 and worked it back and forth to free it up. He says it's down to lack of use and if I work it back and forth it might free up. He says that it's a sealed unit so I can't dismantle it to get some copper grease in there.

Has anyone else experienced this and how did they overcome it. Replacement caliper?

Cheers.

Denis

Pads sticking to the discs is normal, especially if it was raining the last time you drove it. If it's still binding though it may be a seized piston in the rear caliper. Mine are both doing this at the moment to some extent, so I plan on replacing both rear calipers soon.

I learnt this many years ago, never park your car over night in below freezing temperatures with the handbrake on. Much better to place a block of wood under the tyre.

Sounds like the same problem I had earlier this year.

I ended up replacing the caliper in the end, only takes 30mins to swap a rear caliper and is super easy. Got mine from here: http://www.vw.car-brakes.co.uk/

Sorry for the sidetrack, but a question for Bodge - did you just leave the reservoir cap on, remove the caliper, then bleed them up afterwards? Did you pressure bleed them or just do it the old fashioned way?

Sorry for the sidetrack, but a question for Bodge - did you just leave the reservoir cap on, remove the caliper, then bleed them up afterwards? Did you pressure bleed them or just do it the old fashioned way?

Yeah that's about right. With the old caliper attached, I slackened the banjo bolt slightly to make sure it was free to move, then pinched it back up. Then removed the old caliper and tucked it to one side, with the hose still attached. I then fitted the new caliper and pads all up, and removed the plug in the brake hose port on the caliper ready for the hose (the new caliper was already primed). Then I could quickly unscrew the banjo bolt from the old caliper and pop it directly into the new caliper, with pretty much no fluid loss (all done with the cap on, I thought about popping a blob on bluetac over the vent hole on the reservoir cap but never bothered and it was fine).

Once everything was all torqued up and ready to roll, I got out my eezibleed kit thingy (pressure bleed). As I was working alone it was the best option for me, and avoids the piston seal issue caused by using the brake pedal. I just filled up the filler bottle of the kit with some DOT4, and hooked up the pressure line to a spare wheel off a mini I had lying around. Makes life so easy! Bled all the bubbles through the caliper and jobs a goodun! One thing I would say with using the eezibleed kit is that make sure all the caps and fittings are well sealed and screwed down, because if a cap is loose it kinda freaks out!

Hope that helps Bob, if you need the spanner sizes required for the job just let me know as I'm sure I wrote it down somewhere!

That helps loads Bodge, cheers mate. I have an eezibleed kit too, had it for years and only used it once on my old 205 Gti. I could never get it to seal properly on the reservoir so it always chucked brake fluid out all over the shop at a critical moment! I'll be mega-careful with it this time round, hopefully the seals will work better on the Octy...

What's the seal/brake pedal prob btw?

That helps loads Bodge, cheers mate. I have an eezibleed kit too, had it for years and only used it once on my old 205 Gti. I could never get it to seal properly on the reservoir so it always chucked brake fluid out all over the shop at a critical moment! I'll be mega-careful with it this time round, hopefully the seals will work better on the Octy...

What's the seal/brake pedal prob btw?

Apparently there is a chance that the master cyclinder seals can become inverted when you push the pedal to the floor. As the piston tavels into a normally untouched area, which can be dirty. The advice I've heard is that if you're bleeding the brakes with the pedal, then only pump the pedal down half way, rather than stamping it to the floor.

So pressure bleeding just seems like a much better option. I've seen some more expensive fancy pressure bleed systems about which I'd love to get my hands on. They have their own pressure reservoir that you can pump up using an integral hand pump, and I bet the seals are much better than the ones on the cheapo eezibleed kits!

My offside rear has been seizing up on the coldest nights recently, but I found that a few pumps on the pedal whilst stationary followed by a good boot seems to throw it off nicely.

4000 rpm and dump the clutch usually does the trick nicely

i have this problem 2 and now have nxt to no pads left, been like it for a while cause i have the use of a motorbike i used to leave the car days even weeks before use, and when i did use it i wuld drop the handbrake and as u pull away u get a massive clonk were its releasin from the disc's. i thought for some time it was doing it but now i no what the problem is it must be very common

good info guys buy the way does the caliper come painted or do u have to paint it urself ?? just woundered

i have this problem 2 and now have nxt to no pads left, been like it for a while cause i have the use of a motorbike i used to leave the car days even weeks before use, and when i did use it i wuld drop the handbrake and as u pull away u get a massive clonk were its releasin from the disc's. i thought for some time it was doing it but now i no what the problem is it must be very common

good info guys buy the way does the caliper come painted or do u have to paint it urself ?? just woundered

I'm pretty sure the one on Bodge's link is already painted

Yeah they come painted!

You have the choice of red (Golf GTi), green (vRS), blue (R32) or bare (TT).

Here's my thread from when I went through all of this: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/135753-rear-caliper-refurb/page__p__1699903__fromsearch__1entry1699903

Bodge yer a star mate