Mexican beetle brake issue.

[wellcraft]

Just got a 2002 Mexican beetle and the brake pedal feels really hard and on my 1999 it feels as any other car. The other day I drove it around the neighborhood and when I tried to brake a bit harder it pulled to the left side.

I noticed that the front wheel was a lot hotter than the other wheels. I put the car on stand to try to move each wheel by hand and the only one that I couldn't move was the passenger rear side.

I checked the rear brakes and the passenger side rear drums is getting stuck somehow. I was able to remove the drum after fighting for a few hours and it looks like the adjustment was way too much. Now today I pumped the pedal and the rear drums is tuck again and is at its lowest adjustment, also can't barely more the front disc by hand unless I use a long screw driver as leverage.

I was going to rebuilt the front calipers and get new rear drum cylinders but now I'm thinking the problem might be something else. Could it be the master cylinder?

If it is the master cylinder, whats the part number and can I used an older model master cylinder?

Thanks for any help.

[BigBadWolf]

Check the rear wheel cylinders, brake hoses (might have collapsed over the time), brake lines. Master cylinder is not so very likely, changed the one on my 1600i and found out a little later that the brake pads in the calipers were stuck by rust... So have a look at the calipers and the brake pads at the front axle, too. Good luck!

[wellcraft]

Thanks for replying, I took a closer look last night and the front brake hoses are in really bad shape, rotted. The front passenger side is also hard to turn so I decided to replace all 4 brakes lines and see how it works.

I'll let u guys know.

Thanks again.