Polo GTI won’t move at all!

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VWPOL0GTL
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Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by VWPOL0GTL »

Hey guys,

My Polo GTI is currently stuck in my garage and unable to move. The car turns on fine with no error code, however when I put the car to reverse or drive, it doesn’t not move at all. The car body tilts slightly like the car is trying to move, however the wheels do not budge like the brakes are jammed.

My car also has the common brake clunking mooing sound since I got the car. I reported the issue twice to VW, and both times got the brakes cleaned, however the clunking mooing issue persists.

Anyone know a fix or have any idea? VW servicing is closed right now (on the weekend in Australia).
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OomStu_ZA
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by OomStu_ZA »

sounds interesting, once you figure out the problem please let us know what was wrong.
If you place the gear lever in N and drop the hand brake while the engine is idiling does the car move (if pushed)?
VWPOL0GTL
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by VWPOL0GTL »

I haven’t tried pushing the car in neutral (as I rather have my car sit in the garage and my garage is on a hill, so won’t be able to push it back in). I don’t think it will move however, given how the car reacted when I tried putting it to drive or reverse, definitely feel like a brake problem and not transmission.

Going to call road side assist tomorrow afternoon and see if they can help.
Cadwest
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by Cadwest »

My rear breaks bind on to the rear disks usually after I’ve washed the vehicle and moved it up the driveway then applied the handbrake. I had to gently press the accelerator while in reverse until I had heard a loud crack and the breaks freed themselves. According to the dealer they could find nothing wrong with the breaks and we put it down to the car being stationary for a couple of days after the car wash. Since then I never apply the handbrake as my driveway is level and I only use it when parked away from my drive, not had any problems since.
silverhairs
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by silverhairs »

VWPOL0GTL wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 1:28 pm I haven’t tried pushing the car in neutral (as I rather have my car sit in the garage and my garage is on a hill, so won’t be able to push it back in). I don’t think it will move however, given how the car reacted when I tried putting it to drive or reverse, definitely feel like a brake problem and not transmission.

Going to call road side assist tomorrow afternoon and see if they can help.
You sit in the drivers seat and get a mate to push you !!!
tom.wright
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by tom.wright »

It sounds to me like the handbrake has seized on. I've had this happen and usually after giving it a tiny amount of accelerator you hear a loud 'thunk' and it frees itself.

If I'm leaving it for more than a few days, I always park my car in my garage with the handbrake off and just leave it in Park.
silverhairs
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by silverhairs »

My mate down the road who has a GTI+, he complained to me about his rear brakes, clunk first thing in the morning.
I said to him not to use his handbrake while parked on his drive, he has DSG box his drive is perfectly flat, he put's it into Park, he said it was just a habit to pull the hand brake on. He took my advice, and that's what he does every night! So now first thing in the morning, he is clunk free !!!
SRGTD
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by SRGTD »

Cadwest wrote: Fri Feb 14, 2020 1:29 pm My rear breaks bind on to the rear disks usually after I’ve washed the vehicle and moved it up the driveway then applied the handbrake. I had to gently press the accelerator while in reverse until I had heard a loud crack and the breaks freed themselves. According to the dealer they could find nothing wrong with the breaks and we put it down to the car being stationary for a couple of days after the car wash. Since then I never apply the handbrake as my driveway is level and I only use it when parked away from my drive, not had any problems since.
That’s pretty normal for the pads to stick to the discs after they’ve got wet from washing the car if you park it up straight after washing and don’t use it for a while; it’s happened to me before a few times. I park my car in my garage, and don’t apply the handbrake when it’s parked up, so don’t get this issue these days.

@VWPOL0GTL; worth having a read of posts by forum members Alan Mc and joeknight94 on pages 8 through to 11 in the discussion thread at the link below. The problem they had sounds pretty similar, or the same, to yours;

viewtopic.php?f=71&t=71371

Edit; I think I misread your original post @VWPOL0GTL. I thought you were unable to move the DSG selector into reverse, which is what happened to forum members Alan Mc and joeknight94 in the posts at the link above. Having re-read your post, that’s not what’s happened with your car, As @tom.wright has said, it sounds as if your handbrake has seized on. I’d definitely consider parking without the handbrake applied when you park in your garage.
Last edited by SRGTD on Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
stuartrendall
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by stuartrendall »

I've also had this problem but in my Polo 6c. I only started getting the problem after the handbrake was services. i'm not really an expert in this area but maybe the handbrake might be too tight and over a period of time it clamps. :?:
MattHGR
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by MattHGR »

Try pulling the handbrake nice and tight and then releasing it, over and over again.
Maybe 10 or so times, then put it back into gear and let it try to move (without pushing accelerator).

I had a similar issue before and this was my solution.

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VWPOL0GTL
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by VWPOL0GTL »

An update for you guys, so pretty much called VW and they sent a mechanic to look into it, and similar to what some others have said, he revved the car in reverse, leading to a loud clicking noises, followed by a loud clunk and the car was moving again. The sounds were quite loud and was not pleasant to hear.

