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brakes and storage
professor229
Member Posts: 1
The brakes on this beetle were converted from drum to disk before I bought the car. We drove this car for years, when we decided to just put it in storage for a few years. When we pulled it out of storage, tuned it up, we drove it and noticed the car severely pulled to the left when we applied the brakes... We were advised it could be one of two things.... one, the brakes need to be bled.... understandable.... and two, they might be hanging up due to corrosion from the storage.... It was suggested that I pull the calipers off, and press lightly on the brakes to deploy the pads and check to see if one side (predictable) deploys correctly and the other side hangs up in a delayed fashion and then releases... we were told to check for corrosion and perhaps a "ridge" being built up that would need to be removed with a solvent.... We won't know until we do the work, but I thought I would ask if anyone has heard of this issue and could propose a solution.... One site suggested Easy Off Oven Cleaner if the metal hanging up was aluminum..... thoughts? ideas?
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But the calipers could be hanging up, either the pistons are frozen on one side or the caliper slides are corroded/devoid of lube.
You might also have a wonky tire that has malformed due to storage, or might be severely under-inflated.
Also I don't think pulling the calipers off and then pressing on the brakes is a very good idea either, as you may overextend the piston and tear the piston seal, and now you have TWO problems.
No reason why you can't observe piston action with just the wheel off and a good strong light source. You could insert a thin piece of paper between brake pad and rotor to see if both sides are gripping.