Car wont drive!

Galway K9

I started the car after 2 weeks of not using it and it starts, clutch works, revs go up but the car wont move. It gets a bit of movement if i really keep the revs up and force it. It feels like theres a clamp at the back of the car. lol.


Anyone help?

irishgrover

I had a similar problem, turned out to be the handbreak seizing. To overcome I floored it (carefully) to disengage. This happen occasonally over a couple of weeks (if car was parked up for a couple of days), until I got the handbreak fixed....
PS: This is not advice in any way (just personal experience), I know very little about cars...

b318isp

Yes, it a good chance that there is some form of brake binding. If the handbrake is "floppy" it may be the handbrake shoes (if applicable) as posted above.

If not, there may be a bind of the pads to the discs. Try driving off abruptly - you should here a slight bang as the binding is released. Stop immediately and try again - there should be normal, if not it indicates something else is amiss.

colm_mcm

What car is it?

This used to happen to every almera we traded in

El Guapo!

Yep, it's almost certainly the rear brakes stuck.
Sometimes if you give it a bit of welly it'll break free but be careful, I've seen them stick so tightly that the front wheels just drag the back wheels along.
Try rocking it back and forth first and see if it pops free. If not, you may have to take the wheels off and free up the brakes by hand.

colm_mcm

If it's steel wheels, a slap of a sledge wouldn't go amiss

cruizer101

This happened me there last week too, it happens me on occasion and I just give a bit more power and it cracks free. Seems to happen when not used for a while in cold weather. Question I have though is it a sign of something else, like should I change the pads on the back, is there moisture got in causeing it to seize or anything else that I should really look into getting sorted even though not a major issue. Car is 97 1.4 honda civic.

colm_mcm

Does that car have rear drums?

cruizer101

Yeah drums on the back of the Civic, no idea when the pads in them were last changed or the drums even opened up to be honest, no record of it in the service history.

mbiking123

Hello

Try reversing backwards this might release the pads from the drum if they are sticking. It is possible for rust to make the pads bind to the drum if the car is not used for a while. I read this is a common breakdown at airports - along with dead batteries. Jack the car up without the handbrake on and slap the drum with a hammer may also help

A number of months back the shoe lining came off the metal shoe on my own car. Mechanic said he has seen a large number of this happening this year and wonders was it because of the urea (i think its called) that was used to de-ice the roads last winter during the freeze. He showed me the brake shoes afterwards and I could see how the pad peeled off from the metal, like as if the glue/compound disintegrated. What happened was one lining peeled off and wedged underneath the other shoe that was starting to peel off causing it to jam. It happened as I was reversing out of the driveway and I just braked the car. It had to be towed to the garage and the hub taken off which can be hard to remove, I was told if unlucky enough it may need an angle grinder to take hub off. Thankfully this did not happen, just new brake pads needed.

For this situation a slap of a hammer or driving with the wheel jammed can put enough force on the pads to make them break apart so the hub frees up.

Hope this helps

Nissan doctor

Just try to rock it back and forward a few times, if it still doesn't free up then if you try any harder you could do damage to the brake shoes.

As an aside, you should never leave the handbrake on if your going to park up a car for a while.

Galway K9

irishgrover wrote: »

I had a similar problem, turned out to be the handbreak seizing. To overcome I floored it (carefully) to disengage. This happen occasonally over a couple of weeks (if car was parked up for a couple of days), until I got the handbreak fixed....
PS: This is not advice in any way (just personal experience), I know very little about cars...

Hey,
This worked. Thats a million all!:D