Any fan of Police will certainly read this!

I had this problem which have puzzled many since a while now - there is a ghost in my car. I changed my front brake pads 2 years ago and replaced them by generic ones. When I start the car, the brakes are fine, but after 15 mins of driving and braking, the brakes start to brake on their own slightly. At some traffic lights where the roads are inclined, I can release the brakes and the car would not move back!

After some time, the brakes start squealing - i have been told brakes do this when they are not OEM. I then have to switch the car off and on again, as it seems that the brake pads are released temporarily ( I can hear a "thunk" around where the brakes are). But driving again after a few minutes will have the brakes braking again. Then fortunately after 15 to 30 mins of driving, the braking would have gone - sometimes, may be due to the heat generated having an effect on the brake system. My front rims are black with brake dust when this happens.

I had several suggestions from this forum and the audi dealer, which i think have been useless so far. The very first time, the audi dealer cleaned the brake caliper, this solved the problem for a few days only and it was back to braking again. They even tried a new one, no result.

Some people on this forum have suggested this is typical of a rusty servo and master cylinder due to water in the plenum chamber, because the signs were front and back diagonal rims were heating up. But then after some time, all 4 rims were heating up. The trouble is, the audi dealer said it's not the servo or cylinder as they have examined them. I have also driven around for the last two years with this problem and if it was the master cylinder or servo, my brakes would not be working by now.

When the generic front brakes have worn out in July last year, I replaced them with OEM ones together with new discs, although discs were half of their way out. This solved the problem for a long time - 6 months, but then I started having the same braking problem again. (without the brake squealing as they are genuine ones probably). I suppose it's because the brakes have started to wear out up to a level which start causing this. But the difference is, it is intermittent. My brakes would be fine for a few weeks, and then suddenly the brake syndrom will come on. To solve this, whenever I stop, I apply the brakes successively a few times, and it will release and will be back to normal. I have to do this for a few days everyday, then it will go after a week. Needless to say that whenever I cannot stop to do this, the car feels as if its pulling a load of 10 passengers! Or sometimes downhill in 5th gear, I have to accelerate to have the car go normally otherwise it will stopdue to the brakes.

The last suggestion by the audi dealer was that it is a problematic ABS system, which they have proposed to change. But this is costly and I am not convinced it is the ABS system as I there is no sign of the ABS light coming up, and I have been driving around for 2 years with this problem. The only lights which have come up was the ESP light and then it went off, maybe due to the heat of the rims. Changing the ABS could solve the problem temporarily, but what guarantee do I have that it will not come up again after some time, just like it happened, then I would have changed a complete ABS sytem for nothing.

The only other explanation would be as I said at the start - a ghost in the machine. May be I should start spraying the car with holy water. Anyone can challenge this?