vettebob2

I had washed the vehicle and then rolled back and forth a couple of times (believing I was getting water off the brake pads) and parked vehicle in garage. Put the parking brake on and did not drive the Vette for almost 10+ days; we went out of state. Upon return, next day, I started up car and attempted to drive it out of the garage. IT WOULD NOT MOVE. I double checked to make sure I had released the brake and I had but the car would NOT MOVE. Soooooooooo, I revved up the engine a tad, released the clutch slowly and the car finally POPPED lose. And I mean POPPED....that's the sound it made on the release. Scared me to death...never had something like this happen before?????

I guess washing the car and parking it in the garage with the parking brake engaged and not driving it for a time, was not the proper thing to do???? I have not heard any rattles or upon inspection (visual) I don't see anything amiss. I would imagine these Vettes can take 'some' abuse so will hope that is all I have done is given it a tad of abuse?

Moral: don't engage parking brake after washing if you're not going to drive it for a while???????

Aramis76

Yep, same goes for pretty much all cars with rear disk brakes.

Never apply wet parking brake if it will sit for a while. Unless it's not safe to do so of course.

Another solution is to drive the car a little after a wash, heating the pads and disk will also prevent this.

Maxpowers

+1 This is perfectly normal. I always go for a rip after a wash to heat up the brakes and get the water out of the nooks and crannys.

Vetteman Jack

I too take the car for a short spin to dry up some of the water from the areas I can’t dry completely.

KenHorse

Yet another reason I rarely clean my car using water

LuisZ51

Wow, I learn something new everyday! This has happened to me a few times. The most recent just happened yesterday, exact scenario as OP. I was just about to take it to the dealer Monday to have it checked out. Thanks guys

PatternDayTrader

No big deal.
The parking brake shoes are in the rotor hat.
Its exactly like a drum brake, and the shoes were just stuck for minute.

JMII

Correct.

I wonder if in this case moving the car actually made the situation worse by allowing water under the hat. You could always leave the brake off and just place some wheel chocks under the tires. Just don't forget they are they when you try to drive away. Another option would be using an air dryer (shop vac) to blow the rotors dry before storage.

PatternDayTrader

Its kind of a bummer they switched to electric actuation for the parking brake.
This problem was easy to deal with on cars with manual actuation via a pedal or lever. You would just apply very light pressure to it, with the car in motion, and it would dry itself out as well as clean any accumulated rust off the drum surface and shoe linings. Doing this periodically had a side benefit of making things easier to disassemble when the time came to replace the service brakes.

orca1946

I have done that too. My problem is after I wash it a drive will get it dirty again!

KenHorse

I don't see a problem with the electric brake. Hell, it'll even automatically disengage (once you start to roll) if you forget to. Try THAT with a manual one

PatternDayTrader

There's nothing inherently wrong with the electric version. Its just that it takes away something that was useful.

KenHorse

Well, I do remember using a mechanical PB to play in the snow

JMII

Agreed... there are pros and cons to the electronic brake. It takes up less space in the interior and will automatically disengage when you drive off. The cons are its just one more electronic thing to fail and you can't apply light pressure, its an all or nothing deal apparently.

I used to apply the parking brake manually in reverse occasionally to knock dust off it too.

Also there was something of a comforting feeling that comes from having a physical connection to your brakes in case of some odd ball failure. For example on my previous car (not a Corvette) I had a brake piston seal failure on track. Thankfully I was able to slow it down with only 3 brakes working and limp back to the garage. From there I had to get the car to a buddies house to fix the problem. Pretty much the only way to drive it on the street was using the parking brake. Stepping on the pedal just caused more fluid to leak out and I didn't want to run the system dry. Driving very slowly (hazard flashers on) and pulling up the parking brake as needed to the slow the car for stop signs worked fine for the short distance I had to cover. In retrospect I should have put the car on a trailer but we knew the problem and only had a few miles to go on local neighborhood streets.

LuisZ51

Mine doesn't do that.... That i know of??

dvilin

It does try it.

TXshaggy

I don’t see how a manual release would unstick rusted rotors any differently than electronic. Been happening since iron disks were introduced

Bill Dearborn

I highly doubt the parking brake was the problem. Unless you drove your car into some 8 or 9 inch deep water or on the road or where there was a lot of under car water spraying around the back side of the knuckle you aren't going to get the parking brake very wet or not wet at all. Washing the car and spraying water through the wheel spokes won't do it.

The parking brake is inside a drum that is inside the rotor and the opening is on the backside of the rotor. Water would have to flow down the inside face of the rotor, then back toward the outside to get into the drum and the shoes are probably a quarter inch further in from the drum opening.

The loud popping noise was from the brake pads at each of the 4 wheels being corroded to the rotors, not the parking brake. The parking brake shoes have such a small surface area they really can't generate much braking force even if they are frozen in place. Just rolling the car back and forth a few times doesn't get enough moisture away from the pads to prevent them from corroding to the rotors.

Bill

vettebob2

Sooooooooo, since your reply/response indicates the 'pads' themselves as the culprit I guess I should not wash the vehicle if I am not going to drive the car in the next 24 hours or less? Or................drive it somewhere and back.

NashvilleGrandSport

Mine do it on my Corvette and my Hyundai Equus. It is the brake pads. No big deal.

Pop and go!