If you've got rust on one side of the rotor it is a sure sign that you
don't have brake pad contact there.
New / Rebuilt calipers are in order.
Disregard any other symptoms until you get this replacement done.
Hopefully you'll have solved the problem.

Stan Wilder

On Sat, 7 Jun 2003 13:13:15 -0400 Dan Erlandson <danoer1@ECLIPSE.NET>
writes:
> Question for the group on brakes, calipers and drums
>
> History: My wife (primary driver of the van) complained to me the
> other day
> that she thought that the brakes on the van were mushy and that she
> had
> almost gotten into an accident because she had to "pump them".  I
> reminded
> her about the weight of the van / stopping distance  (yea, yea,
> yea).  The
> front pads were done 30k ago, the rear drums and shoes about 20k ago
> and the
> master cylinder and brake fluid just last summer...about 10k ago.
>
> So anyway I checked things out yesterday and noticed that the
> inboard side
> of the front rotors seemed rusty.  The fluid in the master cylinder
> looked
> nice and clean and up to the mark.  I've never been real successful
> in
> getting the rear brakes adjusted quite the way I would like them to
> be.
> Seems like the shoes are either too close to the drum (they scrape a
> bit) or
> too far away and the emergency brake handle travels too far).
>
> Questions: Sorry for the long background...
> 1.  Does the rust on the front rotors mean that the pistons in the
> calipers
> are not functioning correctly and if so is it best to just replace
> these as
> a whole unit rather than just worrying about rebuilding them?  The
> calipers
> are original on the van that we bought back in 91.
>
> 2.  I'm confused by the Bentley reference to a one way vacuum check
> valve in
> the engine that is supposedly attached to the brake booster (if I am
> reading
> the manual correctly)  I seem to have never found it.  The brake
> booster
> does indeed seem to be operating as per the Bentley testing
> procedure
> (starting car with brake pedal depressed and having brake pedal
> fall
> slightly but then hold)
>
> 3. Does the brake pressure regulator have any bearing on this
> situation?
> It's only function seems to be regulating the flow of fluid when the
> van
> isn't level.
>
> 4.  What is the consensus on adjusting the rear brakes?  adjust them
> close
> and have the shoes scrape a bit during the first few
> hundred/thousand?
> miles?
>
>
> Thanks for the help
>
>
> --
> Dan Erlandson
> Flemington, NJ
> > danoer1@eclipse.net
> 91 VW Vanagon GL 170,000 mi
> 99 VW Passat 107,000 mi
>
>

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