by Strategic Retreat » Sun Feb 10, 2013 11:40 pm
The only time... well, TWO times... a parking brake froze on me was on my first car, an old as Noah and as much as battered SIMCA 1307GLS I had in the 90ies, but it wasn't quite a FROZEN parking brake, it was a STUCK parking brake.
Once it happened while I was trying to start the car up after the night from the parking to go on my way, and trying to get it unstuck I almost fried the clutch, and the second time it partially stuck while I was driving, boiling the braking fluid over and giving me a nasty surprise when trying to break I had the sinking feeling of the brake pedal sinking itself all the way down to the pavement with the car barely even slowing down. Luckily the road was empty and nothing... untoward happened.
Even since then, my cars have always been of a better kind, and that never happened... beside one sole time, but it was MY FAULT for having left the parking brake partially engaged while driving on my old BMW, which had quite the weak parking brake that forced me to learn to park my car in first gear when the front was downhill, and in rear gear when the front was uphill, to be sure, almost never in neutral anyway. A procedure that has stuck with me and I do it always without thinking.
There is no such a thing as overkill. Only unworthy targets.