I bought my A4 last summer, and think it is a great car, but I’ve started having break problems. If it rained overnight, it seems like the breaking only works on one wheel. To put it in perspective, when I get in and drive down the driveway at 10 km/h, it will take me 10 feet to bring the car to a stop, and it pulls to the left. If I keep hammering the breaks, eventually the ABS kicks in and the brakes start working properly. Get a bit more water in them and the next time you need to stop, you’ve got to hold your foot to the floor waiting for all 4 brakes to kick in. The local Audi guy checked it out, and mechanically the brakes are fine, but I need to stop on rainy days too!

Has anyone had this problem? Any advice?

Thanks.

 

My advice would be to take it to a mechanic and have it checked out because that is a dangerous situation to be driving a car during. Maybe have it towed to the mechanics shop too.

Either your abs pump or a caliper is gone, or something else in the system is preventing the brakes from working. Either way you don't wanna be messing around with it cause you could get in an accident.

 

sounds like a problem with your ABS system... if your regular mechanic can't figure it out, take it to another one...

 

I had a similar experience, in heavy rain it would take several seconds for braking to feel like it was working. (ABS will only kick in if it doesn't detect wheel rotation)

Also on a couple of occassions, I got the "no" brake feeling first thing in the morning. It would be worse with "open" wheel designs as opposed to closed in designs (like my winter steelies).

A search came up with this link "brake disc shield installation", under b5a4 on audidiy.com (can't post urls yet, <5 posts) which describes the problem perfectly.

Very easy to do and <$40 in parts from the dealer. Fixed things in heavy rain driving and for the most part the first thing in the morning problem. I've noticed that the rotors can form a slimy surface overnight depending on what's been put down for de-icing and the overnight temperatures. To get around this I tend to make sure I "warm" up the brakes before parking overnight, to drive off any moisture/road gunk.

 

Duenorf - thanks so much!