So it got really cold these last few days in New York. Last night im leaving my girls house. I park on a hill, so i used the e-brake to avoid all that weight on my tranny (auto). Anyways i get ready to pull out, put it in drive, drop the e-brake and voila,, the car wont go anywhere.. So i give it a lil gas and immediately realized that my brake was stuck, b/c the car moved, but slowly, and when i do gain some speed, as soon as i let off the gas the car slows down so much, and not to mention the smell of brake pads.. I had to get home so obviously i drove (only about 7 blocks) and it got better as i was driving- (pretty sure i don't have to explain why it got better after driving a few blocks)

I noticed that when messing with th e-brake now, that it has a lot of free play 1/4 of the way up, and then it gets tight like it used to be towards the top. my e-brake light still comes on and everything, even with the free play.

I was only parked for 1 hr.. what the hell do i do?

 

Same thing happened to me this week with the first sub freezing temperatures. Rear right side e-brake cable was stuck. I drove a couple of blocks, and smoke was starting to come out of the rotor it was so stuck! I returned home, let the weather warm up a bit, while I took off with another car.



I had replaced the cable on same side exactly 2 years ago, but there must be a design flaw that caused it to fail again after only 2 years. For now I disengaged the cable where it connects to the actuating lever on the caliper. I am planning to replace the cable again next spring when it`s less cold.

 

At least one or both of your e-brake cables are binding. Go here www.motorvate.ca (look for his parking brake link) and check your cables for similar damage... the only fix is to replace both cables.

For now, you can get to each rear caliper and use a mallet to pull back the parking brake lever on each caliper. Pull the levers towards the rear of the car to release the brakes. Be sure not to use the parking brake after that, o/wise you'll end up locking the brakes again.

 

Same thing happened to me last winter. My passenger side cable ended up snapping.

 

corrosion maybe, snapped cable maybe replace the cable but try not to drive you're ruining the pads now

 

Had a similar problem, the first real cold day. Only mine was my front Pass. Brake locked up. Odd thing is it happened twice after the use of the E-brake. Not sure why the front would do this. Oh and I am sure it was the front as I got out and listened to it make a hellish noise on that side. Seemed after it warmed up it went away instantly.

 

What everyone said seems to be right...just another thing to watch for...or to tell your mechanics to look for is to make sure that the cables don't get pinched under the frame of the car when they lift the car when they are working on it. This pinching will cause the protective "hosing" around the cable to split thus letting in water, sand, etc. which will obviously cause the cable to kink and fail.

-Steve