Rear Brake Adjustment

[peplow]

Morning all. Just a quick question about my rear drum brakes. Want to take a couple of notches off my handbrake and was wondering if was just a simple sprocket and ratchet design with a side view hole for manual adjustment?

[cardaft]

The handbrake adjuster is under the handbrake trim.

If you pop off the cover under the handbrake, you will see there is a small notch in it where you can prise it out from. Then there is a few bolts i think which holds the trim on. Take those out and the trim pops up a bit, be caraful not to pull that trim too far up as it will dislodge at the front near the dash.

Then at the back of e trim you will see the adjuster. Its two bolts on each side one for the left brake and one for the right. So make your you turn them both by the same amount.

To make it a little easier its best if you take off the handbrake cover, there is a little slot under the handbrake itself, pull the little bit of plastic out with a screw driver and it will slide off.

I dont think ive explained that very well but hope you can understand what i mean.

[peplow]

So the actual adjustment for the brakes themselves (i.e. to move them closer to the rim of the drum) is not manual in the TDi?

Cheers for the reply by the way, great help. Will give that a go tonight.

[cardaft]

Well the rear drums adjust themselves (providing the adjusters havent seixed) but that doesnt adjust your handbrake so thats what the adjuster is under the trim inside the car.

Wind them one way and it gets less clicks and the other more.

I did both my arosas a few months ago, its very straight forward all you need is a few spanners. The one that comes in the tool set in the spare wheel fits, only you need two.

So your brakes shoes should be adjusted right, if you dont think they are very effective then try taking off the drums and cleaning them up and gives the brakes shoes a buffing with sandpaper incase they are glazed.

[peplow]

Is there a manual vieving/adjustment hole on the back drum instead of taking the drum off?

They work fine, just want to check/adjust and take a bit of play out the handle.

Like to make sure everything is tickety boo on my little demon machine

[cardaft]

If i remember right there is a way to adjust the brakes manually from the rear of the drum. But if i was you i would take the drum off and give it a good clean up, they can become glogged with brake dust and then make grinding noises. Also gives you a chance to look how much is left on the shoes whilst your there.

Its very easy to take it off, only one screw and then just tap each side until it comes free.

If you adjust the handbrake first and then jack the car up, spin the rear wheels and check they are free. The go inside the car and press the brake slightly and get someone to spin the rear wheel while you press it, to see if there is much movement before it starts to brake.

There sholdnt be too much if the adjusters are working correctly. Although you cannont adjust the handbrake from the drums, you need to do that on the inside adjuster under the handbrake trim.

[peplow]

Thought there would be a way, normally there is.

Like you say for the sake of knowign they are ok ill take them off, always good to know.

Most cars have a load dependant rear brake mechanish which proportions how much force goes to the back wheels, the more load (people or luggae etc) the more forece is allowed so the method you stated for checking the back brakes sound a little wrong but you could easily be correct, dont take my word for it.

Cheers again for the help

[cardaft]

You are quite right it does have that, and as far as i can soo its just infront/next to the n/s rear wheel, or atleast i think thats what it is.

Although im not sure which bit of what i said might be wrong but the brake hubs still come off in the same way as normal if thats what you ment and its always good to know what the rear brakes are like as they never get checked on normal services.

My TDI is on nearly 50K now and the back brakes still look very good, so they do last for ages, just good to check them and clean them up every so often.

No problem, happy to help

[peplow]

Tried getting the drum off but the pads have lipped the drum so couldn’t get it off as i could not see no obvious ratchet wheel. Looked around on the internet and it seems like the release mechanism on the Arosa/Lupo/Polo is a key wedge design. The ratchet and sprocket is the same for auto adjust but for release it’s a simply screwdriver under the arm and push up to fully retract, does that ring any bells?

Had a quick look at getting to the handbrake lever adjustment but it was getting dark so couldn’t really see. Prised the panel directly under the level our and could pull up the very back of the console. So you reckon if I look under the hole below the lever there should be some more release tags/bolts?

[cardaft]

I thought there was something on the back of the drums to move the brake shoes so you can get the drum off whe its lipped.

Ive never had to do that with mine thuogh as they have just came off with a bit of tapping. So im not sure how the adjusters work.

If they had done that then there is a good chance the brakes could sdo with some attention, takeing the lip off and buffing up the inside of the drum and shoes with some light sandpaper to get the glazing off.

Yeah once you have pulled that small pannel off there is a bolt or twn attatching the trim to the floor of the car?

If you pull up the back of the trim and sit in the back seats you will see the adjuster there. Literally the two brake cables with a nut on both of them. Wel a locking nut and an adjuster nut.