Sticking brakes

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Hi guys,

 

To cut a long story short my car was left exposed to temperatures between -2 to -7 for a week. I drove it today, but noticed the handbrake had stuck on...being an impatient bastard - I drove it anyway :?

 

I thought a couple of emergency stops at 15-25mph would sort it and it did kinda. The drivers side rear brake pad was actually smoking :shock: I thought the bloody thing was going to catch fire or something?!

 

 

My brakes smell quite a lot now whenever I drive the car and the alloy wheel is rather warm to the touch (when the other alloys are not).

 

Any solutions? Its still -4 here and will be for a while.

[Supercharged 2]

Bucket of hot water - or strip down the rear brakes...

[vwdeviant 0]

Check teh rubber bellow where the handbrake cables go into the body and try and get as much spray-lube down as possible..

 

If they split the let water in and that freezes in the pipes effectivly locking the brake on.. we had a spate of this last year IIRC..

[MonkeyVR6 0]

I think I've followed the instructions as above?!

 

I got some WD40 and followed a rubber cable from the brake caliper as far as I could get under the car without jacking it up (its -6 so I didn't fancy lying down/being outside long) and saw the cable go into the bodywork about halfway up the car near what I can only assume is a centre section of exhaust...we shall see how it goes.

 

Does anyone have a photo of the underneath of a Corrado VR6 and I might be able to just point to it!

 

Cheers!

[Toad 0]

It's probably the water in the cables freezing... Mine did it all the time.

 

Leaving the car running on flat ground will raise the temp of the air under it and free the cables off. Then don't use the handbrake.

 

Only cure is to replace the cables, which will make a massive difference to the feel of the handbrake etc.

 

Cables are £8 each from the dealer and are best fitted with the car on a ramp.

 

I'd clean the handbrake mech on the caliper up and douse with wd40 too, then a layer of grease to keep the salty cacky water out for the winter.

[pete_griff 0]

also while you're at it - you may as well whip a wheel off and make sure the sliders that the pads use on the carrier and free from dirt and crap and re-grease them with copper slip - its only two bolts that hold the caliper onto the carrier and a 10 min job per side at most - make sure you get some brake cleaner from halfords or somewhere similar before hand though as you don't want copperslip contaminating your pads, especially if they are sticking on all the time