# rear brake question mk4 jetta



## boogie25 (Feb 6, 2007)

i recently had my rear brakes changed as well as both hand brake cables. i noticed that the rear wheels create a lot more brake dust the the front. this cant be normal? ive never seen that before on any car ever. can i fix this?


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## germancarnut51 (Mar 23, 2008)

The brake pad material makes a big difference in the color and the amount of brake dust.

If the rear brakes and the parking brakes are working (put the rear of the car on jack stands, put the transmission in Neutral, take the hand park off, and check to see if the rear brakes are dragging) then there is nthing else you can do except change the brake pads.

If the brakes are dragging badly with the parking brake released, then one or both of the rear calipers are defective and need to be replaced.


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## boogie25 (Feb 6, 2007)

Ok thanks. Over the weekend I'll jack the car up and
See If they are dragging. I hope it's nothing serious. The hand brake cable came from autozone. My mechanic said he had to fight to get them on because they were not exactly the same as what came off. I wonder if that could be the issue as well


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## cuppie (May 4, 2005)

That would be a possibility. There shouldn't be any fighting to get the brake cables installed.

If the brakes drag with the parking brake released, there is one more check before condemning the calipers:
Disconnect the brake cables from the calipers. Simple, and (should) require no tools - just pop the cables off of the levers on the calipers.
If the drag goes away, the cables are either mis-adjusted (too tight), or incorrect (too short.) 
Taking a look at the threaded ends (at the handbrake lever) will tell you which way to go - if there's thread remaining (towards the front), try adjusting them looser (less threads.)


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## spitpilot (Feb 14, 2000)

VW brakes in recent models (after VW started putting ABS on all their cars) have more bias on rear wheels, so rear pads do more braking and dust the wheels more..this was true of my 2000 Passat and is true for my 2008 Rabbit. I just changed rear pads at 38K miles and fronts are still very thick..and at every wash..I spend more time and effort on rear wheels than the fronts to get the brake dust deposits off!


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