Yep, it definitely sounds brake related. I've seen it before, more than once. Once the brakes get that hot, they need to be replaced, as you cook the binders out of the pad material, and make a mess of the rotors and caliper seals. If you must, change just pads and hoses, but check, clean, and lubricate the calipers really carefully, and keep an eye on them. Then dont be surprised if the calipers either seize or leak in the near future, or if the rotors start to flake off a layer about 1/16th of an inch thick. Unless you are able to keep an eye on it, I'd seriously consider doing it all, rotors, pads, calipers, hoses, and possibly even master. FWIW, I have had multiple rebuilt masters fail in the first couple months. I will not use a rebuilt master on my own, and I pretty much refuse to install them into customers cars, too. The ceramic pads (most of the premium stuff nowadays) work well, and dont seem to have as many issues, but I've seen way too many comebacks for noise complaints with them, even properly installed with a nice layer of anti-squeal. If you can talk to the parts guys, I'd try to get a decent semi-metallic, and put up with a little more dust, and possibly more fade if they are really hot, given what I'm guessing about the owner.
As an aside, I had an f150 that I had the brakes glowing and smoking something fierce (might have been flames, I was afraid to look, they were lighting up the sides of the road!), towing a boat with no trailer brakes through a notorious peice of mountain road (duffey lake, for those who know it). The only thing that put them out was the puddles at the bottom of the hill, which shatterred the pad material and cracked/checked the rotors. I rolled the last 100km on rivets into the cracked rotors, real slow, but at 1:30 am in Mt. Currie I just wanted to get home.
ceramic pads eat the rotors no matter what.. from my experiences atleast..
they might be ceramic.. I recall buying a service grade for that car... coulda been ceramic...
Is this the same car that had a rear wheel fire last November?
Did it end up being a wheel bearing that time?
I'm thinking it's the master cylinder holding pressure on the system after the brakes are released.
Is the push-rod that goes from the brake pedel to the vacumn booster adjustable? I remember working on a car years ago
that the rod had somehow been adjusted too long and was causing a similar problem.
Your post from last November.
http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=27679.0
Yes same car, however that issue was resolved.. That time it was the lines holding the rears on after pedal was released..
This time the wheels spin freely as soon as you let off the pedal..
You never said if she was hot or not.
Lol, not hot. AirHead more like it :p
I would ask her to drive it for a day or two. See what is really going on if possible.
something interesting that happened to my brothers 16v roc, i think it was mostly due to a spent wheel bearing
wowwww. thats ridiculous... Kinda scary lol