Brakes Lock-up and will not Release - '99 Passat

[dcl]

I have a '99 Passat 1.8T with ABS. It has about 37,000 miles on it. I have not had brake work done recently.

The other day, I was at a red light. When the light turned green, I discovered that the brakes would not release! I had to give it hard throttle to drive the car a few feet onto the shoulder so that I would not block traffic. After turning the car off and waiting about 25 minutes for a tow, everything seemed to return to normal. Then, it happened again, and again ... three times within a few days. I sent it to the nearby VW Dealer but they could not see anything wrong. Then I asked the service person drive it home. It locked-up in his driveway! However, he was completely miffed as he could still not find anything wrong after he towed the car back to the garage.

What happens is that every now and then, the brakes tend to remain locked-up after coming off of a standstill. They will eventually release by themselves - usually after one hour or so. The Dealer told me that they do not know what to fix. It is a safety hazard. Now the car is in the Dealer's garage. No one knows what to do with it.

If anybody has any ideas, I would definitely be interested in hearing them.

Thank you!

David L.

[knucklebuster2]

The next time it happens, jack the car up with all four tires in the air (if you can get it on a mechanics' lift it would be easier) and see if all four tires are locked, just the front or rear, or just one. Start off there. If it is just one, I would say it is the caliper/slides( or wheel cyl if drums), the hardware or a hose or line. If it is the fronts or rears or both, it may be the master, proportioning valve or maybe ABS. Or also may be a stuck parking brake cable (if just the rears).

[ngonce]

I realize this thread is over 1-1/2 years old, but was was the final fix?

My '99 V6 Passat is doing the same (see my post on Nov. 15, 2005) on the front right tire. VW service replaced the front right caliper ($500)only to have the problem happen again 2 weeks later. NOW the answer seems to be the ABS module ($2300). I'm not sure I'm buying that answer - seeing as last week's answer was the caliper. What will next week's answer be?