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car acting wierd need help diagnosing...(long)

Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:29 pm
by tory
ok, i was in baltimore leaving johns hopkins today, and came out of the building went the wrong way and wound up on the cobble stone style road...

(btw, 00 neon lowered progress springs, front and back struts, and monza exhaust 17inch rims)

... anyways, as i come up to a light, i'm sitting on the stones, it was rather bumpy and while the intersection was fine it was one way and i had to go the other, so i had to go over another section. the light turned green, and as i started to slowly accelerate, i get a moaning squeel sound coming from the back right tire. i stopped right away, and checked the e-brake just to be safe because the only time i'd heard that sound before was either drums w/moisture inside early in the morning, or if i left the e-brake on when i first drove off... anyways, i turned around, drove back over the two sections of cobble stone, made it out onto the main road out, and at the next light my wife got out to see if i hadn't gotten a flat tire or something and it wasn't running on the rim. we both smelt burning rubber, but it went away as we drove on. didnt have a problem the rest of the way home. i dont know if i was paranoid or not but it felt like i had the e-brake on, maybe i was just projecting because that's the only thing i could think of, but i rode it from the in-laws back to home after a break and everything was fine. no tread or anything missing on either side of the tire on the right side, and the smell of burnt or burning rubber was just on the back right side of the car.

the only other wierd thing i possibly noticed was the exhaust sounded a little louder than normal, but when i checked after i stopped i didnt have any breaks or holes on any part of the exhaust as far as i could see. this may not be anything or even related, but figured i might as well throw that out there too.

thanks in advance for any kind of help.

edit: i forgot to mention, the next red light we got to... the one after my wife got out and checked, rather than hit the brakes at first, i pulled the e-brake just to see if they were engaged or not... i figured if they were on even though the lever was down it wouldnt slow the car down, and as it was, it did slow the car down, so i figured they werent engaged. i almost never use the e-brake as my car is automatic and i just leave it in park. where i park the car is flat, and the only time i ever use an e-brake is on a mt car... bad habit i guess?

Re: car acting wierd need help diagnosing...(long)

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2006 6:55 pm
by turbodudey
tory wrote:the smell of burnt or burning rubber was just on the back right side of the car.
I'm guessing it was burning brakes. You said you hardly every used the e-brake, which isn't necessarily bad, but in this case probably the cause of this event. When you set the e-brake it calibrates the rear drums. Since drum brakes are self energizing the right side drum (where you smelled the burning) probably caught and got a little hot, which created the sensation of the e-brake being on and also the burning smell.

So, in the end, you don't really have a problem. After you hit the brakes and pulled the e-brake everything should be back to normal. If you set the e-brake every once in a while to keep the drums calibrated you shouldn't have any problems in the future.