Brakes Jammed On

[Windinherhair]

I took the car through the soft cloth carwash about a month or 2 ago. The program included a chassis wash.

I drove home, which is about 1 mile away. The next morning, the handbrake had seized on. It freed up pretty quickly though, after I put the car into reverse and then forward again.

Hubby took the car through the wash again yesterday afternoon. This morning the handbrake has again seized on. Only this time, it is refusing to budge. I have tried forward and reverse, forward and reverse for quite some time, but to no avail. I don't want to keep doing this for fear of burning out the clutch.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? We have driven through the ford several times and had no problems. That is a good 3 or 4 miles away though, so maybe the run has allowed any excess water to shake off? Could it possibly be the cleaning agents in the car wash?

Any tips on what I can do just now to free it off?

TIA,

Linda

[anchorman]

Hi Linda

I doubt it is the handbrake as that is tucked well away inside the rear brake disc. It is more likely the rear pads that stick to the discs. To break the pads away from the discs sometimes requires you to be quite brutal and can on occasions cause some damage so in the first place you get the AA/RAc to help or a local garage. If you try yourself you have to put a fair bit of power on then more or less drop the clutch but be ready if it does go. The other way is to strip it down which sometimes causes even more mess if the pads have to chiselled off.

Its usually caused by dampness or very high humidity and a build up of road debris which allows them to corrode together overnight. If you can get them free take it for a run over some hills and work the brakes hard which will burn the rubbish off and clean the discs.

Mind what you are doing!

[jedi134]

O dear, not a brake problem again?

What are they making the pads from nower days? left over noodles, burnt rice?

[daveh_rav4]

As I understand it Health & Safety means that brake pad matarial is not made up of the old asbestos based materials from years ago and are now made up of a hob-goblin of 'composites' and 'metal' that can corrode and react against ferrous brake disks! Its probably a price based problem... I wonder if F1 brakes and disks react the same?

Thankfully my handbrake & rear brakes are of the drum variety... so a degree of protection is afforded. I try not to think about whats happening to the front disc brakes!

Hopefully Mr. T is listening... the last thing they want is to be associated with brake problems!!!

O dear, not a brake problem again?

What are they making the pads from nower days? left over noodles, burnt rice?

[bothwell_buyer]

is your stuck brake related to when its frosty at night?? Then it could be moisture in the handbrake cable...had that on one of our trucks when the temp was -10C.

On the F1 approach, racing brakes tend to get checked and changed pretty often..... in the course of 2 years or so I've had 4 sets of discs and the mileage isn't high!! Just the speed!

If your RAV is not getting used much, then as ancs says, the rear brakes will not heat up to working temp and corrosion could be the fault.. mind when braking, something like 80%+ of the braking is done at the front.