ABS & brakes

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum and have a couple of questions about a 94 passat I'm refurbishing. It's a GLX vr6 with an automatic tranny.

While driving this vehicle I do not have any power to the brakes other than foot strength. I have replaced the front pads w/o issue but I am having an issue with the rear. While I have removed the pads I can not colapse the pistion in the caliper. While believe the piston has seized in the caliper (on both sides), I have never worked on brakes in an antilock system before. I am curious if some trick to compressing them or do I need to replace them. I had no trouble colapsing the front and assume the rears are frozen. If these are frozen would that cause the ABS & BRAKE idiot lights to be on?

Regards,

jeff

I'm having the same problem, 2 nights ago my ABS/seatbelt light came on in my '93 Passat GLX wagon, I didn't think much of it, but then some time later that night when I tried to apply the brakes, they did not work w/o me pushing hard on the brake

the car ran fine for a day and a half, but late yesterday, my car started stalling after I started up at a green light, so I had to come to a stop, start it up again, and it would run fine, but this morning my car won't start, I had this problem before but it was w/ my e-brake, the mechanic said it was "stuck", I didn't have any work done on it because the e-brake sorted itself out and it's been working good, so I'm thinking the same will happen here w/ my ABS

maybe someone can help us answer both...hopefully

edit: my Passat is a manual

The rear brake piston needs to be compressed and turned at the same time. Turn it clockwise I believe. Its relatively easy if you have a locking plier to keep it compressed. Being ABS and parking brake causes this. Try it and see if it works. The stalling I can't help you out with because my car is doing the same thing and its automatic. I'm going to try and see if its a fuel problem first because I believe it is. Hope some of this helps