mk4 golf rear caliper - modification to help unstick handbrake

This is a quick modification i tried on my mk4 golf rear calipers to help unstick them as its a common problem in the cold! I thought i'd try this out and it works a treat so far but will update long term progress following further cold weather.

Now this is not a fix and may not work for knackered calipers or shot handbrake cables!

I noticed my caliper was sticking from the cold weather so what I did was spray the arm over night with WD40 and move the arm backwards and forwards to help ease this. This helped remove the stickiness but still when applying the handbrake it may get stuck and not return to the upright position.

What you need is the some VW Sharan handbrake lever springs from around 2000. Part codes are as below:

7M0 615 295
7M0 615 296



Make sure you get a pair with one ending in 5, ending in 6! They cost 3.90 as a pair. with VAT.

Once you have the springs, you can fit the springs without the use of the jack and takes 5-10mins.

Make sure the handbrake is off and place the car in gear.
Return the handbrake lever arms to the upright position as below so they reach the top metal stop.



Using the correct spring for the correct side, place the hook for the spring into the moving arm first, then by compressing the spring slot the bottom hook in. Place the spring back into position and you have as follows:



The handbrake will feel a little tighter, but hopefully this should help the handbrake lever return to its normal position. If this doesn't help I'm afraid it could be the case the handbrake cables are too sticky for the spring or the caliper needs stripping.

Hope this helps

 

Here's in effect of what i've done this morning:

 

Great info G-man
Maybe this should be a "sticky"????

 

Yeah very interesting, nice one!

 

top work, I've seen those spings 101 times and never thought about fitting them

I'll give it a go this week

 

Found someone on another forum thread mention the part nunmber but no confirmation about them on the mk4 calipers, so I gave it a stab as at the worse case I would have bent them round to fit.

Hope it saves a few people some pennies before shelling out a few for a new rear caliper!

 

3 nights using the handbrake with the handbrake fully on and the last few nights being freezing and so far no problems to report so seems to be doing the trick for the time being

 

Briill my calipers on my mk2 seems to be a little lack luster and I was ready to throw in the towel and buy new ones, but i will give these a go first. (thinking about it my audi has these... but it never occured to me what they were for ops: )

 

good mod mate,it looks like youve put the spring on wrong way round as per your pic to the next pic,,,the kinked part of spring onto the static bracket?,,,

 

Whoops; might swap them around at somepoint

 

i've fitted these to mk4, feels do much more solid on release


on side note worth checking the sliding pins of calipers while you can, they tend to stiffen up

 

I changed the handbrake cables... as when I had a good look mine were rather rusty and shot... thats already made the handbrake on the mk2 a load better but Im still going to fit these too just to help matters

 

I robbed a couple of them type of springs off some calipers i had to change on a car at work quite a while ago now. They made the 'free play' of the cable feel alot more positive. Most of the Peugeots that i work on with rear calipers are virtually the same type of caliper and 99% of them have these springs on.

 

G-man - someone directed me to your thread to help fix my squeeky rear brakes. Picking up the springs tomorrow and will give it a go if not raining!!!

Are the springs still helping on yours since you fitted them?

 

Grabbed a set of these for my golf after it failed that MOT for a sticky handbrake (6% efficiency on one side, lol) took the calipers off, stripped them both right down and cleaned them up. One side had such a build up of crap around the piston seal that even pumping the piston out was as hard as hell. Cleaned the internals out with a toothbrush, rebuilt everything and they worked great after that but still occasionly didn't fully return to the stops when the handbrake was released. the springs sorted that and make the handbrake feel much more positive and "quality like".

Top mod for the 3.20 it cost me from the stealers and should help stop them sticking again.

 

Sorry missed this Matt82 now has my car but not heard him mention any issues. Just adds resistance to the handbrake but might help if the sqeek is due to pad rubbing.

 

mot today, OSR in effective

wonder what ive done

(did a search and found your old thread though)

 

Tried to order these today and the part numbers are no longer being used?

Can anyone help with updated numbers as I need them for my MOT failure........

 

Found these from a Touran not sure if they are similar?

1K0615295 Left
1K0615296 Right

 

Be careful ordering alloy rear calipers. Some mount on the front side of the rear wheels and the handbrake cable routing does not work when these calipers are fitted to the rear of the wheel like in a mk2 or mk3 setup.

I probably have calipers here MK209.