Stuck brake :-(

J

JPO100

Member
I’ve got a 2.5i E85 that lives in the garage and when I went to reverse it out today, it looks like one of the front brakes has seized on.

I can rev it to the point where the rear wheels start to spin, but the car still won’t move.

The problem is it’s parked nose-in in a single garage, so there’s basically no room to work on it where it is.

I spoke to my local garage and they suggested “dragging it out” which doesn’t sound ideal, but I’m a bit stuck on what else to do.

Would bleeding the brakes release any pressure and free the wheel enough to move it? Or is there anything else worth trying first?

Also worth mentioning - the brakes and calipers were changed a few weeks ago. The replacements were used but supposedly in good condition. The garage that fitted them said they were “probably starting to seize before they went on”, which sounds a bit odd to me, but I’m no mechanic. Does this sound plausible?

Any advice / suggestions / appreciated!
 
I’d suggest that the root cause may be what the garage did

Their response is shady

Can you get the front jacked up at all and pop a castor roller under the offending wheel?
 
bigwinn said:
I’d suggest that the root cause may be what the garage did

Their response is shady

Can you get the front jacked up at all and pop a castor roller under the offending wheel?
Click to expand...
If that doesn’t work, a few bin liners sprayed with washing up liquid may make a slippery enough track for that wheel?
 
Out of interest, why did a second hand caliper go on? The newest possible would be 18 years old so likely to be as problematic as what came off. Either way, rebuild kits are readily available and it's a quick job to replace everything (the sort of thing you would expect a garage to suggest but, hey, I think the quickest way of breaking anything is to take it to a "professional".)
 
If you can get a jack on it, lift the wheel and put a tray there. It'll kill the tray but you'll be out.

You've had your pants pulled down by the garage. Frentech do kits for peanuts and they're simple to fit.
 
As above, get an old baking tray under there somehow and hopefully you can reverse out. Then sort the calliper.
 
Thanks everyone.

I has a previous Zed that (I thought) had better disks and callipers on.. so I asked my local garage to swap them over before I sold it.

Problem I have at the min is I’m not even sure which wheel is stuck! 🤣 the rears are spinning so it’s one of the fronts. One side I can get to.. the other I can’t 😩😂
 
Your problem is lack of traction on the rear wheels. If you could get it pulled out via the towing eye and another car you may well find the fronts unstick.
 
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