Parking / emergency brake seized / stuck

Frozen cable they are not too expensive if you can do the work yourself. just clips and bolts into place. the cables run around 150 i think.

 

They cost $42:

$34 Dorman C660992 Rear Driver Side Parking Brake Cable Compatible with Select Toyota Models

https://www.amazon.com/Dorman-C660992-Parking-Brake-Cable/dp/B01CYGHOQ0
(that's the driver's side for AC and probably DCSB).

 

Update: so I decided to fuck with it a bit and see if I can find out what’s going on. So if I apply the parking brake, it’ll stick, unless I pump the brakes one or two times. If I put on the parking brake then release and try to reverse it’ll stay stuck even with pumping. So it seems like it works normalish going forward and freezes in reverse

 

When mine was sticking, it would generally need to be rocked in the direction opposite to what it was holding.
So for instance, if the vehicle was parked pointing UP, then I would have to disengage the ebrake and drive it FORWARD to disengage. If pointed down, disengage ebrake and BACK UP to disengage.
But of course, soon as changing the broken cable and its back to working correctly. Its NOT THAT BAD OF A JOB. Fucking with it won't help you, you need to actually fix what is broken.

 

Figure out just what the problem is .

If pumping the brakes does something then the problem could very well be inside the drum the only way movement of the shoes might free it up enough to move

 

Here is something to check.... Our VW Jetta has rear drum brakes. We put shoes on it in the fall. The backing plates had deep grooves worn into them where the shoes contact the plate. This may cause the brakes to lock if the grooves are deep and allow the shoe to drop in. The shoe may become jammed in the groove. Rocking might force it out.

 

Update number 2: I’ve been using the parking brake every time I park regardless of if I need it or not, the parking brake now works as intended (before it was bad). I’ve done some digging and I’ve read that the rear drums self adjust upon using the parking brake, so I suppose that’s what happened.

 

Probably not due to self adjustment. Probably the fact that you're using it has scraped out whatever corrosion or dirt was interfering with it.

 

I have a 2018 with 19k miles. I have noticed that my emergency brake sticks after running it through the car wash. I drive it about 7 miles or so home and park it after the car wash from time to time. I am wondering if some car wash chemical / wax, etc. is building up causing this issue. Today, I got it to break free by pumping the brakes.

 

Damn. I'm having the same thing. Yesterday I couldn't get the damn truck to budge an inch. I wound up having it towed to the dealership. Right rear would not turn, even while being winched up onto the tow truck bed. Service guy said "Someone adjusted your brakes too much and that brake was tight against the drum... It's all good now" I said "You guys do all the service on this, and I've never had it in here on any brake related issues..." Anyway, they backed that brake off. Today, 18 degrees this morning and while I could at least drive, I could definitely feel that right rear brake dragging and could smell hot brakes when I stopped at lights. When I got to work I took a laser thermometer out and check the drums. Driver side rear showed about 55 degrees. Passenger side over 550 degrees. So them backing the brakes off made me at least be able to drag the bitch to work, but the problem is obviously not solved. This seems like something that should be a warranty thing if water is getting inside the cable. I'm going to call the dealer and haggle a bit, see if I can get them to put a new cable on. This is surely NOT a one-off problem...

 

I can't imagine yours actually being the same problem at this point. Its too new. The problem is that the aluminum part on the end of the cable corrodes. The cable is stuck on aluminum oxide.

 

For what it is worth I have had issues with Dorman cables fitting

I should be Good I have extra cables from Toyota if I need them

 

So it's the aluminum end on the cable down inside the brake? I'll pull the drum again and have another look at that. However, the problem only happens if it gets below about 25 degrees overnight, so I'm having a hard time understanding why you think it's not water ingressing into the cable at some point and then freezing solid. I've had this happen often enough that now I check the weather and if a cold night is forecast, I park the thing on the street so I can nudge against the curb and leave parking brake off. I did pull the drum after the first incident, and shot a little WD-40 on the end of the cable inside the drum just to see if maybe that would help a bit, but this sure seems like that cable enclosure has somehow gotten enough moisture in to cause it to freeze.

And you said mine is "too new"... Did you mean mileage or years? Mileage is at 99000 and some change right now, I drive a LOT! Can't recall any major water crossings last summer that would have been extensive or deep enough to force water up into that cable enclosure and I don't see any breaks in it, so still scratching my head a bit.

 

I could see if you had slush freeze around the Bell Cranks to keep them from moving

Around the pivot point also slush freezing or the intermediate lever.

Cables having the protective sheath rubbed through would be the only way water should get in the cables themselves

My parking brake gets used all the time I never had freezing issues Here would be the place warm during the day below freezing at night

Then strange things happen

 

Just to re-open an old thread... my 2020 with <2000 miles on it did it to me this morning. Yesterday I washed the car, reversed into the garage and parked. Went to drive off this morning and the driver rear was locked, passenger side wheel span a little. When I rocked between reverse and forward it released. It was not frozen, I live in Hawaii. I’ll update if it happens again...

 

Following up on this, I’ve had this happen for the second time, always the driver side rear, last time i rocked it into releasing pretty brutally, this time there was no hope, even dragging my 34” MT’s... was looking through this thread, tried the handbrake and reverse but nothing, finally got it to release by pressing real hard on the brake pedal and giving a pretty good hit in reverse, so for others running into this, the key for mine was not being gentle at all...

 

Then your issue is not fixed either.
Do you use the parking brake all the time?

 

Yeah I typically use it everyday, gonna avoid it until i can get parts, planning on rebuilding my rear brakes and seeing if its my cable getting jammed once I have it apart

 

Mine was stuck one morning after sitting in the garage for 2 days. I washed it one evening and parked it, didn't move it until 2 days later. It scared me at first until I started running scenarios in my head on what it could be. I was able to put it in 4hi to pull myself out of the garage enough to reverse a little and break it free (I back into the garage). I always use the e-brake even with my auto and my truck had around 6k miles on it, that's the only time it's done it so far.

 

Same deal today (washed and parked a couple of days ago). I'm in Florida, so no way it was frozen from temperature. 2018 TRD 4X4 w/ 7,740 miles.