rear brakes smoking

[sleeper16]

just swapped one of my rear calipers for a mk3one as my handbrake mech had stopped working internally. now after a run today pulled up and smoke was bellowing out of the rear wheel arch on same side as caliper swop. now my handbrake comes on and lock nicley and releases fine can push the car easily on my own, iv slackend handbrake cable off a bit more but is there anything else i should check?

[Mr Blue]

I had the same problem on mk3's. the caliper was still sticking. The heat ruined my bearing too.

MK3's are just as bad as mk2 ones in my opinion.

Best to upgrade to mk4s next time

[Ben Lessani]

MK3s are the same as MK4s - but they're not alloy.

Only downside is if they are from a scrappy - then, obv MK4 will generally be newer and in better nick.

[sleeper16]

they were off the donor car for the abf, not my first choice but seen as they were there i thought i may aswell keep them just incase i am planning on moving to mk4 calipers in near future, but i have to do about 150 miles in it on monday and i dont want the brakes setting on fire or any other problems arising due to the sticky brakes.

whilst on the subject do mk2 handbrake cables work with mk4 calipers? and can i use 256 rear discs off a mk4?

so how can i free it off and prevent it from sticking? all the sliders were free and working fine when i put it on last week


cheers for the replies

[Ben Lessani]

MK2 cables work fine, but you may need to mount the callipers upside down/left to right if they are pre-88, not sure about post 88.

Don't bother changing the rear discs, the standard kit is fine - the rear brakes are *barely* used.

Freeing it off is either a case of stripping of the calliper and winding it back and forth to free up the piston, or removing the seals, cleaning and replacing (arse of a job).