Bonehead Move - Drove With Parking Brake On
 

I had a Homer Simpson "Doh" moment last night. After leaving a friends house I drove about 10 miles to a restaurant with my parking brake still activated. I was driving side roads so I did not get up past 50 MPH, however I'm still concerned whether or not I caused any permanent damage. :banghead:

After arriving at the restaurant, my wife and I both noticed a burning smell and I then realized that I forgot to disengage the parking brake. I have never done this before and feel like a complete ass! :toetap:

After dinner, we drove home and the car seemed fine. Today, while cleaning up the car a little, I noticed that the rear brake rotors had some burnt fluid around the center. (Pics below) A few pieces chipped off, however most of it seems burnt on.

Any advice? The car runs well and seems to be braking fine. Do I just chalk it up as a bonehead move and move on or do I need to perform any repairs or proactive maintenance? I appreciate any advice!

Thanks! :thumbs:

http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps6d951632.jpg

http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps823542f1.jpg

that's road grime and whatever coating was on the rotors that you heated to the point that it melted. new pads and rotors in the rear are in your future. i would pull the calipers and inspect the pads and see what's actually left .

Let your car sit for a few hours and then go for a normal ride, You most likely took a chunk of life out of your rear pads! If you have any pulsating, you will need to turn your rotors and that wont be cheap because they are drilled. You should be able to clean the rotors up!:cheers:

And for the record, you know this happened because you were Rubbing it in on one of your other threads about your beautiful weather!:lol:

J/K Al, I wouldn't wish that on anyone........that I can think of off hand!:D

Yep! I knew someone would point that out! :lol:

Actually, I blame it on the wife! She was talking my ear off between my friend's house and the restaurant. I was out of my element and panicked. :yesnod:

I rarely engage the parking brake due to my A4, but I did last night as we parked in a sloped driveway.

I plan to go for a quick ride this afternoon and check out the brakes and performance. The car drove home fine last night after the brakes cooled down.

The oily residue is baked on. I would like to clean it off, however not sure what type of cleaner to use. I'm hoping I can use something that will help disolve it.

Pulling on the parking brake doesn't activate your pads. The C5 has a small set of shoes on the inner part of the hub similar to a drum brake that it uses as a parking brake. I doubt you did any permanent damage, may have shortened the life of your parking brake shoes a little, but maybe not. If it heated your rear pads or rear rotors enough via just the heat transfer, you may or may not get some squeal when you come to a slow stop. If it works fine, I don't think you need to worry. You're not the first.

:iagree:

I'm betting it wasn't fully engaged or you would have noticed sooner. Probably just shaved some of the drums off, but not a big deal if it still holds. Your rear brake pads/rotor/etc shouldn't be affected at all.

That's what I'm thinking. It was at night and I can't believe I did not notice the big red "parking light" on the dashboard. Now I'm wondering whether or not the parking brake mechanism failed to disengage all the way. The residue that burnt onto the center hubs of the rotors looks like burnt oil. Does the parking brake use a similar type of fluid?

exactly correct,the e barake have their own set of pads that ride on the inside back of the rotor.Youmay want to take the rotors off and clean the excessive brake dust that may be laying in the rotor where the ebrake pads are.

Would that be on the inside of the rotors? I'm not a brake expert so I'm trying to understand where the e-brake pads engage vs. the regular brake pads/calipers engage.

Emergency Brake
 

Where did you find it??? :D

The drums are on the inside at the center of the hubs. I wouldn't even take them off to look. No fluid of any kind is used for the parking brake, it's a mechanical linkage activated by the cable. My advice is stop worrying, if the parking brake still holds. (and many don't, even that haven't been left on)

There are no e-brake pads. Only parking brake shoes.

Thanks. So the burnt smell and burnt residue was not a result of a brake fluid leak or wear and tear of the brake pads/rotors? Is it just burn road grime as pointed out earlier?

As mentioned, I can't believe I missed seeing the red parking brake warning light on the dashboard, especially at night. I'm sort of spooked that the parking brake did not fully disengage.

While I doubt you warped the rotors or anything serious, that stuff may glaze the pads. Id see if it washes off with brake cleaner first. If that fails, take it apart.
BTW, dont feel bad, a lot of us have done that.

I know the shoes are smaller, but think of the years and years cars were driven with drums and shoes used at every stop. You only drove about 10 miles, so you may have used up some of the shoe, but they will normally last a lifetime. Unless you continue to ride with them on. They are designed to hold the car when parked, so very little wear.
I don't know what the stuff is on your hub. Are you sure it's on both rear and not the front? Maybe someone used some sort of material on the hub when mounting the wheel and it got hot? If you take the wheel off you could look around to see if you can find where it came from. Maybe some paint was used on the hubs and rotors that got hot? If it looks bad, I'd clean it off and use some hi temp brake caliper spray on just the non contact area. I found some charcoal metallic color at O'Reilly's that looks really good. I painted my calipers with it too on an 08 I owned.

http://i45.tinypic.com/35n08di.jpg

Just looked at your pictures again. That sort of looks like some sort of clear coat was used on the center and it got hot and bubbled up. Maybe someone was trying to prevent the light rust coating you get sometimes on the hub.

Thanks again. The rotors are Baer Eradispeed and the pads are ceramic. I think the rotors may have had a clear coat on them or something that bubbled up due to the heat. It only happened on the rear rotors (heat from parking brake shoes?) as there is nothing on the front rotors.

I plan to remove the rear wheels and try to clean off the gunk. Some pieces chip right off like paint, but other sections seem melted on. I will try some regular cleaner and perhaps some brake cleaner if necessary.

If it was my car, I'd sand it off and paint them. You can always use clear if you like the look. I like the charcoal.

In case anyone is confused on how the parking brake works, here's a thread I found on the C6 section with pictures.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1563338652-post13.html

Picture is of a C5. C6 should look the same. It's a brake drum, using the inside part of the rotor (the part that dishes outwards) as the friction surface.

If the drum was slipping on the rotor a bit, it probably heat up the center of the rotor and burnt whatever anti-rust coasting was on it. Sand + paint is what I suggest if it bothers you. Mine lots of surface rust on the center, doesn't bother me though.

Yea, looks like some sort of coating/clear bubbled up because of the heat. I'd pull the wheels/calipers, scrape off as much as you can, and put some high temp paint on the rotor hats before they start getting rusty.