Sticking brakes or something??!

[vette78]

Hopefully one of you can help me here...

I left my 6sp C5 for about a week without driving it and when I got in it on Wednesday I tried to reverse out of my parking space but it felt like the brakes had stuck on. I pulled forward about a foot, then tried reversing again and it was fine. Assumed it wass just because it had been left in the wet weather.

I then got in it again last night and drove to the gym no problem. Got back in after the gyn and tried to reverse out of the space and the same thing happened. Feels like there's a chock of wood behind the back wheels if you know what i mean? There wass a car parked very close to the front of mine so after a bit of trying, and then just giving it lots of revs it went backwards - feeling as if it was pushing something v. heavy!

Drove off forward - no problem. Stopped at the side of the road - tried reverse - did it again.

Terrified it might be the diff playing up or the gearbox or something? Not problem at all going forward but it's (intermittently) not happy going backwards.

Any ideas gratefully received!

Chris

[Boosted Ls1]

I'd take it for a drive and warm the brakes up. Do plenty of braking and do some reverse braking as well. It could just be gummed up pads or stiction on the pad trailing edges. How does the handbrake feel? Can you push the car with the handbrake off?

Boosted.

[GreenV8S]

Could be the handbrake cable sticking?

[vette78]

GreenV8S said:

Could be the handbrake cable sticking?

Would that be more noticeable reversing? It does feel as if it's `tightening up` as I move backwards gradually...

Handbrake is not great - barely holds on hills..

I need to get it out for a good drive this weekend to see if that helps.

[TEKWIZ]

Have you recently changed rear pads or calipers, if so check the rear caliper securing bolts, should be 2 on each side. I had problem recently where a bolt came undone and only held in by 1 bolt luckily no damage as I checked immediatly there was something wrong. Also whilst you have wheels off you can check whether brakes are sticking on.

Good luck

[LuS1fer]

I believe the handbrake is the same as the Camaro where you have small shoes inside the disc hub. These may be sticking or even dislodged so that they jam when you reverse. It's fairly easy to check it out. I doubt it's anything other than the handbrake.

[yellowshark454]

vette78 said:

GreenV8S said: Could be the handbrake cable sticking? snip... Handbrake is not great - barely holds on hills.. ...snip

As an aside whilst US handbrakes are not the greatest thing since sliced bread IMHO a properly adjusted C5 HB will hold on testing hills

[vette78]

I now too believe it's just the handbrake.

Have driven it a fair bit this week and the problem hasn't re-occured so fingers crossed i'll have seen the last of it. If it comes back i'll jack it up somehow and get the wheels off, and then have a look at what's going on back there. The weather is far too grim to be crawling around on the floor at the moment!

My next house is going to have a great big garage with climate control and pristine white floors etc etc... A car parking space out the back is not quite cutting it...

Thanks for the replies guys.

Chris