Car Brakes Binding

[trainmania100]

Hi i know this is a rail forum but I post in general discussion instead
Often when my car is parked for a few hours with reasonablely away from the curb its like the brakes are stuck because I have to apply quite a bit of power to move off after a popping sound
Recently I had £600 work done replacing binding brakes I'm not sure if anyone's. Mechanic here bug does anyone have any idea?
Didn't want to bother signing up to car forum
I'm manual
Anyone else have this ? Wheels aren't against the curb
Many thanks

 

[MotCO]

Hi i know this is a rail forum but I post in general discussion instead
Often when my car is parked for a few hours with reasonablely away from the curb its like the brakes are stuck because I have to apply quite a bit of power to move off after a popping sound
Recently I had £600 work done replacing binding brakes I'm not sure if anyone's. Mechanic here bug does anyone have any idea?
Didn't want to bother signing up to car forum
I'm manual
Anyone else have this ? Wheels aren't against the curb
Many thanks

Is it more prevalent when it is wet or damp? Is it 'rust' forming? I notice something similar after it's been raining and I park the car in the garage - there is noticeable friction when moving off, and a bit of brake 'scraping' after the first few brake applications, but fine after that.

 

[trainmania100]

It has been rather damp so that could be why
It's just annoying because its like the parking brake is still on so I have to press the accelerator which im sire puts more wear on the clutch
I like right by the river sea as well and is often foggy
I'll book my six monthly service soon anyway

 

[Cowley]

What sort of car is it Trainmania and how old is it? It sounds a bit like a sticky rear calliper (if it's disc brakes all round) .

 

[CarlSilva]

An often overlooked cause of binding brakes is the pads are a too tight fit where they go in their housings. Remove the caliper and see if you can get the pads out easily. If they are too tight, use sandpaper round the edges, or a metal work file. Don't go too far, just enough to get them in and out easily. If they're too tight, then what happens is the caliper pushes them into contact with the disc and because they are too tight, they stay rubbing against it, partially binding. Some mechanics are lazy and just chuck new brake pads in but that's not always good enough and you should check first if they fit right.

Binding brakes get hot and wear the lining material down quicker and if they produce enough heat, they can boil the fluid and cause brake fade (pedal drops to the floor - no brake effort happening - scary)

As for rear brakes, what kind have you got ? If it's disc, then same as above, if it's drum, check if there's any copper grease on the backplate where the rear of the shoes contacts it. Also, see if the slave cylinder pistons are free to move in and out, or if they're seized.

 

[robbeech]

Does it have to be a few hours? can it be 10 minutes? First place i would look is the parking brake itself. If the cables are sticking due to build up of dirt and stuff, when you release the lever the cable will not follow and only vibration and movement of the wheels will nudge it back out of the way.

It's really common on automatics as most people rarely use the parking brake so when they do it has seized, but it can also happen when it does get regularly use.

Quite often the parking brake doesn't operate the pads on the discs, there are often separate shoes inside the disc.

 

[lyndhurst25]

My car has always done a similar thing from when it was new, 15+ years ago. I assume that it's just a feature of certain handbrake mechanisms. On my car the handbrake operates on the rear disc pads. If there is any rain then the rear pads rust to the discs and don't release until you pull away, which happens with a pop and a bit of a jerk. Following this you can hear a feint scraping sound coming from the brakes until you press the brake pedal a couple of times to wipe the surface rust off the discs. Have you tried parking it with the handbrake left off to see if this cures the problem? (Only try this on the level and leave it in gear)

 

[trainmania100]

Many thanks for your replies. It is 2006 Kia picanto manual
Last October I had both front brake pads and disks replaced because they were cracked due to binding which failed the mot. My parking brake certainly needs tightening so not sure whether this would cause anything. For now I'll see how it goes, it has been rather wet and dont have the knowledge to be disassembling my braking system. I wouldnt be surprised if it's a sticky rear calliper. The mechanic had trouble identifying the cause the first time round so who's to say he didn't just throw new pads on job done

 

[Phil.]

Hi i know this is a rail forum but I post in general discussion instead
Often when my car is parked for a few hours with reasonablely away from the curb its like the brakes are stuck because I have to apply quite a bit of power to move off after a popping sound
Recently I had £600 work done replacing binding brakes I'm not sure if anyone's. Mechanic here bug does anyone have any idea?
Didn't want to bother signing up to car forum
I'm manual
Anyone else have this ? Wheels aren't against the curb
Many thanks

The line that starts, "Recently I had £600...." is the key. How recently? If it's days/weeks take the car back to the garage. £600 is a lot to fix binding brakes. It sounds like "they" replaced the discs/pads/drums/shoes. Possibly/probably the lot. For that I'd expect non-binding brakes.

 

[CarlSilva]

Another thing one of you's just reminded me of.
Handbrakes. A lot of people just tighten up the cable to try and get the hb working good enough to pass an mot, or someitmes not even that. Some of them just tighten the cable until the lever goes tight on about 3 clicks, and tehy don't care if the actual brake can stop the vehicle rolling away.
The proper way is to set the shoes (if it has them for the hb) so they are close to the inside of the drum, but not tight enough or close enough to bind. Then adjust the cable afterwards.
The older fiats, like the 80s and 90s stuff had a weird brake shoe adjuster which basically looked like a big pop rivet, and it was fitted through the metal part of the shoe in an elongated hole. The proper way to adjust the rear brakes and the hb too, was to lever the shoes out until they almost touched the inside of the drum. This was a poor design, and caused lots of problems, like excess pedal travel, which could be cured by tightening the hb cable. If someone's done it up too much, this might cause your binding.

Anotehr, even worse thing that i've seen is when the rear brake shoe lining material actually becoems detached from the metal shoe itself, and then moves round inside the drum until it jams against something. Worst case scenearaio, the wheel locks up and gets dragged when you try and drive off. Renault 5, mk2s were known for this. And any car whith the seperate shoes that only do the handbrake are likely suspects, becasue unillike service brakes, the linings aren't riveted to the metal part of the shoe. It's more the lager rear drive saloons that have this set up, like Vectras, Senators, BMWs, Volvos, Mercs etc.

edit edit

Rear wheel bearings can cause brake binding. I know it sounds unlikely, but it does happen. Mainly on cars with ajdustable rear bearings, becasue if they're loose the wheel camber goes out, and this puts the drum at an odd angle to the brake shoes.