[BMW DIY Guy]

Hey yall

Anyone else running into your parking brake badly sticking down? After rain or a wash, about 75% of the time the parking brake pad will be completely stuck to the rotor. It takes pressure to move then BANG its free.

2300 miles on the car and have been told that "they all do that", which is not an acceptable answer for me.

Anyone else seeing this?

[nype]

Yes, is normal especially if the rotors are very wet when you park, and then it completely dries. A layer of surface rust builds up between the pad and the rotor. It’s less intense if you don’t apply the parking brake in these situations.

[M_Power Rob]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

Hey yall

Anyone else running into your parking brake badly sticking down? After rain or a wash, about 75% of the time the parking brake pad will be completely stuck to the rotor. It takes pressure to move then BANG its free.

2300 mules on the car and have been told that "they all do that", which is not an acceptable answer for me.

Anyone else seeing this?

I think your problem is right there...

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by M_Power Rob

I think your problem is right there...

Fixed 8)

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by nype

Yes, is normal especially if the rotors are very wet when you park, and then it completely dries. A layer of surface rust builds up between the pad and the rotor. It’s less intense if you don’t apply the parking brake in these situations.

Really frustrating if so..

[ZBG87]

Mine does it too

[nype]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

Really frustrating if so..

Was way worse on my GTI which developed so much surface rust on the rotors that it would drip and stain the garage floor.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by nype

Was way worse on my GTI which developed so much surface rust on the rotors that it would drip and stain the garage floor.

The rear rotors on our 2016 Golf R became so corroded and had only half of the friction surface with pad contact in the winter, that we had to replace the rotors and pads with only 50% pad wear.

[apez]

Yes, if my breaks are wet from wash I try to do a few hard stops to dry them. Otherwise I will just leave car in gear instead (in flat garage).

[gcmak]

Yeah this happens. At least after a wash, if you could drive the car afterwards, it would help. it also helps if you don't use your e-brake.

It's common and much more stuck with more performance oriented brake pads. It actually happens with all sorts of brake pads but in many lower priced cars, they have smaller pads/rotors, so the surface of adhesion is less. You might also notice this less in cars that use the drum as the e-brake.

[TangentAlpha]

This happened to me this morning for the first time. Really freaked me out until I finally got it to break free. I washed the car last night to get the road salt off of it, but I guess the rotors never fully dried afterward. Going to do some hard braking next time to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

Hey yall

Anyone else running into your parking brake badly sticking down? After rain or a wash, about 75% of the time the parking brake pad will be completely stuck to the rotor. It takes pressure to move then BANG its free.

2300 miles on the car and have been told that "they all do that", which is not an acceptable answer for me.

Anyone else seeing this?

Not me. But I don't park a car with the brakes wet.

After a drive in the rain I ride the brake pedal a bit to warm up the brakes and dry the brakes before putting the car away in the garage.

Before when I had just car ports to use while the brake discs might get a bit of rain water on them it was not enough to cause the pads/rotors to stick.

If there is any rust any suspected rust on the rotors it is important to use the brakes lightly to remove any rust. I had one case where the brakes were really rusty, so much so the parking brakes were frozen similar to what you experienced -- my fault I failed to drive the car after a wash -- and didn't use the brakes until I had to make an emergency stop. Afterwards the brakes manifested a bit of a pulsing. The stop resulted in uneven pad material deposition on the rotors.

This was way back in 2002. I learned my lesson.

Since then when I wash a car I always drive it after and make it a point to use the brakes enough to get them hot and thus dry. The parking brake hardware is buried in the rear hubs and there is no way to know when the parking brake hardware is dry but so far when I go to use the car again the parking brakes do not stick so I must be getting the brakes, including the rear hubs/parking brake hardware hot enough.

[BMW DIY Guy]

All solid advice but I live in Washington.. its raining 50% of the year and about 4 months straight during the winter. Its not reasonable to get the brakes dry before parking in the garage every day, just no way to make that work.

I am just confused by the behavior candidly, and never had this issue with any prior model of BMW. Maybe its the new OEM pads, the material or whatever.. its irritating behavior honestly.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

All solid advice but I live in Washington.. its raining 50% of the year and about 4 months straight during the winter. Its not reasonable to get the brakes dry before parking in the garage every day, just no way to make that work.

