Both rear wheels will not rotate

THECOLORRED85

MEMBER
2006 CHRYSLER SEBRING
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
105,000 MILES

So the car I got has been sitting in the spot and has not physically moved in like two or three months. I got it tagged and titled today so I was going to move it closer to the house to clean it up and when I tried, both rear tires would move very slightly. Maybe a half inch and then locks and slides instead of rotating. I had the e-brake up the entire time since it was sitting on a slight incline. Rookie mistake, right? I was doing some research into and it may be the e-brake is not releasing properly, and some movement may release it. So I tried giving it some movement back and forth to try to free it, but it did not do much. I also saw that the brake shoe may be rusted onto the brake pad since I had the e-brake on the entire time and was wondering what you have in mind in terms of what may be the reasoning they are not giving and rotating and maybe the resolution to the issue?

3 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,763 POSTS

You made reference to a brake shoe and a brake pad. You have one or the other, rear disc brakes or drum brakes. Which do you have?

To tell if the parking brake cables are stuck, if you have a handle that pulls up, do you feel the normal force on it or does it pull up real easily? If you have a pedal, is it coming back all the way?

You can also crawl underneath and look at the two rear parking brake cables to see if they are sticking. Follow the casing to where it is anchored to the body, about a foot in front of the rear tire. Look at the cable right where it comes out of that casing. If the first 1/2" or so is clean and shiny compared to the rest of the cable, it is not fully-released. Flexing the casing will often cause the cable to retract under spring tension.

Brake linings have metal pieces in them to help dissipate heat, and that is what gets rusted to brake rotors. Disc pads are always in light contact with the rotors, but shoes wont rust to drums because there is a large gap between them, except when the parking brake is applied. In your case, regardless of which type of rear brakes you have, the parking brake either applies the shoes, or it applies a drum brake, (shoes) inside the disc brake rotor. If those shoes are rusted, you can usually break them free by running the car forward and backward repeatedly. Do not get carried away and destroy the transmission. Just shift back and forth perhaps a dozen times with the engine idling, then stop and try it again a half hour later.