Five problems related to brake disc pads have been reported for the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2006 Volkswagen Jetta based on all problems reported for the 2006 Jetta.
The rear brakes prematurely wore out on my 2006 vw Jetta tdi. This occurred at 27,000 miles and the brakes were down to metal with no brake material left on the pads which in turn ruined the rotors. The dealer had to replace the pads and rotors at a cost of $341 to me plus tax. Since front brakes do 70-80% of the work the rear brakes should not have worn out this early, certainly not before the front brakes. This indicates a problem with the front brakes that the dealer and manufacturer refuse to acknowledge. I could see the premature failure of the rear brakes or increased braking force on the rear brakes being the potential cause for an accident and potentially injury.
Rear brakes wear unevenly (driver side rear pads have worn at an incredible rate) rear brakes also lock up easily while braking on loose pavement or gravel.
My 2006 Volkswagen Jetta 2. 5l started making strange noises from my rear brakes at 23,000 total vehicle miles. When I removed the rear brake pads, they were already worn to the studs and etching the rear brake discs. Braking effort and stopping distances were increasing. I have never owned a car with brakes that wore out in 20,000 miles, and if I did not know what to do, I would have destroyed the brakes entirely and/or had a failure. Apparently, this is a common problem on these cars because the hand brake is not fully released.
The rear brake pads, on the vehicle side with the emergency brake cable attached, wear very prematurely. The dealer indicated this type of vehicle has faulty brake adjusters. They would not replace under warranty. This is a severe safety hazard.
1) vehicle is a 2006 vw Jetta, package 1 manual transmission; driving vehicle normally; no abnormal braking incidents or accidents whatsoever. 2) rear brake pads on driver's side worn down to rivets at around 11k miles; this resulted in scored rear driver's side rotor; passenger side rear pads also worn down but no damage to rotor yet; front brake pads still in excellent condition for both sides. Apparently for the 2006 vw Jetta, the rear pads wear out before the front pads. I consider this a major design defect especially since the rear brake system is not designed to be the primary brake load carrier, at least based on the size and construction of the rotors: a) front rotors are 25mm ventilated b) rear rotors are 12mm unventilated the rear brakes wearing out before the fronts for the vw Jetta is a common problem and this should be looked into. Search the vw forums and you will find many cases of this. 3) vw will be replacing both rear rotors and pads under warranty; not sure about keeping the old parts since the work will be done under vw warranty. The replacement of the parts is good but I'm not sure if this solves the ultimate issue of the rear brake biasing which is causing this problem in the first place. Either the entire vw Jetta brake system and/or the brake proportioning valve needs further investigation.