I am just confused by the behavior candidly, and never had this issue with any prior model of BMW. Maybe its the new OEM pads, the material or whatever.. its irritating behavior honestly.

Are the brakes really wet when you park the car?

I've parked cars after driving in the rain and the discs are dry. They are also warm I'm sure.

I've never had any real issues with a car parked during a rain or sitting out in the rain for a reasonable amount of time.

The only time I've had an issue with the brakes locking up was when I parked a car after washing it. The parking brake hardware rusted up some and after releasing the parking brake the car didn't budge at first. More throttle and a bit more aggressive clutch engagement and the brakes let go with a pop.

If you find you can't avoid the issue about all I can recommend -- and it is not ideal -- would be to not use the parking brake. But you must leave the transmission in gear (manual) or in P (automatic). And I would chock the wheels. In gear/P and with wheel chocks I believe the car would be ok in a garage assuming the car is parked on the level.

Out on the street I'd not use chocks but of course apply the parking brake along with using the transmission to help secure the car and leaving the car with the front wheels turned in the correct direction.

[BMW DIY Guy]

Originally Posted by RockCrusher

Are the brakes really wet when you park the car?

I've parked cars after driving in the rain and the discs are dry. They are also warm I'm sure.

I've never had any real issues with a car parked during a rain or sitting out in the rain for a reasonable amount of time.

The only time I've had an issue with the brakes locking up was when I parked a car after washing it. The parking brake hardware rusted up some and after releasing the parking brake the car didn't budge at first. More throttle and a bit more aggressive clutch engagement and the brakes let go with a pop.

If you find you can't avoid the issue about all I can recommend -- and it is not ideal -- would be to not use the parking brake. But you must leave the transmission in gear (manual) or in P (automatic). And I would chock the wheels. In gear/P and with wheel chocks I believe the car would be ok in a garage assuming the car is parked on the level.

Out on the street I'd not use chocks but of course apply the parking brake along with using the transmission to help secure the car and leaving the car with the front wheels turned in the correct direction.

I will likely have to start leaving my car in gear in the garage, and the parking brake off to avoid this happening. I appreciate all the feedback on this, but am still surprised by this being such a common problem for everyone.

[Bearded-Driver]

My X3 M40i does the same thing... and my last VW's with Electronic E brake did the same thing.. normal

[ZPD]

The best thing to keep rust off your brakes is to coat your brakes with a grease or a heavy oil. That will provide a "lifetime" protection of rust on your brakes.



ps- please don't do that

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

All solid advice but I live in Washington.. its raining 50% of the year and about 4 months straight during the winter. Its not reasonable to get the brakes dry before parking in the garage every day, just no way to make that work.

I am just confused by the behavior candidly, and never had this issue with any prior model of BMW. Maybe its the new OEM pads, the material or whatever.. its irritating behavior honestly.

The prior BMW models with non-electric parking brakes had drum-in-rotor rear parking brakes that were less prone to getting water between the shoe and drum, the electric parking brakes utilizing the rear rotor pads are fully exposed to water. High metallic content brake pads will corroded on to the rotors very quickly, the same as any other car with the same type of brake and pad setup.

Our Macan S and prior Golf R have the same problem due to a similar setup with the electric parking brake.

[nype]

Originally Posted by BMW DIY Guy

All solid advice but I live in Washington.. its raining 50% of the year and about 4 months straight during the winter. Its not reasonable to get the brakes dry before parking in the garage every day, just no way to make that work.

I am just confused by the behavior candidly, and never had this issue with any prior model of BMW. Maybe its the new OEM pads, the material or whatever.. its irritating behavior honestly.

I’m in the same area but I park in an underground parkade. So a few parkade ramps down worth of braking when I come home before parking, which provides some amount of drying. Isn’t too noticeable most of the time, especially when I don’t engage the parking brake.

However, when I wash the car on the same level in our parkade, that’s a whole other story. The brakes really stick if I leave it to dry in the parking spot overnight, for example.