I've come to hop into my car tonight (Around 23:00, and -4c outside) only to find my rear brakes stuck.

After sitting with the fans blasting away to thaw everything out, I took the handbrake off only to find the brakes themselves didn't release. Not wanting to wear the brakes down or knacker my clutch, I've not took my journey. I did trundle down the street to see if the brakes would unstick, but no such luck, they're not fully on anymore, but they aren't off either.

I'm hoping they're just a bit frozen... though is that even possible? I'll have a proper look tomorrow, hopefully they will have magically pinged open and be fully functional again in the morning.

i had this last year where the handbrake didnt release. Its on a spring, get under the car, and follow the cable to its housing - tap it forwards lightly with a hammer and it'll release

Superb. Will give that a go shortly. Seems the sun has made an appearance outside to hopefully it's not as bitterly cold as it was last night. Just have to convince myself it's a good idea to get out of bed now...

its so true - my trusty hammer always solves these things

I found that this morning my brakes were locked at little from not driving it since thursday, but only a bit stiff - literally when i hammered the thing above - one wheel was dragging on the floor and i couldnt get off the drive!

Never done it again though! (maybe that was the copious amounts of grease and WD-40 i put on to make damn sure )

god i miss that car

Never had this problem with the gen2 but this morning my gen3 wouldn't let go the handbrake, luckily I have access to another car so just left it in the sun and the wheels now turn but the spring is still stuck and I'm not grovelling around in the snow to release it anytime soon

yeah - the big symptom is that the handbrake goes floppy when pulling it up/down - the light stays on - thats when you need to grovel around on the floor

If it gets really cold ... leave it in gear with the wheels chocked up , then you can leave the handbrake off ... problem solved

mmmm, i just used to drive off and before i got to the end of the road they's release

Yeah, I think my brakes may have frozen on as well - got to work this morning with the rear driver's side wheel smoking a bit!
Only positive is I'm likely to be getting new disks/pads soon anyway!!!

Just read this and if you'v read my post in the wibble about the caliper, then it sounds more like this, i have got a sticky calliper but iv got this too

Hey when you follow the cable, where is this spring exactly as i havnt been under but is it towars the back wheels or more underneath by where the actual handbrake lever would be.

Oh and as you can see from the wibble i did drive the car while it was like that so thats not done my pads, clutch or just the whole car anygood

Cheers chris

Hi Chris

Ok, so just before i send you under the car - when you hold the handbrake button in, is the first few inches (or even with me most of the travel) REALLY floppy - because that'll be the slack in the cable where the spring is on

if so, get underneath the car, and litterally slide your hand along the cable to where it is attached to a lump of metal (real technical here) and you'll see its on a green spring. If you are laying at the back of the car looking forwards, then you'll see its got a flat piece of metal on it - perfect for hitting but you will physically see the slack in the cable

Hey andy, yep with me its most of the travel, i put the handbrake on in the night and in the morning i pressed the button and lower the handbrake lever but it is as you say just REALLY floppy.

This happened last year (christmas) in the cold i just thought it was the caliper which was sticking then but i replaced it after christmas and havnt had any probs but this was most likely due to the warmer weather in january. Well now iv got the handbrake problem again and a sticky caliper same side that i replaced too?

Cheers chris

im with faz i used to drive off and they'd let go.....sometimes i used to rock it backward and forward

The problem seemed to mostly resolve itself once the sun hit the car. Come home tonight though (Not in my car) to see my car is a giant block of ice. Should be interesting tomorrow morning, though the springs have been given a dousing in WD40 and handbrake left off... hopefully there wont be an issue

yeah sounds like that then - just that with me everytime i applied the handbrake - it stuck again. the way it finally went after lots of de-greasing, cleaning etc was to briskly pull the handbrake up CAREFULLY whilst going down a dual carragieway - NOT hard enough to lock (very hard to do really) but it sorted it anyhow

mine does this most mornings, i let the handbrake off and all seems fine till i go to move and theres a loudish knock as i go to move and all is free lol

Right. Well here we are again. I should have been in work 30 minutes ago, but I'm sat here like a numpty waiting for a miraculous burst of sun.

Other than leaving the brake off, is there no other preventative measure to stop this from happening? At present I'm in work clothes with no spares removing the ability to roll around on the floor to solve it, no tools and no chance of getting an extension to the car (so no hairdryer).

My brakes don't seem to release from driving, and I'm not a fan of needing a new clutch, so I don't want to risk driving all the way to work.

not really im afraid mate, until its dry and you can get under and clean it up - even then its not a promise it'll work

Leave the car in gear?

I'll try to remember to leave it in gear. Last night I was tired and just chucked the handbrake on without thinking, leaving the handbrake off isn't a problem, the driveway at home is nice and flat. I just always prefer to find a proper method of prevention rather than repeat fixing or a workaround.

also, when you take the keys out the ignition, make sure the steering lock kicks in (maybe turn the wheel full lock so that even if some idiot tries to push it away it'll just go back a few feet in a circle to a dead end)

Just leave it in gear, first or reverse - anybody able to push it then would be best left unchallenged

hey guys i think mine seems to be sticking towards the front of the car, as iv greased all the springs on the calliper and couldnt find anywhere else to do? As the calbe run into the center and then up under the floor, is there anything else that i can grease up to stop it doing this ?

i'v also found a qiuck but messy way of releasing it, at least it worked tonight when i thought id solved it and put the handbrake on.

If you go about a foot up from the rear wheels ( towards the front of the car) you'l see the cable for that particular wheel right in front of you atached to a hanger type of thing with a rubber seal either side of it, now if like mine its stuck towards the front then pull the cable to the rear as hard as you can, do a few times then repeat on either side, this freed mine tonight. And i did also pull it to the front as i was checking to see if it was the caliper and i could just about move the cable and hear the spring move so i suppose this could work for all, or atleast i hope it helps someone .

Chris

Same problem here

I haven't driven the car in a couple of days and this morning when I tried to reverse out of the driveway, the back wheels were stuck. The whole travel of the handbrake seems really loose too.

Looks like I'm gonna have to slide under the car with my trusty persuader.
Wish me luck.

Problem sorted
A few belts of a hammer done the trick.

*moved to wheel, breaks, suspension - faz*

Hit -10 here last night. Its bloody freezing!!!!
Handbrake is frozen again!!
Guess the parents won't be getting a visit this Christmas. On the plus side tho, now that I'm not driving anywhere, I can start drinking earlier.

Every cloud .....and all that.

i just get my dragon nicola to breath hot air on em

Gonna do that this evening