Brake Pad Question

I just bought a Mk1 GTi cabby, but I am struggling to get it through the MOT. It failed on the handbrake and front brakes failed as they are cack. I have replaced the handbrake cables and rear shoes, new discs and pads in the front and then bled the system. It failed again. Right side is not working too well, so I am going to strip the caliper down and grease it up a bit. Anyway, my question is when I changed the front pads I noticed when I took the old ones out they were different either side. So I put the new ones in exactly the same way. Is this correct? At first I thought I'd bought thr wrong pads until I noticed the old pads were like that. I've never seen this before. I did wonder if there was supposed to be one of each pad on each side and maybe that's why I am having a problem. I don't have a manual or access to one so any help would be appreciated.

Don't panic they are different sizes each side of the disk .

Cheers………..

Thanks for that. I'll sort it out today, if the rain holds off!

Well, I swapped the pads round, applied a bit of copper grease here and there. Then I took the rear drums off to make sure everything was ok, adjusted the passenger side handbrake cable a touch. I then bled the system, a bit of air was present in the back. They seem much better now, not pulling to the left and the pedal doesn't travel as much. Fingers crossed it passes the retest on Monday!

:clap:

Good luck mate

Although different shapes they have the same surface area? One long and thin and the other short and fat :dontknow:

Have you tried the pointy stick trick to take up the slack with the rear 'self adjusting' brakes ??

The brakes on my Cabriolet are the most 'wooden' and unresponsive on any MK1 varient I've had. The prev owners replaced the rear cylinders and I've replaced the M/C, bled it all and made sure the fronts are not sticking/siezed etc

The best were the Caddy and I sold that :cry:

She passed the MOT retest on Monday! Brakes are now much better. Damn shame the weather is not allowing me to put the roof down. This is the first cabby I have owned and nt being able to make use of it is a bit of a bugger.