benherron

Nope only parts i changed was beam and bushes. I remember using a lot of Plusgas though. On the old beam I'm pretty sure I just hack sawed off the mounts the brake lines go through. I could then separate the flexy and hard lines.

Well job is done now, might do a full brake system flush next weekend but it's drivable again which is what matters. If anyone needs any info just dm me. This thread can be closed!

Nope, just normal amount of surface rust. Yeh all your guesses are as good as mine?!

Right axle is off, no rear damage to the boot tray etc as far as i cab see. Just looks like a rust issue. Funny though as the bits on the axle (lines and whatnot) are in good condition. Might be a localised material defect.

Yeh like I said I don't have a full crash history so can't say if it wasn't weakened due to a shunt or something. I'll take a few more pics tomorrow when I get the beam off.

If your in Stoke that could work as I'm working in Crewe at the moment and living in Kidderminster. I could pop down Thursday evening and pick it up. edit: just re-read this, if your asking have i found a disc beam then no, just non-abs drum ones.

The irony being I chose this car for being a relatively low 80,000 miler. Oh well, I've hopefully found a few beams so should be back on the road by Monday. I'm just hoping the brake lines play ball and aren't seized together.

Unfortunately 2 AA men and a 170 mile journey on the back of a recovery truck say otherwise. Its definitely the metal that has failed. I put it up on axle stands last night and grabbed this pic, hopefully it shows it better, bit hard to see due to being covering everything in plusgas.

no completely standard, SDI. Spent all of it's life in Swansea and based on the fact one corner of the rear bumper is currently held on by woodscrews, it's had a rear end bump at some point, so could've been a combination of that and salty air, plus the amount of miles I've put on it in the 6 months I've had it.

Beam has cracked/separated on the front edge of cylinder that holds the bush. Was on a speed bump actually, not fast or big, just rolled over it and heard a big thunk and then the scraping of the rear wheel on the arch. I think I was very lucky it happened in a retail park not on the motorway. Cheers for that, I had wondered if VW had routed the brakes through it, the technical drawings don't help in that respect. and I'll have to double check but I'm 99% sure my bogo spec rules out abs, I've certainly not seen it pop up on the dashboard.

Does anyone know if I can swap a rear beam out quick keeping existing brake lines/drum etc? My beam broke this morning at the bush mount. Unfortunately not back with the car until Tuesday night so can't stick my head under it and check what's what, but by the looks of the exploded diagrams I should be able to (in simplified form) unbolt stub axles, unclip handbrake cable, unclip brake lines off the beam. Drop axle down and refit in reverse. Adjust brakes and away I go..... however I'm going to guess someone is going to say it's not that simple. cheers in advanced Ben