HARDCORE e-brake sticking in cold

Y

yudkib

pretty simple, the last 2 days up here have been freezing, and twice ive gone to drive home and the ebrake has been stuck. the handle drops but its clear the car is braking, and it takes no effort to put it back up.

anyone else had this? suggestions on how to make it go away? my first winter with the MSP or any car thats had this issue. i know i could leave it in gear but then i lose the option of remote starting it...
 
I totally see your dilemma with remote start in cold areas, so I hope no one tries to flame you for that without taking that into account

but while I don't have any tips if your e-brake is simply sticking...you might want to check to see if it's not your rear calipers seizing from old age...it's not hugely uncommon in cold areas where the salt levels are also high due to proximity to a salty body of water coupled with high amounts of snow causing all kinds of corrosion...since most of the tests for a sticky caliper would not separate a sticky caliper from your e-brake not disengaging your best bet is to look at both rear calipers and see if one is wearing unevenly, and then to pull the caliper off and test to see if they will compress properly

unfortunately I can't recall if the rear calipers will compress simply by squeezing them in or of you need to spin them in, I've never had to work with the msp's rear calipers, but there are plenty of how tos on here for brake pad changes that will answer that question

anywho, good luck with the problem
 
From what I can recall, and this is just a simple, generic thing to try, but try reversing before you go forward. This tends to unstick the ebrake. It stuck on my 2010 a couple times when it hit -5 but i just reverse for even 6" and it pops right out
 
yeah reverse didn't do it for me... tried it.
the wheel moves while the brake is applied, its not "seized." you COULD drive it... i found out yesterday, i had somewhere time sensitive i needed to be. man you could just smell the brakes when you got out.
it's been in the low teens here i'd guess so maybe i'll take a look at the rotors and calipers one day if im the only one who has issues with it.
 
a seized rotor doesn't mean the car won't drive...but it'll present the same symptoms as your e-brake sticking...it just means that the caliper could be partially stuck engaged, and seized there
 
also, does the car pull to one side when driving regularly...depending on the severity of your problem that's a good way to determine if it's a seizing caliper...if it doesn't pull to one side that doesn't rule that out, but if it does then it tells you it's the caliper not the e-brake...also after a drive you said the brakes were hot, check to see if it's on both sides or just one, if it's only on one side then it's that caliper if it's on both it's probably the e-brake
 
I have been having the exact same problem. On my way to work yesterday I felt the rear brakes sticking so I pulled over and noticed that the drivers side rear wheel was quite hot and you could smell the brakes. So I went back home and took it apart. I disconnected the e-brake cable to determine if that was causing the sticking and sure enough the wheel spun just fine with the cable disconnected. I pulled and released the e-brake handle a few times to test its operation (of course there was hardly any tension), the passengers side cable seems to release fine but no matter how many times I pulled the handle, the drivers side cable was stuck in the "on" position.

In my case I think i'll need a new drivers side cable. Maybe you do too? Are both of the wheels sticking or just one? I will be installing the new cable tonight I can let you know if that fixes the problem.
 
interesting stuff, all of it. ill have to check at some point.
its warmer today and is still sticking, albeit not as much.

great, right in time for 300 miles of driving today.
 
oh im bringing it to the car wash, hopefully if its salt related itll at least help.
gotta make sure i get the salt off the body anyways. nasty, nasty stuff.
 
welcome to mazdas rear brakes....ive learned to go ebrake half way and leave it in gear on level ground. every protege with the disc brakes has this issue in the cold. carwash usually unlocks it, i know your pain but not salt related, usually the warmer water lets it release but if you gonna wash it, remember to dry your door jambs lol... if its cold enough for the ebrake to stick, more than likely cold enough to freeze your doors shut.
 
So I replaced the drivers e-brake cable on friday and it solved the sticking problem.

Not a fun job to do but overall not that difficult. Had to cut out the exhaust heat shield because the bolts were all stripped. Then ended up having to remove the entire cable assembly (left and right cable and the smaller cable going inside the car to the handle) in order to get the drivers side cable off. Should take about 2 hours to do if you need to remove the whole assembly, maybe an hour if you don't.
 
well it had stopped sticking after the car wash, which was nice... like i said i had a few hundred miles to drive that day. and then it didnt do it again, until today when it hit like 9 degrees in albany.

i took it out for about a mile, its definitely just the drivers side. hopefully its just the cable.
turbo smoke - im looking at the factory manual, it looks like theres a few points along the cable with a "grease" indicator next to it. did you try greasing/oiling any of it before swapping the cable?
 
yudkib said:
well it had stopped sticking after the car wash, which was nice... like i said i had a few hundred miles to drive that day. and then it didnt do it again, until today when it hit like 9 degrees in albany.

i took it out for about a mile, its definitely just the drivers side. hopefully its just the cable.
turbo smoke - im looking at the factory manual, it looks like theres a few points along the cable with a "grease" indicator next to it. did you try greasing/oiling any of it before swapping the cable?
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed that in the manual too. Tried to lubricate those points but that cable was seized pretty good. Even when I had the old cable out of the car, I tried to pull on it to see if I could get it to do anything but it wouldn't move at all. I didn't try all that hard but I figured if I couldn't get it to move with the amount of force I used, it was bound to get stuck again.

Just an FYI, I paid $86 cdn after tax for the one cable. That was an OEM Mazda cable. For some reason the aftermarket cables were the same price.
 
ok well i took a stab at this today and it went well-ish. one of the bolts had stripped threads, but out of 4 thats not bad. we ended up just ripping it out of the floor.
well then we go to put the new cable in (from autozone?) and the end that connects to the calipers wasnt the same. it didnt have the "t" it was just a collar terminating the cable.
i know when i went to order it, they asked if it built was before or after jan 4 03. the build date on the door sticker said 01/03 so we hoped it was before. i assume it was related.

so now i have to find one of these things in a hurry or put the car back together without it. i plan on returning to school tomorrow and won't have a garage.
turbosmoke - do you (or anyone else) have the OEM part number? was it in stock at the stealership?
mine was just the driver side as well.
 
I didnt read any of those post (its late and im tired) but the first one so here goes nothing, If your sure its your ebrake sticking in the cold sometimes the plastic coating and get a crack or something in it and the Ebrake cable will get moisture in it and it will cause the cable to freeze. I have seen this more than once.
 
i think that is the issue... how do i solve the problem? replace it? drain it?
it looks like its getting in near the front... not a tear, just somehow is getting in there.
 
ok i went and looked at the cable more thoroughly...
theres about a pinhole sized tear in the part near the caliper. its tiny but its enough that there was a reasonable amount of water in it.
i jiggled the cable and got most of the water out, and now its hanging and draining to get any additional water out.

im not a big fan of "sucking out" but since the hole is so tiny and i dont know if ill get the parts in time anyways, i think im just going to seal it up with some sort of waterproof compound, throw some white lithium grease around the joints and call it a day. im sure it will work for two weeks then ill be right back here asking for the part number again.
 
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