Have Your Brake Lines Checked!

[bry@n 195]

It's actually quite easy to do with a FWD car. All the weight is in the front and the rear is very light, so it's easy to lock up the rears with the parking brake. I did this *once* at 60 mph. Fortunately the car kept going straight.

It's very common to lock em up in fwd cars in racing/ drift world.

[H.M. Murdock 0]

There's so many permutations of parking brake designs, i.e. lever in drum, drum in rotor, rear pad on rotor, secondary rotor, rotor on driveshaft and then placement, i.e. one rear wheel, two rear wheels.  Not even considering hydraulic e-brakes for rally and drifting..  It's hard to generalize how well a parking will perform and for how long.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

When I had my 05 accord I would bed the rear brakes with the parking brake. I was never able to get them to lock let alone provide any real stopping power. I would think they fall somewhere in the middle. After the first attempt I never bothered bedding the rears again, unless they got changed with the fronts which wasn't often. And this was using brembo blanks and hawk performance pads.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

There's so many permutations of parking brake designs, i.e. lever in drum, drum in rotor, rear pad on rotor, secondary rotor, rotor on driveshaft and then placement, i.e. one rear wheel, two rear wheels.  Not even considering hydraulic e-brakes for rally and drifting..  It's hard to generalize how well a parking will perform and for how long.

I would agree with this. IMO the only easy way to lock the rear brake would be if it were running off a master cylinder... otherwise it would take some serious effort. You would laugh at how pathetic the accord e-brake is... at 10mph ripping it my hardest it felt like a midget was dragging behind the car. And it uses a wire system that overrides both rear calipers. pathetic i tell you. Only thing comparable is if you ever lost power in you car while driving... think about the force it takes just to apply the brakes to stop the vehicle, only now its just the small rear brakes... This is assuming the road is dry.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

It's very common to lock em up in fwd cars in racing/ drift world.

Common, Fwd and drifting shouldn't even be in the same sentence lol... but yes RWD rally and drift car do have modified rear brakes... but shit man thats like a 3 foot pole, instead of a small handle and running off hydraulics

[JackDaWack 2,895]

Back on topic though, most cars come with some sort of rubber lines running off the chassis line to avoid corrosion where it happens worse... i've been thinking about getting my new jeeps under-body coated with some kinda protectant to avoid the metal lines from corroding.. and everything else..

 

Shitty part about brake lines is its difficult to say if they need to be replaced unless they are in fact leaking.. Every shop you go to will tell you they are corroded because every ones car has corroded brake lines... it's very difficult to tell if its bad enough to need replacement since the lines are so small.

 

I am not happy to hear all of this though... increased corrosion on everything with this shit they are throwing on the ground.. if you got holes in you brake lines from this crap.. you can bet ur ass everything else under your car is developing holes.

[plode 0]

That was my point, there is a separate line to each caliper or drum and don't they come from a pair of master cylinders so if one fails you still have half the braking system?

I thought you meant that there were two lines to each caliper

 

Its still Stain LESS,  it will corrode. just takes longer.  Many years ago I had the same thing happen coming to a light, hit the brakes and the pedal hit the floor.  Good thing EBrake still worked.  Corroded brake line blew out.

 

A lot longer, depending on the grade of stainless.  They would likely outlast the service life of the vehicle, which IMO is important when it comes to safety. 

 

My car will lock up the rear wheels if I yank the parking brake.  I know, because I've done it.  Subaru WRX (which is all wheel drive). 

 

I had a line blow out on my old F150(the line that fed the rear axle block) right after I got off the parkway where I was doing 70mph.  I remember it well because it was the night of my high school graduation, and it blew right as I was backing into a parking spot. 

[H.M. Murdock 0]

My car will lock up the rear wheels if I yank the parking brake.  I know, because I've done it.  Subaru WRX (which is all wheel drive). 

 

 

The WRX is a curious beast as it is AWD but pulling the parking brake does not open the center diff.  So things can get pretty interesting pretty fast.  Compare to the STI where the electronic center diff uncouples as soon as the brake lever comes up (though some STI models have a bit of mechanical lock during acceleration).

 

The worst I've ever damaged a vehicle using the parking brake I was screaming around behind the Mahwah Crossroads in my Jeep about 15 years ago and I tried to initiate a hairpin turn at speed.  Of course forgetting I was in 4WD.  The backing plate on one of the rear wheels blew out leaving a mangled mess of steel plate, brake cylinder and drum assembly hanging off the axle housing behind the tire.  Never made that mistake again.

[1LtCAP 4,264]

they're actually dual purpose. they're connected to the rear brakes by cables for a reason. should you suffer a brake failure, you've still got something to slow and/or stop you. as braking systems have gotten more reliable, and less prone to failure, and manufacturers are in need of more gimmicks to sell their cars, many higher end vehicles are being switched to electric parking brakes. i honestly don't know if these can or will function as an emergency brake. i sure hope so. it'd suck to run that gorgeous audi into the ass end of a truck 'cause ya didn't have an emergency brake.

[liquidskin 3]

i thought of this thread today as my brake went to the floor after a hard stop on I-78 E this morning. doing atleast 75mph, miracle I didnt wreck.  saving grace was traffic ahead of me didnt come to a stop and i was able to drift into the right lane and stop safely with e-brake.

 

line was rusted, just got the call from the shop. knew it would be, car is old.  i feel embarrassed, i take pride in doing my own oil changes, brake pads, etc, yet I overlooked replacing the rusted lines.

 

friendly reminder to my fellow jersey, salt & snow drivers... check those lines...

[Howard 538]

i thought of this thread today as my brake went to the floor after a hard stop on I-78 E this morning. doing atleast 75mph, miracle I didnt wreck.  saving grace was traffic ahead of me didnt come to a stop and i was able to drift into the right lane and stop safely with e-brake.

 

line was rusted, just got the call from the shop. knew it would be, car is old.  i feel embarrassed, i take pride in doing my own oil changes, brake pads, etc, yet I overlooked replacing the rusted lines.

 

friendly reminder to my fellow jersey, salt & snow drivers... check those lines...

Glad to hear you are ok, that must have been some scare.  Sure glad my Prius does not rely on actual brakes for most of its stopping.