Rear brakes dragging

[Justinmk4]

Good morning all 15 weeks later and I am driving my Mk4 from picking it up at the factory I have put roughly 18 miles on the car and on both rides the rear brakes progressively start dragging and then almost bringing me to a stop I have the upgraded wilwood pedal box, has anybody ever run into this???

[JIMOCO]

I had a similar issue. Check the parking brake to make sure it is fully disengaged. Mine needed some tweeking.

[Gordon Levy]

Also check the push rods on your master cylinders. They can tighten if the jum nut has come loose.

[edwardb]

X2 on both comments. For the e-brake, make sure the cables have a little bit of slack in them when the handle is released. Also check to make sure the arm at the caliper has completely returned. For my last build with the upgraded Wilwoods from FF, I had to add some helper springs to make sure they completely released.

[Studz75]

I purchased a built MKIII recently and just replaced the entire brake system from master cylinders to rotors after purchasing the car with contaminated brake fluid. I flushed the hard lines with alcohol and blew them out dry. Installed new wilwood master cylinders, calipers and rotors, I even replaced the e-brake system as the previous owner had thrown on some cheap e-brake handle from an escort or something. Front are fine but the rear is constantly dragging. I have slack in the e-brake cable, I have adjusted the washers at caliper numerous times, bled and adjusted numerous times, the MC has some play in the rod, not much, etc.. every time once all put back together and brakes applied the pads are still dragging on the rotor, piston not fully returning.. I have a 7/8” bore MC on the large single piston/e-brake combo rear caliper, I have read too large of bore can cause this issue. Should I change out for a 3/4” bore?? I am new to the forum so I appreciate anyone who can help!!

[GTBradley]

I was experiencing this and some difficulty with my clutch cable too. Lubricating the clutch cable totally worked and convinced me that the decision not to install the hydraulic clutch was the right one, at least for me. The right rear brake was dragging and made it difficult or impossible to push the car by hand. I lubricated that e-brake cable and I found that people were installing a spring, as Paul mentions above, on the e-brake cable at the caliper (3-1/4" length, 7/16" O.D., .062 wire gauge - Hillman part #40). I got this from the thread started back in 2016 - https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?21828-Parking-brake-sticking-on-multiple-calipers

I just went to the local hardware store and bought the same kind of spring. It was 1/4" too long so I cut it to the right length. It worked just fine as the car moves freely when pushing it back and forth in the garage now.

BTW, a tell-tale sign that a brake is dragging when driving, even when you don't notice it, is brake dust building up on the wheel rim more so than the other wheels.