Last night, while visiting friends for Memorial Day weekend festivities, I parked the van on a hill and set the e-brake, which I don't normally do when parking in my driveway. This morning, I forgot to release the brake before pulling out, and went a few miles until: a) I started to smell that horrible burning plastic/rubber smell and b) The brake pedal went almost all the way to the floor before the brakes would engage. Evidently, I had boiled some brake fluid, but after I released the e-brake and gave it a few minutes of cool-down, everything was back to normal: Brakes were working well, as they had been before the incident, and the e-brake itself also worked fine when I tested it in an open parking lot. So the question is, what are the chances I did some permanent damage somewhere, other than causing some premature wear on the rear brake pads? By the way, I blame VW for this whole incident! Due to poor instrument panel design, the steering wheel completely obscures the brake light, at least from my driving position. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.