# Brake issues , - advice would be much appreciated.



## Mr Toad

Hello

You guys have been really helpful during this initial period of ownership I'm going through.., thanks, and here's (yet) another question for you...

I'm just getting to know my new (18 year old) TT Mk 1 3.2 ltr manual and in doing so I'm ironing out some small issues that are almost always found when buying older cars...

If I leave the car for a day (or more), when I come to reverse out of my garage the offside rear brake squeaks. I don't leave the hand brake on when it's in the garage, so I'm discounting that(?).., and the squeak disappears once the car is travelling forwards.

I'm suspecting a sticking piston in the calliper, but does anyone else have any thoughts, or perhaps has experienced a similar problem..?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Mr T


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## David C

Very likely the caliper sticking.
The left tends to fail before the right, but the left may have already been replaced.

Disc to pad clearance is a very tiny gap.


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## silverbug

David C said:


> The left tends to fail before the right….


Out of interest, why would that be?


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## David C

silverbug said:


> Out of interest, why would that be?


Possibly direction of rotation as both left and right rewind clockwise.

May just be that for us in the UK, the left side of the road is the dirty & wet side due to camber of the road.


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## silverbug

David C said:


> Possibly direction of rotation as both left and right rewind clockwise.
> 
> May just be that for us in the UK, the left side of the road is the dirty & wet side due to camber of the road.


Thanks, hadn’t considered direction in which the piston rewinds……


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## StuartDB

Is the handbrake arm returning correctly, the rear calipers internal mechanism is apparently non serviceable? I'm sure someone did on here, but also you can fit external helper springs, my TT already has them on, but I did buy some for my S3 - my rear left didn't snap back, and the handbrake eventually was loose.. where the arm didn't return.. that was after replacing the pistons and seals.. I never actually fitted them as other mechanical issues appeared... but if you don't have them they are for a VW Sharan.

The left hand side common failure is interesting! I like the ideas it fails more often, I wonder whether the handbrake cable routing might contribute? I don't know why it might, but surely if it is road conditions nearly everyone will suffer this? And the manufacturers would supply sheilds?

It does only take a few hours to start oxidation on discs.


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## silverbug

I’ve been through all this over the last year with my own TT (garaged 24/7 and never stored with the handbrake on)..…squeaking brakes which drives me nuts .
I know many people would recommend taking off the calipers and cleaning them but in my experience that never really fixes things for very long and so I opted for 4 rebuilt calipers.
I managed to find 2 sets of Brake Engineering OEM calipers at a very reasonable cost and these were fitted to the TT, so far these have been perfect.
A few years ago I would perhaps have gone for big name calipers but having fitted expensive Pagid rebuilt rear calipers from ECP 2 years ago to my A3, only for them to seize after quite a low mileage, made me determined to try a cheaper option for both the A3 replacements and the TT….


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