However upon driving the car normally, the brakes still make the previous squeak and clunk noise, and now a grinding noise when coming to a complete stop and when reversing. So I got the car towed to VW to look into at their own expense as I now have no comfort over the reliability of the brakes.

It’s going to be the third time VW looks into this. I’ll keep you guys posted, let me know if anyone else has had experience with this, or have a squeaky clunking sound when coming to a dead stop
SRGTD
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by SRGTD »

When your brake discs get wet, a light layer of rust will very quickly form on the surface of the discs - completely normal, due to the material used to manufacture the brake discs. If your handbrake seized on due to the formation of this light layer of surface rust (I’d hazard a guess your brake discs were wet when the handbrake was applied, probably after washing the car or driving in very wet conditions(, the grinding noise you’re hearing is likely to be the surface rust being cleaned off the surface of the discs by the brake pads as you apply the brakes. The grinding noise will be more noticeable at slow speeds - when coming to a stop or when reversing - as there are less other (road or wind) noises to hide the grinding noise. The grinding noise should stop after the brakes have been applied a few times, once the action of the brake pads on the discs has cleaned the layer of rust off the discs. If there’s still a faint abrasive noise after the discs are clean, then that’s likely to be the normal action of the abrasive face of the brake pads making contact with the discs and IMO is nothing to worry about.

I had the clunking noise from the brakes when reversing to a halt in my previous generation GTI when it was new, and this was due to the slight movement / free play of the front brake pads in the brake calipers. It stopped after a few weeks of ownership once the brakes had ‘bedded in’ and has never reappeared. Free play / movement of the pads within the brake callipers is probably what’s causing the clunking noise on your car. This has been discussed on both the 6r/6c and AW forum boards in the past.

The separate mooing / humming noise is well documented in another ongoing discussion thread on this (the AW) forum board.
monkeyhanger
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by monkeyhanger »

Never had my rear brakes seized, not even after leaving the car with the handbrake on for 15 days while away on holiday on October. Same with the wife's GTI+. We park on the flat and put the handbrake on just enough.

Seems more like caliper seizing than the adhesion between light and thin layer of rust between disc surface and pad surface if the OP is having so much trouble getting the rear brakes to release.
SRGTD
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by SRGTD »

Hopefully, the OP will update us on the cause, once VW have investigated.
VWPOL0GTL
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Re: Polo GTI won’t move at all!

Post by VWPOL0GTL »

SRGTD wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:01 am When your brake discs get wet, a light layer of rust will very quickly form on the surface of the discs - completely normal, due to the material used to manufacture the brake discs. If your handbrake seized on due to the formation of this light layer of surface rust (I’d hazard a guess your brake discs were wet when the handbrake was applied, probably after washing the car or driving in very wet conditions(, the grinding noise you’re hearing is likely to be the surface rust being cleaned off the surface of the discs by the brake pads as you apply the brakes. The grinding noise will be more noticeable at slow speeds - when coming to a stop or when reversing - as there are less other (road or wind) noises to hide the grinding noise. The grinding noise should stop after the brakes have been applied a few times, once the action of the brake pads on the discs has cleaned the layer of rust off the discs. If there’s still a faint abrasive noise after the discs are clean, then that’s likely to be the normal action of the abrasive face of the brake pads making contact with the discs and IMO is nothing to worry about.

I had the clunking noise from the brakes when reversing to a halt in my previous generation GTI when it was new, and this was due to the slight movement / free play of the front brake pads in the brake calipers. It stopped after a few weeks of ownership once the brakes had ‘bedded in’ and has never reappeared. Free play / movement of the pads within the brake callipers is probably what’s causing the clunking noise on your car. This has been discussed on both the 6r/6c and AW forum boards in the past.

The separate mooing / humming noise is well documented in another ongoing discussion thread on this (the AW) forum board.
Thanks for the reply and clarifying a few things man.
The car was dry when the car was parked in the garage (and on a flat surface), and the car had to be revved a quite a fair bit until the brakes released and the clunk which followed was incredibly loud and did not sound right, especially the clicking sounds leading to the clunk. I have parked the car while wet in the past after a car wash and haven’t had this issue before. The humming/clunk of the brakes when coming to a complete stop has not happened in the old 6r GTI and Polo AW (non-GTI) I drove before, however I am aware a lot of AW users also have this issue). Also when I drove the car around after the mechanic released the brakes “, the car made an additional grinding sound, which is definitely something i never heard before on the car, and sounded quite concerning.

I read in the other thread of the humming brakes VW has a fix with a new set of brakes, so hopefully the dealership orders those for me and gets them fitted in, especially since this is the third time they are taking in the car for the brakes, of which the first two times they only “cleaned” the brakes and didn’t replace anything.

I’ll try upload the videos of the clicking and loud clunk leading to the release of the car later if I have time, but will definitely keep this thread updated. I suggest everyone else to raise the clunking brakes to VW as well so they action on this and recall and replace our brakes, as it’s quite unacceptable a new car make such sounds, I have driven many cars before, in particular old cars half the price of the AW and have not heard of such squeaking in my life
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