frozen e-brake cable???

[deerock]

well i got up this morning to leave for work, started my car and attempted backing down my driveway. i noticed it was nearly impossible to back up, so i got out checked around my car and nothing was stuck under me, so i drove to the end of my driveway when it just felt wrong because the e-brake cable (after releasing the brake handle itself) was frozen and it left the brake clamped to the rotor..... anyone else had this mysterious problem? any ideas to fix it?

gracias!

[RotorNutFD3S]

Yes, and now I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I have that issue with my rear passenger caliper. If you reach up under the car and follow the e-brake cable to where it meets the caliper, there is a bracket tab of sorts that you can push that will release the brake. (Make sure you're on level ground or someone is ready to hit the brakes for you or you have it off and in gear!) It may be easy to do, sometimes it takes a little effort to "pop".
I have tried everything from WD40 to PB Blaster (since it looked like it had a decent amount of surface rust) to try to loosen it up to make it stop seizing, nothing worked. Since used calipers can be found pretty cheap, I'm just going to replace it with another one when I'm ready to get the car running.
And it's not cold weather related, it happened to me in the middle of summer.

[wildfire0310]

i have had the same issue that comes and goes on my driver side. What I do is pull over and turn off the car and put it in gear. Then I reach from in front of the tire and hit the little lever that Eric talked about. You will know when it releases as the car will roll unlit the gearbox stops it. Then I drive off. I am not sure what caused the problem but it will come and go and sometime can be a simple plus with my fingers to break it free other times I have had to beat on it with a BFW.

Your not alone.

[deerock]

YAY! im not alone!! and i guess ill get the ford wrench out and a flatty screw driver and go look for this tab to release it! cause im already (looks at clock on computer) 20 minutes late for work :(

anyways! thanks for the tips guys! i will post back up to let you guys know how it went! be back in a minute or 10 lol

[RotorNutFD3S]

Good Luck!

[deerock]

well i have a temporary fix on it, i took the e-brake cable out of the ebrake cable bracket until it can get a few degrees warmer, i found the pin on the drivers side, but not the passenger side so i used the previous temp. fix.

well im off to work, thanks guys! much love!

-deerock!

[metalman]

Sometimes the e-brake cable assy gets corroded and replacing it is the answer.

[deerock]

yeah thats the conclusion i came too, how hard are they to replace?

[metalman]

yeah thats the conclusion i came too, how hard are they to replace?

Not too difficult. I usually pull the entire assy from the brake handle, unbolt at calipers, then its just a matter of how many clips are holding them to the frame....and access.
I have a good clean cable assy if needed. ;)

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

mx5atlanta saves the day again!

[simontibbett]

Did you drive it hard before parking?

[deerock]

Not too difficult. I usually pull the entire assy from the brake handle, unbolt at calipers, then its just a matter of how many clips are holding them to the frame....and access.
I have a good clean cable assy if needed. ;)

lol ill keep it in mind, im gonna check it tomorrow and see if it needs replacing. if so ill call you.

mx5atlanta saves the day again!

yay!!!!!!! mx5atl to the rescue!

Did you drive it hard before parking?

depends on what you call hard, but it was a thursday night. so no. lol.

[RotorNutFD3S]

Did you ever get this fixed?

Even if you did, I found a post by Keith @ FM on the GRM forum:

I'll bet it isn't a seized piston, but a seized slider pin. The passenger's side, right?

Pull the other caliper off, check the condition of the pin. If it's corroded, you can either sand it smooth or replace it with a new one from Mazda. Reinstall with some nice brake lubricant such as Syl-glide.

Apparently this is a rampant problem on the passenger side rear caliper.

[jesseealexander]

yeah, mine always did this but eventually it would let go. sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes not until it looked like this: