I parked the car on my drive after work on 17th December and headed off in my camper on the 18th for Christmas. 

 

The car was left in ‘Park’ and the handbrake put on.

 

Got back today and as I drove away, I released the handbrake and gently accelerated, there was a bang as the car brakes released, which is when I realised they’d been bound on. As I braked, there was a horrible judder or vibration, which took a few miles of driving to fully disappear and return to normal.

 

Is this normal after being parked up for a while and has anyone got any tips to avoid it in future ?

 

TIA

 

 

Yeah it’s fairly common. 

Yes fairly normal especially if the discs were wet when you parked up. Worse if they were wet with salty water (from road salt).

 

So the tip to avoid it happening again is don’t park up with wet discs. Easier said than done!

11 minutes ago, Walterzkoda said:

has anyone got any tips to avoid it in future ?

 

I've had this on just about every car I've ever owned, I'm surprised you haven't encountered it before...?

 

If the brakes are wet, from weather or washing, if I put the car in the garage I leave the handbrake off and maybe chock the wheel, or if the car is outside we have a portion of gravel drive where I just leave it in gear. If it's on the tarmac part I leave the handbrake on and yes it will stick sometimes.....

Worst I ever had was a twin axle caravan that had bonded and was parked on a gravel pitch, my 4x4 was just dragging it through the gravel with all four wheels locked !! 

 

I have experienced it in the past and sometimes had a ‘harsh’ release, but never had the rough braking afterwards and certainly not to the extent of today’s juddering. I was starting to think I’d damaged it.

 

I can leave the handbrake off, but from memory, the ignition key doesn’t release until the gearbox is in ‘park’, so I can’t chock the wheels and leave in neutral.

 

 

 

 

‘Park’ locks the transmission, the equivalent of leaving it in gear on a manual but don’t solely rely on it if on an incline. 

Get a rubber mallet and a broomstick and apply the broomstick to the brake disc and whack the end of it with the mallet, it should release it.

 

An AA man showed me the trick when a parking brake stuck on.

A few years ago I had a vehicle (a Commer van) with drum front brakes that had been parked up for several frosty das after being driven through water.

 

The brake shoes were frozen to the drums making it impossible to remove the drums, it took several hours of a n electric fire pointed at the drums before there was a loud bang as the ice melted and the shoes released.