Frozen Parking Brake

[hank]

Hello, wondering if the parking brake freezing is a possibility. My wife arrived home the other day with smoke billowing from the wheels. it had been freezing all morning and she had had the brake on. I took the car then and it was fine. am i right in saying the parking brake works the front wheels.Under normal conditions if the parking brake has been on they need a little while to free themselves . Thanks for looking

[UFO]

I suggest that you would at least need to look at lubricating the mechanism on the front brake calipers where the park brake cables attach. The park brake only activates the normal front brake pads and there is no separate park brake pads as such.

If the mechanism is sticking this would cause the brakes to be on whilst driving and would also have adverse affect on normal braking.

[noz]

Hi Hank,

Its certainly possible for the cable to be sticking in the outer therfore keeping the brake on. The cable is returned by a fairly light spring in the caliper(s). That spring(s) has to overcome the rotational friction of the pivot in the caliper and the friction in the cables (3No.) so its asking a lot of the spring. I have removed the rubber boots of my calipers, temporarily disconnected the ends of the cables from the lever arms and exercised both many dozens of times whilst lubricating with penetrating oil and then finally grease. I didn't stop until each lever returned very smartish by the action of the respective spring alone. I packed the boot full of grease before refitting. The cables themselves are very easy to remove/replace so I'd take them off and push and pull on the inner to test how much friction there is. Lubrication or replacement is the only recourse for those.

I suppose driving with the handbrake still on is not a possibility !

A much less obvious option is a dragging footbrake. The master cylinder (doseur valve) is located at the bottom of the windscreen under the scuttle panel. The lever and pivot from the pedal pass through the bulkhead to outside at this point. They are exposed to the elements and have been known to stick causing the footbrake to be on all the time. Its a lot worse than a normal car since there's an endless supply of pressure behind the doseur unlike a normal pedal brake which would run out of travel. Search elsewhere in the forum for dragging brakes.

hope that helps.

cheers

noz