Rear Breaks frozen solid.

jezko · 29-11-2010 4:05am #1

Hi,

Question.... What can you do, if you find your Car with the Rear Breaks frozen solid. (FWD) and it was only one side Frozen... it's 3am in the middle of nowhere and you have a 40 mile drive ahead of you to get home?? it's -6C And you really want to get home...

(Besides calling Taxi/Mate etc)

okane1 · 29-11-2010 4:12am

if no warm water around, simply piss on the frozen caliper!

jezko · 29-11-2010 4:36am

okane1 wrote: »

if no warm water around, simply piss on the frozen caliper!

Had that Idea... But had just emptied down the loo 2 minutes before!! And No Pissin Hot/warm water in taps...

clank :o) · 29-11-2010 4:45am

use the pipe off a hoover to direct warm exhaust gas to the wheel for five or ten minutes

jezko · 29-11-2010 4:52am

clank ) wrote: »

use the pipe off a hoover to direct warm exhaust gas to the wheel for five or ten minutes

No hoover ... (Was In the Middle of Nowhere :-) ...But good Idea if ever outside my house!! :-)

29-11-2010 4:59am

Shovel snow or arrange other material along the sides of the vehicle. Doing this will create a path for air flow from front to rear of the vehicle, minimizing losses from the under the sides of the vehicle. The objective is to get the heat created by the engine and circulated to the radiator at the front of the vehicle, to the rear of the vehicle where most of the parking brake components are located. Creating a channel under the vehicle by piling snow, etc. in the space under the sides of the vehicle accomplishes just that.

mayo_lad · 29-11-2010 6:48am

jezko wrote: »

Hi,

Question.... What can you do, if you find your Car with the Rear Breaks frozen solid. (FWD) and it was only one side Frozen... it's 3am in the middle of nowhere and you have a 40 mile drive ahead of you to get home?? it's -6C And you really want to get home...

(Besides calling Taxi/Mate etc)

well if you have drum brakes and steel rims you can just hit the rim with something big to free the brakes all you need to do is brake the seal on the brake to get you home

Remember with temperatures this cold you should always leave your handbrake released when the car is parked up

_Kaiser_ · 29-11-2010 7:37am

mayo_lad wrote: »

Remember with temperatures this cold you should always leave your handbrake released when the car is parked up

Hmmm.. how does that work with electronic handbrakes as in the Passat etc

You have me worried now as to whether I should even try it (just outside Kells here and it's bitter cold and I'm supposed to be leaving in the next 15/20 mins)

mathepac · 29-11-2010 7:44am

Hair dryer.

mayo_lad · 29-11-2010 8:38am

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Hmmm.. how does that work with electronic handbrakes as in the Passat etc

You have me worried now as to whether I should even try it (just outside Kells here and it's bitter cold and I'm supposed to be leaving in the next 15/20 mins)

what i normally do in this weather is leave the car in gear onv a flat surface and leave the handbrake released you can do both of those things with the passat as well

Henry Ford III · 29-11-2010 9:32am

Hammer time.

p.s. You need to brake the ice of your breaks

Gary ITR · 29-11-2010 10:02am

I had all four calipers rebuilt recently so I *shouldn't* have any bother, but I'm still not using the handbrake, just leaving the car in gear

PauloMN · 29-11-2010 10:30am

Had this problem this morning also, back driver side frozen, ABS light and ESP light both stayed on when I drove off. Pumped the brakes to make sure they were working which they were. Parked up about a mile up the road and there was a strong smell from that wheel - presume I've probably warped the disc.

It was grand from then on after I restarted and pumped the brakes again, lights off and no smell.

PauloMN · 29-11-2010 11:13am

Just wondering would the spray anti-freeze for windscreens be ok to use on frozen brakes or not?

listermint · 29-11-2010 11:36am

Drink a load of liquids and repeat post 3

biko · 29-11-2010 12:24pm

Aye, leave the hand brake off when it's below 0.

As to the scenario above, you can try rocking the car back and forth to break ice off (only if you positively can't do anything else, it may damage something).
Another option is to hose petrol out of the tank and pour this over the caliper.
Same for red wine/spirits.
These are only if nothing else works and you're desperate.

jezko · 29-11-2010 2:22pm

I suspect the cable had frozen the brakes on one side. Once moving the handbrake handle had quite a bit of "play" before working... Seems to be back to "Normal" Now...

Handbrake OFF from now in this Weather...

And trip to the Garage to check the damage... Bugger it

Had thought of using Antifreeze window spray... wasn't sure if this would react and balls up the Brakes more...

Mech1 · 29-11-2010 6:25pm

If It happens to be a mondeo, you probably need new handbrake cables.
google it.

_Kaiser_ · 29-11-2010 11:20pm

mayo_lad wrote: »

what i normally do in this weather is leave the car in gear onv a flat surface and leave the handbrake released you can do both of those things with the passat as well

Problem is the driveway is sloped down to the house

... oh and she's automatic/DSG too!

Oh well.. was no problem in the end this morning as it turned out save for the OVERLY cautious types out in force!

Rear Breaks frozen solid.

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