Occasionally I have a problem with the rear brakes on the car, general squeaking al very low speeds. At the last sertvice I had to get new pads and disks on the back as the pads had apparently crudded up and sat unlevel and grooved 2-3mm into the disc. At that point it was making some hideous noise.

But since day one I've occasionally had this low-speed squeak. Recently (via a few searches etc) I've found that holding the handbrake on and pulling the car forward (or occasionally using the handbrake to slow the car to a stop) makes the noises go away for a few weeks. When they're back I do it again etc. There's no visible wear to the pads or disks so I don't think it's a problem there, and I can't see any small stones or anything.

Anyway, this got me thinking...

So I've been thinking about using the handbrake and the main thing I wanted to ask, is whether using the handbrake to lock the back wheels is damaging to the car? I'd assume the brakes are designed to do that - brake. But I'd also assume handbrake turns and crazy rallyish manuveres would be detrimental to the car. So aside from the danger factor and obviously not something I'd do on the roads, would this kind use of the handbrake cause excessive wear/damage to parts of the car?

Just remember rally cars have hydraulic handbrakes so they actually activate the same way as the foot brake. You handbrake works on a cable and it dont like the abuse of being pulled up whilst in motion.

I seem to remember reading in a Vauxhall handbook (Calibra or Cavalier) that they recommended you driving for a few yards with the handbrake on to do just that.

Chris

Just remember rally cars have hydraulic handbrakes so they actually activate the same way as the foot brake. You handbrake works on a cable and it dont like the abuse of being pulled up whilst in motion.

You'll also need to put up with a relentless beep-beep-beep from the dashboard:cool:

Hi

I have had an ongoing rear brake squeak for the last 5K of my fabia Vrs. It happens at low speed when stuck in traffic and is especially bad when going round left hand corners.

The sound goes at approx 35 mph and goes when the handbrake is applied or the brakes applied.

This is beginning to become very annoying and a little worrying as don't want to cause excessive brake wear. Whenever the dealer has taken for test drive they cannot reproduce the noise.

Does anyone have any ideas pls??? or suggestions

Thanks

Could be a sticking brake caliper if you have disks.

won't do any damage, unless you (for example) lock the rear wheels, skid, and lose control of the car...also, if you use it for slowing down, no brake lights will light, and the guy behind you might run into you.

just applying the hbrake itself won't cause damage though. make sure you take it fully off afterwards though to avoid heating up the rear brakes...!

the squeak is probably caused by the rusty crud that builds up on the edge of the disc , this just catches the pad causing the squeak

what i did on mine was take a smallish hammer and tap the edge of the disc to remove the rust build up , not squeaked since i did it

if there is loads of material left on the pads the squeak will be nothing to worry about anyway , just an annoyance

Thanks for that, am planning to rotate the front and rear wheels next weekend so will give the brakes a good clean out with the pressure washer and some brake cleaner.

Hope this does the job as its becoming very annoying.

it happens at low speed when stuck in traffic and is especially bad when going round left hand corners.

The sound goes at approx 35 mph and goes when the handbrake is applied or the brakes applied.

This is beginning to become very annoying and a little worrying..

Does anyone have any ideas pls??? or suggestions

Arrgggh!! I feel your pain!

I had this problem with the awful squeeling at lower speeds <35mph as well and got around it using the 'handbrake method'. I couldn't find the time to get back to dealer and as most of my driving is on the motorway - it didn't worry me....until the rear brake pad on the affected (left side) wore away completely and started to grind.

If its only a particular wheel you will probably find that the affected wheel will be hot after a reasonable length motorway spin.

When I got it back to the dealer to get checked out they told me the pads and discs were worn and needed replaced....well I knew that, so I explained this was because the brakes had been constantly rubbing for the last few thousand miles.

The problem had apparantly been caused by a sticking 'caliper slide' so it was freed-up and lubricated. I imagine this happens due to a build-up of dirt and brake dust.

This however WASN'T a warranty issue, so its papparently perfectly normal for Fabia (with FSH) rear brakes to start sticking and squeeling when it reaches around 55'000 miles.

Would be interesting to see other dealers take on this, but I would recommend get it in to them ASAP and not leave it till the brakes wear away like me :O

...only costs you more in the end!!

If you've got a sloped driveway, go in forward and drop out using the brakes - the weight of the car is almost all on the rear and it cleans the rear disks nicely - you can hear it scraping the crap off.

A trip to the dealer for me then. By brand new vRS does this. It's bloody irritating!

Been sat in a compound too long i guess & the caliper has seized up.