Brake Pedal Not Fully Returning.

[CATT]

Hi, my brake pedal does not fully return which causes drag and the brake lights to stay on. I have to put my foot under the pedal and give it a little lift.. Would be thankful if anyone can tell me the cause of this please as it is very annoying and dangerous.It is only a bit of movement but enough to cause these problems, thank you

[seatkid]

I had this problem, causing the rear calipers in particular to get stinking hot. I first noticed it when I pulled up at a zebra crossing and tried to pull way and the car crouched in the way it does when the handbrake is on. The handbrake was off, so I checked the footbrake and found it was about 1 inch down!

 

I checked the pads and found the rear pads were worn to the limit and also noticed the caliper parking brake lever was not fully home. So I changed the pads and freed off the lever using penetrating oil and lots of working back and forth.

 

The offside caliper was by far the worst side, the pad was worn to the metal on this side, indicating this side had been stuck for some time. Interestingly, offside rear caliper problems seem to be common if you do a search.

 

I have seen a german website showing a stripped down rear caliper and it seems that the insides get extremely rusted causing the parking brake mechanism to stick on.

 

I regularly check the lever goes fully back every service time and clean and reoil/free it if in doubt and I haven't had the foot brake problem since. I still have the habit of checking the foot brake every now and then by trying to lift it with the foot though!

 

I changed the rear pads at 75,000 miles but I am still on original front pads at 13 years/120,000 miles with about 4 mm left on all pads. This, I think shows that the rears had been binding for some time.

[CATT]

Seatkid thank you for your reply, i will strip them down tommorow and see if that is the problem.. I will post back when i can, cheers. :)