Frozen Handbrake ....

[AndyBWales]

A very cold morning in South Wales ....

 

No surprise to find a few bits of frozen Galaxy waiting on the road outside for me then ...

 

Doors frozen into door frames .... drivers mirror frozen in the 'pushed in' position ... and acres of glass to scrape (obviously made easier by the heated front and rear screens) ....

 

But ... the handbrake?

 

Noticed a squeek as I pulled away .... as if the brakes binding slightly ... and the handbrake lever just didnt go up and down properly ... dont think it was working 100% ... but not easy to test on frozen roads ....

 

Anyway ... lunchtime ... all back to normal ... so I can only assume something was frozen?

 

But what?

 

The cables? the lever? the levers on the rear calipers?

 

Interested to hear of any similar issues? how to stop it happening again?

 

Hoping for above zero temperatures tomorrow .....

 

(MK11 TDi btw ... though I suspect the brakes are pretty similar in this repect on all of them)

[seatkid]

The rear calipers have a tendency not to release. It always seem to be associated with the offside caliper. Personally I think its a manufacturing issue. The self adjusting mechanism in the caliper is a little over enthusiatic and the lever doesnt always come back fully to the off position. A bit of WD40 and exercising the lever with pliers seems to effect a temporary cure (a few weeks or months).

[Saif Rehman]

What i normally do in this cold weather is not to use the handbrake but to leave the car in gear with the steering wheel facing slightly towards the kerb. Once the weather is warm enough then i revert back to using the handbrake.

I agree with seatkid in regards to the self adjusting mechanism but mine was the nsr that caused the one side to eat the disk - changed a few months back so no doubt i better check to see if all is ok.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Saif Rehman

[AndyBWales]

Thanks for the replies ... will have to investigate when it warms up a bit ...