Guys, today the wife and I decided to go out to lunch hadnt driven the car in a few days and had just washed it before parking.

It has sat for 3 days without being driven which is not uncommon. Had no problems on the drive up and everything was fine. However, when we got home and parked in our garage (We live in a high rise condominium so its a big open underground garage) we could both smell what I can best describe as the sent of a burning clutch.

It was very distinct and coming from the drivers side as we smelled our way around the car, it became clear it was coming from the drivers side rear wheel. I felt around and sure enough I burned the crap out of myself (got to close to the rotor)

Brakes are not even a year old brand new rotors and pads all the way around and teh calipers were lubricated and given a seal of approval.

So all that out of the way, I am thinking I have experienced a caliper failure on the drivers die rear and that it has locked up and is dragging on the roto heating both up and causing that horible smell..

Oh and before anyone asks, yes the emergency brake pads were changed out too as was the parking brake motor...

Any additional comments or ideas folks?

 

Unhook the emegency brake cables and drive it. I think that caliper is sticking NOT your main rear brake caliper.
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Thanks tbird!

Man that would be great if its just the e-caliper!!

 

T-Bird, Good suggestion.

 

Whenever I wash mine and then park it, I always get a small amount of rust visible on the rotors. The brakes usually stop a little funny the first couple of times and make a lot of noise too when I do drive it after its been sitting post-wash. I would make sure that the wheel is actually sticking before disconnecting cables and such. Jack up the rear of the car with it in neutral (with the front wheels chocked, of course) and see if they spin freely.

 

It's a bit of a hassle but worth driving the car at least a short distance after washing it, to dry the discs (rotors).

The modern style rims with huge gaps are all very well but have the bad effect of making it likely you'll get water on the discs when washing the car.

 

Drive the car for a short distance at low speed and see which of the two calipers is heating up. The E brake caliper will normally be quite cool if it's OK.

 

Problem identified - Parts on order!

So turns out my drivers side rear caliper was / is frozen up... Everything else checked out okay... Calipers even for the e-brake apparently are Brembo so....

New Brembo parking brake caliper $430 bucks
Labor to remove and install new caliper $150 bucks
Finding out early and not having to replace the rotor $Priceless!

Now down side is the car is a hangar queen... Will be up on the rack until at least Monday evening while we wait on the new caliper to be air freighted in...

As always, thanks everyone for your comments / help!

 

Well, I guess they are forging that replacement caliper from raw steel... Car has been in the shop a full week as of tomorrow morning... Is it really that hard to find a replacement Brembo emergency / parking brake caliper???

 

It would be great to find out what went wrong with that LR parking brake caliper. Just getting the car wet should not cause this. But ... I guess these electric parking brakes are a bit fussy.

Jeeze, what was wrong with a simple mechanical pull lever or pedal?

At least the car didn't catch on fire. That happened to a friend of mine who left his mal-adjusted parking brake on and drove for an hour. He damn near lost car too.

 

+1, after all the caliper isn't electric, is it?

There must be scrap ones available. Probably half the STRs with them have been crashed by now!!

Still, if waiting for a new one you're just dependent on shipping etc. Wouldn't matter much what part in that case.

 

As I understand the PB it's just the automatic motor that pulls and releases the cable. That's located above the diff I think? It's been a while since I read all of those threads about watching out for that one.

He said LR caliper at first and then the parking brake caliper so I'm assuming it's not the actual hydraulic caliper which can be locked by a failing hose that acts as a check valve when it goes. I've had that happen on brakes as well as a clutch.

 

The calipers are purely mechanical, no electronics. A cable pulls a lever. I'd like to know what went wrong too. Wonder why the mechanic couldn't have freed it up to at least let the owner have use of the car until the parts came in.

 

Have you considered getting the caliper rebuilt?

More time involved but I work a bit on old cars too and this is usually the best way if you have the time to wait or if they are obsolete.
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These days a lot of places don't rebuild, they just fit new. Cost isn't an issue (for them).

 

I work on a lot of older cars where parts are either hard to find or very expensive so I too am used to fixing the part if I can. I think I'd try in this case as well. But for my 2001 Sable loaded calipers are $35 so I just toss them. The rotors are too cheap to make turning the old ones worth it either.

 

Hey guys! Car is still not back hoping for tomorrow at this point.

I am not sure why the parking brake caliper bit the dust. Seems odd for a part that's hardly ever used... I had the parking brake motor replaced last year as it was a rusted gear stripped hulk of steel... But oddly enough even then my parking brake pads were shot particularly the left side which has just failed.

I thought it was due to the bad motor possibly adding some slight drag but now not sure what is going on...

Another day another repair, but I still love her!

 

Your parking brake is used every time you stop and turn off the car.

Have them look over the cable, housing etc. for the entire system.

If you serviced it recently and the left side mechanical caliper failed that sounds the last person to service the system may have missed something.

 

Well all checked out... Motor, cables everything is fine just had a parking brake caliper failure...

Probably the only documented caliper failure on the Forum...

At least it's fixed now, and my wallet is a bit lighter...