A Sick Mazy

[Miss Ali]

Hi all.. a little advice saught

I have noticed this mornig tha my handbrake appears to be a little loose in my hands and when I got to work there was a bit of a burnig smell coming from my left rear.

When put the handbrake down there appears to be very little resistance and the light on the dash is going on and off.

Anyone had ths before??

Would hate to have mazy off the road ths weekend

[Tony]

Could a rear calliper be sticking?

[StevePem]

Sounds like a sticking caliper to me as well

Jack the car up and see if the rear left will spin with handbrake off.

If the brake/disk are overheating badly then the oxidation on the disk will be a bright copper like colour rather than normal dull rust colour.

[Matt Parker]

I concur

The brake disc will be a dark blue-black in colour which is the sign of a sticking brake and cooking the brake disc. If yuou have green stuff pads or any brake pads that are coloured other than black then you will also see that the brake pads will have changed colour to a brown-black colour. As long as the pad material is intact, not badly worn(i.e. nothing left) and hasn't started to break down and crumble then you may be able to save some pennies and just worry about the caliper.

If you know what you looking for if you just look at the rear of the calipers from the back of the car you will see that the lever arm that the hand brake cable attaches to will be higher on the side that is sticking.

If you are caught out somewhere with this happening, park the vehicle on a flat surface if possible, put the car into gear leaving the hand brake off you will be able to push/lever the lever arm back out which will pull the cable back removing the slack hand brake free and also releasing the the brake caliper so you can drive to where you need to without the brake sticking, just remember not to use the hand brake until you have reached your destination.

Sometimes to can strip the caliper down, clean the piston and internals and re-assemble it with some lubricate grease and the brakes will work fine, but the majority of the time you will need to replace the caliper with a new or reconditioned one.

[Miss Ali]

Thanks for all the tips.

Looks like I have got lucky on this. I jacked up the car and the wheels moved free with the handbrake off.

I took a look at the adjustment nut under the console and this seemed very loose. No idea how it had come so loose but after I adjusted it all seems OK. It stops on a slope and fails to pull away with the handbrake on so that is a big improvement

[StevePem]

Hope it is all OK for you now but keep an eye on that back wheel regarding the overheating.

Could be worth squirting some penetrating oil (plusgas etc) around all the linkages!

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