Been away for a few weeks and assumed my dad will move the car just to keep battery and things ticking over but no such luck. Started it up and battery fine but absolutely rooted to the spot 🙁 Think the brakes are seized, anyone got tips for getting the thing moving again? Due MOT next week too….

reverse. used to work on my old renault 5.

tried that too. Not helped by fact I’ve got cars parked in front and behind!

Tap the calipers and hubs with a hammer (gently)

I assume it’s the handbrake?

jack the back up (safely!) and use the engine to free them off 🙂

do check it’s not just the cables siezed on, though (assumign it’s not electric like my renault).

i thought it might be handbrake, yanked it hard a good few times but brake pedal didnt have much travel either and I know the calipers were highlighted at the last MOT.

what do you mean use the engine to free them off?

I’m suprised they have seized after a couple of weeks, the problem you have is not having the free space because when they do let go then the car is likely to launch!. I’m assuming that they are drums on the back that have siezed on the hand brake?. if so ( and if you can see ) pull on the hand brake a couple of times to make sure the cable has not jammed and then give the drum a whack ( take the wheels off and support properly) If its an old car or the brakes are “old” then this should sort it. If they are disc or its the fronts then the same method applies. Oh and the obvious way to work out which is seized is to jack up the wheel and try to rotate it!.

Engine will generally overcome rusted brakes. Move the car behind it, floor it and await a bang as they release!

Hit the (steel) wheel a few times with a lump hammer

Engine should be stronger than the seize. But if you want to apply a little science before brute force, jack the corners up and see what turns and what doesn’t. Could be corrosion binding a disc or it could be stuck caliper- former can happen anywhere, latter more likely to be the rear since it happened while parked. brakes don’t generally just seize quickly, it’s normally a slower process. Draggy or sticky brake should fail MOT though.

calipers were noted to be rusty a year ago so wondered if that might be the issue. I’ll jack it up and see which wheels move

Use the engine, the brakes will release with a loud bang and if you’re unlucky the rusty patch will make the brakes judder for a few weeks until the discs wear smooth again.

I’m giving it pretty decent revs and not much action. Car in front is a foot or 2 ahead and car behind a few feet away- i’m not going to floor it and risk hitting them!

Surely he’d know if it was specifically the handbrake? wouldn’t the lever still be loose when released?

errr…can’t you move the other cars? If you are going to use the engine method, you just need to drive off and accept that the rear wheels may skid momentarily before letting go.

(I imagined you were on a drive, if on a street with parked cars, you might need to go knocking on doors!)

Remove wheel and tap hub with hammer. I tried the ‘floor it’ method and the ‘drag it’ method before and ended up wearing my clutch and flat spotting my tyres.
Jack it up, remove the wheel and give it a tap. Job done.

Done!

Yeah parked on a street. Jacked it up, got the back wheel moving and heard the ping of the handbrake. All moving now although brakes feel bit rough. Just need to get it through the MOT now…