so when i was out last night, my friend wanted to go over to her friend's house, which is right on the beach, so when i parked, my friend told me to put the e-brake on (you can see where this is going) since i drive mostly autos, i dont really need to ever put the emergency brake on, and when i drove, i completely forgot to take it off! i drove home a few miles i parked it and i smelled the burning (i figured it was the smell that first happened after driving the car as the car is still pretty new) i later (this morning, when i returned to the car) realized to e-brake was still on.

so on to my question, how bad is this for the car??? are the e-brake pads totally gone now? would this kill the calipers at all?

 

this reminds me of that episode of the wonder years when the kids went out for a drive for the first time. after crusing for a couple hours the driver noticed smoke coming from the car and nonchalantly disengaged the e-brake.

i don't know, i've never made that mistake, but i'm assuming you didn't hurt your car too much. try parking on a hill and leave it in neutral, lol.

 

Probably will notice a little bit of vibration from the rear, as you've probably warped your rear rotors.

Also, the rear pads (the e-brake [actually more acurately called the "parking brake"] engages the same pads as the regular brakes, nothing different there) have probably been worn a little bit further down, but not a whole lot, as you didn't drive from Boston to LA.

If you feel a vibration when braking, you know what it's from.

 

well the parking brake is actually a brake drum and shoes inside the rear caliper.

Id be worried about future strength of the parking brake, as it is not intended to stop the car or really take any heat, it is a static friction thing, meaning no real heat on it, just stress. you put the opposite.

Id probably confer with a mechanic that can check it out and see the extent of the damage... didnt you notice the car was stopping rapidly when you let off the gas?

 

Is it? I was under the impression that they were the same.

My bad, sorry. I don't work on too many of them, too damn reliable.

 

You probable didn't put that much pressure on the ebrake because if you did you would of definitly felt it. So you probably had minimal wear.

 

i was actually on a road that had a speed limit of 35 and notoriously horrible cops, so i didnt go that fast, and i didnt notice anything, no squealing, nothing different about driving, none of that, ill look at the calipers right now to check for warping, but my friend, who taught me nearly everything i know about cars, told me that its probably not that bad.

 

the other part .... after a little checking it out further, the calipers do not seem warped, and it seems i only had the ebrake on 1/2 or 3/4 of its possible setting, i think i got lucky this time