1996 VW Golf brake problem (post-repair)?

Question

At the beginning of the month, my parking brake light was coming on while I was driving and when the lever was fully depressed. I took it in, and they determined that it was because I was low on brake fluid. They also discovered that there was a crack, and I was leaking brake fluid. I got that fixed, and the light stopped coming on while I was driving. My pedal brakes were acting strange, and it required about double the pressure to get it to stop, but I figured that it would go away after a few days.

Now NONE of my brakes work at all. When I press the break pedal, it makes a sighing sound. There is no resistance and the pedal will actually hit the floor board. Normally when I press the brake pedal, it only needs to be pressed down about a quarter of the way for a typical stop. Before I had my car serviced, I didn't have any problems with my brakes.

I'm upset that I dumped that much money at the shop and ended up with a bigger problem than I had before. Does anyone know what might be wrong? Is it possible that they drained my brake fluid and never replaced it? 

Thanks so much.

VW Man · Accepted Answer

check if your break pads are thin or have some meat on them. Then go to another shop to check what is wrong with your brakes. then with results go back to the old shop and tell them that they messed with your car and let them fix the brakes for free!

L G · Answer

Always work from the wheel backwards.Checking pads. shoes or flexible pipes for leaks. Having done that, you need someone to bleed the brakes correctly. If the mechanic has not bled the " Old Golf" brakes before, that is most likely your problem. You need to remove the front calliper and turn it 90 degrees from the floor with the bleed nipple facing upwards. You need to block the pistons so they do not pop out and then bleed the system as normal. If your car has rear discs, you need to use the same method, The bleed nipples are not quite at the the top of the chamber behind the pistons and conventional bleeding leaves air in the system. I learnt this when I restored and converted a MK 11 Scirocco to discs all round. Once I had bled the brakes in this way the car was absolutely fine. Good Luck !

The one · Answer

it seems to me like they didn't do a very good job with your brake lines.
light usually come on if the brake fluid is low,emergency brake is pulled or if the brakes need replacement.
maybe they put in the used brake lines that were already damaged a bit and it was just a matter of time before it started leaking brake fluid or maybe they just repaired yours but still didn't do very good job and it started again,you should check your brake fluid.once you check your brake fluid and if it's at the right level then they probably didn't adjust the brakes.because if you were driving with that problem a bit before you took the car to the shop,then you probably had to step on the brakes a bit harder to stop which causes them to stay at the position where you need to step harder to come to a complete stop.
so i say take the car back to the shop and get them to fix it again.
good luck!

tweek639 · Answer

There is definitely air in the lines. when the repair shop noticed the crack they should have known that they needed to bleed the air out after replacing the part and topping off the fluid.

Willy · Answer

There is air in the brake lines, is that simple. have them bled.

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1996 VW Golf brake problem (post-repair)?

5 Answers