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Date:         Tue, 12 Oct 2004 08:47:05 -0700
Reply-To:     Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Craig Oda <craigoda@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Brake noise when brakes not applied
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

After about 40 miles of driving to Big Basin and about 10 miles of mountainous up and down roads with heavy use of the brakes, my brakes started to make a loud sound when the brakes weren't applied. Since I was almost at the campsite, I just parked the van and enjoyed my stay. On my way back from Big Basin, I went into Felton to see the skunk train. First 20 minutes of the twisty drive were fine, then my front right brake started to make an obnoxiously loud squealing sound when the brakes were not applied. I'm concerned that the pad may be in contact with the rotor. I bailed on the skunk train ride and surfing in Santa Cruz and drove the van home. :-( It was okay though, camping was fun enough for the weekend.

I took off the two front wheels for inspection. The rotors and calipers look fine from the outside. There is no sign of brake fluid leakage. Brake fluid level is fine. I've changed the pads within the last three months.

I have not take the calipers off yet. However, I am thinking of doing so. I have a couple of questions. I think there may be some air in my brake system. It's kind of an inconvenience to keep asking my wife to pump the brakes. (got young kids that we've got to deal with around the van). I'm thinking of buying a Mity-Vac or something that can help me perform this operation solo. Any thoughts on this? I may just change all the fluid in the system as part of my maintenance.

If I look at the Volkscafe site, there are Girling and ATE calipers. The site says that the name is stamped onto the caliper. I can't find this on my calipers. There is a VW logo and a set of Audi circles on mine. Is there a stamp someplace there?

If I take off the calipers, do I have to replace any bolts or nuts that are one-time use? I was browsing through the Muir book and it says that there are one-time use bolts for the buses. I'm wondering if the vanagon has a similar setup?

I'm thinking of taking out the calipers, cleaning them and changing the gaskets. Is this a major task? I did this on an old Miata I used to own and it was fairly easy. I've never taken the vanagon brake calipers off. The volkscafe site says that the caliper rebuild kit dust seals won't fit on the girling calipers. I would prefer to install the dust seals. My calipers have different size bleeder screws. From memory, the left is 6mm?? and the right is 8mm? or maybe, 4mm and 6mm. Anyway, they're different sizes and I think that one of the bleeder screws on the left is kind of dinged up. If I take the calipers off the line, I will probably change the bleeder screws and the seals.

Maybe a good cleaning will help things.

Should I do anything about the rotor? It looks fine with no scratches. new rotors are fairly cheap, maybe $50 a piece. The last shop I went to said that they would charge $35 to turn them. I can probably find a cheaper shop if I look.

Looking for general advice on the brakes.


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