My wife and I are looking at buying a used 07 Jetta. We love how the car handles and alot of the extras you get with the car. We have been reading on line that there is problems with the rear brakes wearing out before the front due to improper adjustment of the parking brake.I was wondering if they have fixed their little bugs. We own a 99 Saturn and we have been nickeled and dime by this car and we don't want another lemon.

 

Well perhaps there may be no better one to answer that question since everyone seems to have older Jettas on this board. I have a 2.5 Jetta. You are correct about the brakes. I bought my 2007 Jetta because I love good deals and was convinced that the Jetta was the car for me after my 98 Mazda 626 had too many things wrong with it to repair. The newer Jettas do have a bad rear brake system. This is not a secret and if anyone says anything different they are lying to you. I got my used formerly leased Jetta from a Chevrolet dealership that had 34000 miles on it and when I test drove it I fell in love with it like no other car. The used car dealer told me the brakes may "sweek" when it first starts but assured me the mechanic said there was nothing wrong with the brakes. Sure enough, they did sweek but it went away. That was December of 08 and by the end of January it did it every time I started the car until I started to hear "grinding".
I bought some Duralast rear brakes after doing some minor research on the internet and got little information except a couple of people had only the rear brakes go out under 30000. I thought that was impossible for a front wheel drive. In fact the last three cars I owned I didn't replace the rear brakes ( all front wheel drive) well after 100000 miles. I was going to replace them myself and look at them but found out that my car had no jack. So I said screw it and took it to a mechanic. He said it wasn't the pad that caused the brake failire but a bad caliper system. He said I would have to check them every 30000 miles. So if you want to spend the money to replace the calipers with a different brand then go for it.

Aside from that and learning your supposed to put synthetic oil in the engine, it is the best car I have ever owned. Not to mention how fast it is and how fun and comfortable to drive it is. I only wanted the Jetta models 2006 and above because the older models are medicore compared to the newer ones in my opinion at least in some ways. Plus the looks of it is much better and not as "boxy" looking.

 

Thank you for your input on a Jetta. Like any other good spouse they like to throw a curl ball at you. We ended up getting a 05 Passat 1.8t with power everything, sunroof, and heated seats. We live in MN where it's cold about 3 to 5 months a year. As being a back yard mechanic and been doing brakes for alot of cars since I was 13 and I'm 35 now I think I'm going to be able to keep this one going. There are alotof things that sold us on this car and I hope it lasts us longer than our 99 Saturn. Thank you again for your reply and your experinces with your VW. They are right they are fun to drive.

 

dont forget with most cars you should crack the bleeder screw before you push the piston back into the caliper

 

Wouldn't I just open up the master cylinder cover and let al the brake fluid come back into the res?

 

Don't open the bleeder. There's no reason to let air into the system.

 

you dont let air in the brakes, when you push the piston back into the caliper it lets the fluid come out, and i was ok with doing that to my car i cause i needed to replace the brake fluid