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Accidently Drove w/Emergency Break on

9K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Succinct 
#1 ·
Ok so I know this was an idiotic thing to do. But tonight, I was coming home and was bone tired. Drove about 4 miles with the EMERGENCY BRAKE on, doing about 60-70 mph. I was in the slow lane of the freeway. I got off to get gas, noticed the horrible smell, and realized I had driven with the E Break on.

This is an 06 Accord V6 with only 8000 miles on it. How much damage did I do??

Also, I was too tired to frankly notice the RED brake light on, I thought it did feel harder to accelerate.


Feeling really stupid and mad at myself.

:(

Any info would be great.
 
#2 ·
i think...and i'm not even 75% sure...but i think you just wore out your rear brake pads plus warped your rotors or something to that effect since all that heat build up can do damage. you didn't hear the constant beeping tone? i don't think you did too much damage, if anything just the rear brake system, what's really stupid is if a person drives in 2nd on the freeway for 30 minutes and not know.

sorry for digressing but on a side note, in highschool, my shop teacher said every car has tiny drum brakes used for the Ebrakes, even if it is 4 wheel disc, is there truth to this or was i really not paying attention.
 
#3 ·
Yeah go get it checked. I did that yesterday but luckily my car started beeping to alert me, other wise I wouldnt have noticed cause you really cant feel it. I never use the emergency break either, only reason I had it on was so that i could have my car on without the running lights on.

Did yours beep?Or did you have loud music on and possibly didnt hear the beeping warning?
 
#4 ·
My sister did this one time in our old '86 Astro Minivan. We hit about 60mph and the van was shaking like a muthaf*cka and also had that burning rubber smell. No problems with it afterwards though but I wasn't much for car details when I was 17.
 
#5 ·
I didn't hear any beeping. Which I thought was weird to, because the thing beeps for everything, from the seat belt being not worn...etc. I'm going to take it in, but the brakes felt fine afterward. But I dunno...

Could I really have done that much damage? I suppose so...:(
 
#7 ·
I was about to say. That thing didn't beep?? I know mine beeps whenever it starts moving when the parking brake is on.
 
#8 ·
I did that first time I took my stepdad's truck, while he was gone, a la Ferris Bueller. Drove around the neighborhood for a little while, stopped to talk to some girls, smelled the burning brakes, was real embarrased, drove home and prayed... a lot.

My parents never found out. But hey what else you gonna do at 15 and during summer. :paranoid:
 
#9 ·
My car doesn't allow moving if you pull the brake all the way up. The rear wheels will drag.
 
#10 ·
Yeah, mine will beep too if the ebrake is engaged while moving...like when I do fishtails in the snow.
 
#11 ·
If I am right, you have disk brakes on the rear. E brakes do not work on the disk, it is not possible.

The e-brake has a small drum brake on the rear that keeps the car from moving. When you drove off, you forced that to turn, so you may have heated up that drum that is back there. Does the E brake still work? If it still holds the car, I would probably do nothing. These things are made for a few occurances of this sort as I am sure Honda knows people do this every once in a while.

My only advice:

1. Make sure the brake still works
2. Please try not to drive again when you are this tired. Many studies show drunk drivers are better drivers and extremely tired ones.
 
#12 ·
I think the parking brake was either (a) not fuly engaged (in which case the damage should be minimal), or (b) not properly adjusted. It just seems unlikely to me that you'd be able to drive that far if a fully functioning e-brake were fully engaged. Or else you were comatose. :paranoid:

So my suggestion is to make sure the e-brake is properly adjusted and functioning correctly. I wouldn't just do nothing. Good luck to you!

Most rear disk brakes have a miniature drum brake assembly in their hubs to act as an e-brake. However, I don't not know whether this is universal. I don't think I had such a design on my old 914, nor my old Camaro, but I cannot be sure as I wasn't as technically savvy in those days. I did a quick check of my '06's (V6 EX-L) rear disks and parking brake assembly via Majestic Honda's on-line parts catalog, and I saw nothing resembling a drum-type parking brake, so I have doubts my car has such as assembly.
 
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