Cupra Tdi rear brake caliper issues

[gopher]

Hi Guys

Really tearing my hair out on this one. My car failed its MOT on offside handbrake little or no effort. The tester also said the foot brake on the same wheel was a bit slow to react. I'd not really noticed any problems cause the car never gets parked on a hill and the pedal was quite firm.

So I took the car home thinking it was a bit of a stiff caliper and I could free it up. Checked the movement of the lever on the back of the caliper and it was free. I also noticed the pads were slightly loose against the disc.

I took the pads out and wound the piston all the way back thinking this would reset the position so I could start from scratch. Put the pads back in, gave the pedal a good few pumps. Went back to check the pads had closed up against the disc but there was a good 2mm gap.

No matter how many times I pump the brake the pads just won't adjust to stay close to the disc. This has now rendered the handbrake absolutely useless as it doesn't move the pad far enough to clamp the disc.

Also now with the engine running initially the brake pedal will be firm but with constant pressure applied the pedal will slowly fall to the floor.

I've been working on my own cars for years and never come across this problem.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Gopher

 

[Homer Simpson]

Try bleeding the brakes/change fluid incase some air or dirt has got in.
If not, you need a new caliper

 

[sockpuppet]

Sounds like air in the system and a knackered caliper. They do repair kits for the calipers and I was thinking of going down that route as both my rears are playing up, but I'm probably going to get reconditioned calipers from ECP of GSF when they have a deal on. You hopefully know this already, but you have to pressure bleed the brakes on these cars, if you use the pedal to bleed it will damage the fluid pump internals.