Golf failed it's MOT on the compensator being seized along with a few other small things which I've fixed. I took the spring off and the compensator appears to move totally freely. So it's definitely not "seized". Firstly I'm wondering if it's just not adjusted correctly. The car is lowered on coilovers but not particularly low. It's roughly the same height as your average rear on lowerings springs. But also I'm wondering how freely it should move? It takes no effort to move it. Should it default to a specific position when there's no pressure applied to it? Really appreciate some help on this I only have a few more days until the retest. Thanks
So it sounds like if it's not seized and moves freely it shouldn't have been failed. I spoke to the tester straight after the MOT and he said it failed because it was seized. Maybe just mistaken? He was an older guy so can't imagine he's never worked on one of these
there are internal springs behind the lever, so it should spring fully open (closed) if you manually push the lever all the way. If the lever arm is just flopping about the springs have failed/rusted away and your valve is probably shot too. to adjust it the factory way you need a set of pressure gauges hooked inline with the rear brakes. I set it so the slack is just taken out of the spring on level ground, does the job.
Yes it's just flopping about when no tension on it so sounds like it knackered. They let it through the MOT but I guess it needs to be replaced for the brakes to be safe.
you might get away with just doing the springs if you can find some that fit, pop the boot off and you can see em. make sure the valve itself moves mfree at least though. I thought about it but just binned it and bought a new aluminium one instead, was doign all the rest of the brakes anyway so not like it saved me any effort bleeding it or whatever
