Golf brake failure

[Mervington]

Hello!

The brakes on our son's 1999 Golf Gti failed the other day: pool of fluid appeared under rear os wheel.

When the garage looked at it, a compression washer had corroded away. This turned-out to be made of aluminium. This one, and the other side, have now been replaced with copper.

The mechanic said he had come across aluminium ones before on Golfs. I've owned, and, until recently, repaired our VWs for many years. I've never come across an aluminium compression washer before. It sounds like an obvious route to trouble.

Has anyone else come across this, and the reason for changing from copper?

Mervyn

[batteryman]

This has been on the forum recently; my guess is VW have saved a few pfennigs on each car by using a cheap aluminium washer instead of a decent quality copper washer.

[Mervington]

Many thanks, batteryman, for the reply.

I did a search before I posted, but it did not reveal the thread you refer to.

It seems madness to me not to use copper in this location - asking for trouble!

Thanks again.

Mervyn