Ok, so I go out to head to school.. let the max warmup for a few mins (it was just barely above 20F after all,) and let out the ebrake. I go to move and it lurches as if the ebrake is still engaged, so I start fiddling with the ebrake and it feels funny when the handle is fully released. When I say funny I mean it has an odd feeling and about 1/2" of play before you can feel tension (like the cable actually being pulled.) Normally there no play in my cable, everything is always in tune and kept up with.

Still no dice, it's still doing it (but I can move the car a bit now, albeit the brake is dragging.) I fully engage and disengage the ebrake probably 10 times or so and keep trying to move a bit until it feels like the brakes are free and the car is rolling without resistance. Still skeptical that my brakes have been fully released I drive around two blocks and coast to a stop, quickly get out and check each rotor, sure enough the rear passenger side rotor is super-heated... still dragging (but not noticable while driving.)

Well this sucks, so I keep messing with the ebrake, and finally when I think I've fixed it, I do another test, it doesnt seem to be any hotter then the other rotors now, so I drive around for ~ 10 minutes without using the brakes and coast to a stop, all the brakes are cold.

Good, now they arent dragging and the ebrake is working just fine.

But, not knowing what caused this I was afraid it would happen the next time it sat overnight when it was sub 20F outside (which temperatures will soon be like that everyday,) so I head to Midas because the manager is a friend of mine that helps me do major work on my car (suspension parts etc.) He puts it up on the lift and we start looking at the ebrake cable, it all appears to be fine, and where it pulls the lever on the rear calipers, which works perfectly now. The ebrake cable feels very free, it isnt stiff and doesnt stick whatsoever. The only thing he could think of was maybe some ice got into the rubber boots over the end of the cables causing them to stick and bind up not allowing the caliper to fully release.

Anyone have any opinions, or similar scenarios happen to them?

 

Water in the cable guides is frozen, preventing your E-brake cables from moving. When it gets below freezing, if you don't have to, don't use your e-brake.

 

Just want to let you know this happen to me this morning. Matter of fact I knew better not to have the parking brakes on because of the snow/water freezing around the the brakes and general tire area.

As I put her into drive i heard and felt brakes dragging / resistance but after a few harder stops the resistance went away, because of the heat generated by the stopping (I think). After class the same resistance was present but as I applied the brakes more esp. on the highway to local speeds the resistance went away.

I am going to try to use the hand brakes as little as possible.

 

Be careful about driving while your brakes are dragging, you are super heating the rotor and pad... When I did my last brake job, after turning in one of my rear calipers it had to be forced the last bit to fit new rotors and pads, and it ended up seizing.. I only drove two miles from where I did the brake job to my house (this was barely dragging, couldnt feel it while driving.. and it was at most 30mph) and the rotor was throwing off enough heat to feel on my face while standing upright next to that tire.

The rotor and the pad had a blue glaze over them... I had to replace the caliper, and the rotor couldnt be repaired, but I salvaged the pad by putting a piece of rough sandpaper on a flat surface and moving the pad along it to get the glaze off (im sure I shouldnt have done this but it has been fine since.)

Might want to think twice about what that resistance is from and what it is doing while you are driving...

I know you said the resistance went away, but so did mine this morning (and when my brake caliper had seized, there was no apparent resistance) but it was still dragging.