So my car has been in the garage due to weather lately. Just went out to try a new tune that I got sent to me by Doug at BamaChips and get this...... the emergency brake was stuck on!!!!!

Before I noticed it, I went to back the car out slowly and it almost stalled. I then realized that the lever went down but had a few inches of free movement to it. Basically felt like the brake was stuck in the first or second "click" of the brake.


Has anyone else run into this problem. How do I fix it? Obviously can't drive the car to the dealership like this.

 

hmm... have you looked underneath to see if any lines or cables are broken?

 

I looked under but couldn't really see anything. I just had it out for a ride on Saturday and everything was fine.

 

Maybe ice on the brake cable?

 

I talked with a guy yesterday that had his E brake cables frozen. Is this going to be a problem in cold areas? He had car towed to dealer.

 

Have a look at this: http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=39606

 

If you drive an automatic, I've always heard that the gearing in the tranny is such that you don't have to use the E-brake when parked. Anyone else hear this?

 

Automatic transmissions have a park prawl. Basically, it is a chunk of metal that is dropped into a notched disk on the output shaft of the transmission when the selector is in park. It locks the output shaft so it can't turn.

Many people use this as a parking brake. There are two problems with this practice: 1) The wheels are not locked. If something were to break on with the drive shaft or diff, it is still possible for the car to roll away. Steep parking being a bigger problem than relatively level parking. 2) (much more of a concern) It is not uncommon for the prawl to pop out of engagement with the parking disk. Then you have nothing stopping your car from rolling. I have personally seen this one on more than one vehicle. Generally, it is solidly in park, it will stay there. But it is still possible for something to rock the car and cause it to pop out.

Personally, I generally do not use the parking brake on automatic vehicles unless I am parking on a slope. Like my drive way. Then I do.

 

As Don already pointed out, please refer to this thread

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=39606

I am closing this one.