Stuck Emergency Brake / 08 Dodge Caravan

[Mark72]

I hope this isn't the most expensive oil change I've ever done. After changing my oil I released the E brake to back off the ramps and I noticed in idle it wouldn't move. The E brake light shut off when I released it. I tried putting the brake back and releasing it but nothing worked. I drove it the 2 miles to my mechanic and dropped it off tonight because I obviously cant drive around with it stuck on. I could smell it burning when I got out. The cable was replaced last Spring so its not that old. Do you know what I should expect as far as labor to fix it? And any idea what needs to be done to get it released? Anyone else ever have this happen to them? Very frustrating.

 

[Merkava_4]

I've been there and done that. On mine, there was a little spring that broke inside the parking brake lever. If I wanted to release the parking brake, I had to go up in there with a pick and a flashlight to release the pawl from the gear manually. The little spring is a torsion spring and was used only on 2000 year LeSabres. A trip to the salvage yard and some mechanical trickery on my part retrieved a spring. After realizing how rare and important the little spring was, I made subsequent trips to the salvage yard to retrieve more springs. Now after getting the parking brake back to being fully functional, I never use it anymore.

 

[OneEyeJack]

The emergency brake (parking brake?) on some vehicles appears to be an after thought. The parking brake in my 03 4Runner is basically useless. When it's working it's not very effective and it gets out of adjustment if my dog barks or the sun shines. So I don't use it. I just hope that the transmission does it's job in Park. The parking brake in my old Honda is excellent. That's probably because the rear brakes are drums.

 

[The_Jeff]

Dodge neons have a self-adjusting whozit inside the handle that, on the two copies I encountered, released any tension the cable had to begin with.

I guess the "panic in the driveway" solution is to reach underneath and tug on the naked parts of the cable. But I suspect something jammed inside the drum.

 

[Subdued]

08 caravan won't be a drum

The rear calipers are a nightmare. I actually had this happen to mine, and I ended up replacing the caliper. The piston just never returned after the brake was released.