# MKVI Rear Brake Wear (Excessive)



## SoCalMK6GTI (Apr 5, 2010)

So I am at around 32k miles on my 2010 GTI. I do not autocross and I rev match when downshifting, I don't ride the brakes and I have a lot of miles from excessive trips to/from Las Vegas.

I had an issue where the brakes were squealing while driving around town. Took it into the dealership and they said nothing was wrong, so I took it upon myself to adjust the e-brake tension which stopped the squealing. Now it's been about 6-9 months and I just threw on my Detroits for a trip to Vegas and noticed that my rear pads have about an 1/8" left on them.

My front pads were replaced within the first 6 months of ownership of the car to Hawk HPS pads. They still look like new. I just ordered replacement pads tonight but this time since seeing how much pad is left on the fronts, I ordered Hawk HPS pads for the rear.

So far I've had two full sets of rear OEM pads, and now I'm going into a third set of pads. This should NOT be a normal occurence.

What else could be causing this? The dealership isn't all too helpful so if there is something else I can inspect or change or test, I'd love to know. Thank you!

Also, if any other MKVI'ers are having similar issues I'd love to know how you fixed it. :thumbup:


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## EngTech1 (Nov 30, 2008)

I running the other Euro Pads - the Ones that Invented Ceramic : 

Also : the Rear Rotors will be shot , so If You Beef the Pads , You need to Beef the Rotors

DEEP CYRO'd 

Great Prices :

http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/d...QAkebonoQQBrake_Pad_SetQQ2011QQAKEUR1348.html

http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brak...&autoModel=CC&autoYear=2010&autoModClar=Sport


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## Anile_eight (Sep 30, 2009)

SoCalMK6GTI said:


> So I am at around 32k miles on my 2010 GTI. I do not autocross and I rev match when downshifting, I don't ride the brakes and I have a lot of miles from excessive trips to/from Las Vegas.
> 
> I had an issue where the brakes were squealing while driving around town. Took it into the dealership and they said nothing was wrong, so I took it upon myself to adjust the e-brake tension which stopped the squealing. Now it's been about 6-9 months and I just threw on my Detroits for a trip to Vegas and noticed that my rear pads have about an 1/8" left on them.
> 
> ...



VW have the brake balanced set to a rear biased for light to light-moderate braking they do this to help the wear on the front tires. This is true for all mk5 fwd cars (their awd cars are rear torque biased). With that being said I did adjust my e-brake as the rear tires wouldn't spin free when they were off the ground.

A lot wear is normal in the rear as I need to swap my pads out (1/8th) as well at 82,000 miles (this is my second set and I'll also change out the rotors) so that will put about 35K-40K miles. If you do a lot of highway driving this will be worse as that is when the rear brakes are used the most.

Your excess wear is definitely odd. I have a tonne of pad left up front comparing to the rears but your on your 3rd set... My thoughts is that the biased for the rear is set extremely high. I wouldn't know how to adjust the biased but there is the module (silver block) up in the engine bay (on the passenger side if i recall properly). I would say talk to the dealer about this adjustment... 

Other thoughts well if you had a stuck brake (on 1 side it would wear unevenly or both then evenly). Check by jacking the back end of your car up and spin the wheels if they make more then 1 rotation great if not then either your e-brake is still too tight or your calipers are stuck. 

How is your fluid? - color and level.

I will be switching to a ceramic pad in the rear to cut down the dust, maybe this will cut down the wear for you instead of oem pads? I don't know. Maybe they also re-adjusted your e-brake while doing this?... No clue. There is a great DIY on here to do your brakes and it is really easy. Meat and I have done this a tonne of times (especially when we went tracking) here:http://golfmk5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40013&highlight=brake+pad+diy

I think that is about all i can recommend. Good luck and keep us posted.


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## SoCalMK6GTI (Apr 5, 2010)

Anile_eight said:


> VW have the brake balanced set to a rear biased for light to light-moderate braking they do this to help the wear on the front tires. This is true for all mk5 fwd cars (their awd cars are rear torque biased). With that being said I did adjust my e-brake as the rear tires wouldn't spin free when they were off the ground.
> 
> A lot wear is normal in the rear as I need to swap my pads out (1/8th) as well at 82,000 miles (this is my second set and I'll also change out the rotors) so that will put about 35K-40K miles. If you do a lot of highway driving this will be worse as that is when the rear brakes are used the most.
> 
> ...


Thank you. FWIW when I first started noticing the excessive brake wear on my first set of pads, I took it into the local dealership and they said that it was normal :screwy: I took it upon myself to look up a DIY on adjusting the e-brake and that seemed to fix the initial issue of the brake smell while driving around town NOT using the brakes. I was getting the smell just driving in a straight line going 45mph with no stops. After adjusting the e-brake I threw on new OEM pads on the rears. The fronts have had Hawk HPS pads for almost all of my driving 32k miles, and still look like new :thumbup:

I just ordered Hawk HPS' for the rears which are set to arrive tomorrow so I'm hoping I can look into this further while swapping out the pads. I'll probably get the rotors turned as well since I'll have it all apart anyways, they don't seem to be grooved or warped so that's a good thing. 

I'll look into discussing this more with the service manager at Bozzani VW and see if there is any adjustments that can be done to the brake bias settings.

Thanks again for the help! Oh and as for the link, that's the DIY I always refer to when doing my brakes, it's a perfect write up!


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## Anile_eight (Sep 30, 2009)

SoCalMK6GTI said:


> Thank you. FWIW when I first started noticing the excessive brake wear on my first set of pads, I took it into the local dealership and they said that it was normal :screwy: I took it upon myself to look up a DIY on adjusting the e-brake and that seemed to fix the initial issue of the brake smell while driving around town NOT using the brakes. I was getting the smell just driving in a straight line going 45mph with no stops. After adjusting the e-brake I threw on new OEM pads on the rears. The fronts have had Hawk HPS pads for almost all of my driving 32k miles, and still look like new :thumbup:
> 
> I just ordered Hawk HPS' for the rears which are set to arrive tomorrow so I'm hoping I can look into this further while swapping out the pads. I'll probably get the rotors turned as well since I'll have it all apart anyways, they don't seem to be grooved or warped so that's a good thing.
> 
> ...



Glad the DIYs helped... It was good info helping to make both. Do you have the ability to jack the rear end up just to have a look to see how they spin?

And agreed, 3 sets of pads at 35K is definitely not normal no matter what the dealer says! Adjusting the brake balance

This is an article about MK4 which may have a little more insight about it as well... http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3691071

Here is a blerb in brake balance setup: http://www.erareplicas.com/427man/brakes/index.htm


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