e brake left on - Honda Prelude Forum

danfau07 · 08-22-2009, 02:56 AM

my sister drove my car the other day. she left the hand brake on the whole time to the point that i have no rear brakes now. i read somewhere that putting on the hand brake and pumping the brakes will adjust them and driving backwards at about 30 and hitting the brake work. nothing. it helped some but its not the same. i have to put the brake on all the way just to keep the car from moving and it barely does its job then. please help. i have a road trip planned and cannot afford to take the car somewhere. please and thank you!

Kronn 98SH · 08-22-2009, 03:53 AM

OK, what? Are you saying the ebrake doesn't clamp on the rotor properly, allowing the car to move while in neutral and on unlevel ground? If so, big fúcking deal. Your rear pads are probably shot. It's time to replace them.

Two things you should always do:

1) Disallow any female from driving your car, ever.
2) Always park in gear (for MT).

If you have an automatic transmission, then this thread is even more pointless than I originally thought.

If it wasn't clear from what I've already said, the fact that your ebrake doesn't work very well has no bearing on the ability to drive/park your car. It just doesn't matter.

prepreludesh · 08-22-2009, 04:26 AM

Rear brake pads are not expensive if you get them from autozone. Use the search feature on this or other prelude forums to find out how to change your rear brake pads as all you'll need are simple hand tools and an hour to hour and a half (since you're a novice). My sister had also done this to my car (twice) and both times it was a loud, audible metallic scraping noise coming from the rear brakes that alerted me to the fact that the car needed them changed.

And give us more details about your car like Kronn said.

danfau07 · 08-23-2009, 01:22 AM

i understand all that you are saying. chill out. my problem is that the pads are still good and that when i use the regular brakes ie the peddle, no back brakes. thay are not clamping the way they should. again, brake pads are fine! something wrong with the caliper or something else. pointless, i think not! and i have changed brakes before. there is something wrong with the adjustment of the brakes, from even normal wear. if you dont have any good advice, dont reply.

prepreludesh · 08-23-2009, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danfau07

i understand all that you are saying. chill out. my problem is that the pads are still good and that when i use the regular brakes ie the peddle, no back brakes. thay are not clamping the way they should. again, brake pads are fine! something wrong with the caliper or something else. pointless, i think not! and i have changed brakes before. there is something wrong with the adjustment of the brakes, from even normal wear. if you dont have any good advice, dont reply.

Kronn 98SH · 08-23-2009, 06:09 AM

Silly broken-English newb. Do a search for Prelude brake bias.

doh22a4c · 08-23-2009, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danfau07

i understand all that you are saying. chill out. my problem is that the pads are still good and that when i use the regular brakes ie the peddle, no back brakes. thay are not clamping the way they should. again, brake pads are fine! something wrong with the caliper or something else. pointless, i think not! and i have changed brakes before. there is something wrong with the adjustment of the brakes, from even normal wear. if you dont have any good advice, dont reply.

Kronn 98SH was correct in his original reply. Your rear brakes are "shot." It doesn't matter if there is still pad material remaining. If you overheat brake pads, they fail.

Replace the rear brake pads as mentioned earlier. You may have also done damage to the rear rotors. Look for heat discoloration on the rotor surface. If the car shakes while braking after you replace the rear pads, the rotors will need a replacement as well (NOT steering wheel shake, that's the front rotors, the whole car will vibrate a little).

Quote:

Originally Posted by danfau07

i read somewhere that putting on the hand brake and pumping the brakes will adjust them.

No. After replacing pads you will need to pump up the master a little bit (maybe three to four times), all you're doing is taking up slack from the brake pistons. The parking brake is self-adjusting for the most part. After replacing the pads, pulling the hand brake a few times will usually be enough to adjust it. Be sure to bed in the new pads properly (google).

Quote:

Originally Posted by danfau07

and driving backwards at about 30 and hitting the brake work.

...no

danfau07 · 08-23-2009, 04:17 PM

thank you doh22a4c. i had no idea of the overheating thing. if someone had said that in the beginning, it would have been better. thanks again

Kronn 98SH · 08-23-2009, 05:16 PM

Just drop the attitude.

TheJGB-2KTypeSH · 08-23-2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danfau07

my sister drove my car the other day. she left the hand brake on the whole time to the point that i have no rear brakes now. i read somewhere that putting on the hand brake and pumping the brakes will adjust them and driving backwards at about 30 and hitting the brake work. nothing. it helped some but its not the same. i have to put the brake on all the way just to keep the car from moving and it barely does its job then. please help. i have a road trip planned and cannot afford to take the car somewhere. please and thank you!

This is only effective with drum brakes.