VW Brakes are driving me mad - Do I have any choices!?

[Lanttu]

My polo has ran about 130 000 kilometers by now and I have changed my discs and pads twice by now (I have only owned it about 70 000 km) and once the Service dude told me that he had to change pads from behind, because the brakes were jammed.

This is so god damn frustating! And wait - there is more. My wife goes to stables almost every day and she has to drive on gravel about 3 kilometers and mostly it gets sand under the pads and that sounds is creepy... It sounds like my exhaust pipe has fallen off and now just hangs around against the ground.

I really want to try some alternative pads and discs this time... Is there anyone who has tried some better brakes? Even changed those calipers? Whole brake system? Possible even?

[RUM4MO]

The brakes jamming might be due to the internal return springs not working properly - one side on my wife's Polo is like that but I just try to free it up now and again. VW use quality brake pads Pagid at the front and Textar at the back - both come from the same company. Discs, I have not had to change my wife's Polo discs yet (5.5 years and 52K miles), but I might just use ATE or BREMBO instead of VW discs. Gravel and sand is always going to cause you problems with disc brakes - even if you upgrade them.

[Lanttu]

"Well, there's your problem..." one might say. My friend and I opened my brakes and found reason for that crakling noise which I keep hearing from time to time and also we noticed the mother of all brake system problems...

The noise came from the 5mm stone that was stuck between caliber and outer ring of the disc. That small stone was crawling against the rusted disc edge and sometimes when it got stucked real bad, it made just an awful BANG noise when it eventually got free. We took it out and there goes all the weird back noises.

Then while we were dusting and cleaning those calipers, we noticed that there was some uneven wearing (or how do you say that in english...) on sliding area... It has two levels and deeper one was clean and no so weared area was filled with rust and other stuff that was stuck on there during past winter maybe... We both made same conclusion that this prevents the brake pads clear of from disc and when it do happens it might cause a metallic "snap" sound from the brakes...

Also, the pads from that side was oddly shaped, so we decided that I really need new calipers anyway now...

I made some quick query to our local shops and it seems that my only choise for 1.4 Polo actually is VW's OEM parts... Which is too bad, because I really wanted calipers which I can paint white... eeh... I know. But it looks nice, because I have white rims also.

Atleast, I think it looks nice.

[RUM4MO]

I reckon that you do not need to replace your rear calipers, just buy new discs and pads - pads will probably be TEXTAR - discs, well just see what you can buy. You can always paint the caliper that are fitted - if you can buy high temperature paint.