nevin_ak

I love this car... picked it up in July of this year. It's run fantastic until the temps dropped into the single digits, and now it is really cranky. A few days ago the parking Brake froze on and is now non-functional since it was driven while locked in. Door handles are sticky; etc.. So--a couple of questions: 1) do these cars tend to do poorly in the cold? 2) are the parking brakes prone to sticking? (I don't want to bother with a repair if it will simply replicate the problem). 3) someone mentioned my rear brakes, calipers, rotors, etc. may now also need work as a result of the parking brake problem. Any thoughts? I don't know much about audis but am learning quickly. Thanks!

snoogins

You might want to ask this question in the 5000 forum...

smoking10v-urq

1) do these cars tend to do poorly in the cold?
- - - these cars were designed for the cold, hence the quattro design. first i would check the cold start valve (the 6th injector) located on the top of the intake manifold. A) make sure that the valve is getting juice (power) you can use a test light. do this when the car is cold, it only works when the car is cold. attach a test light turn the car on, the test light should light up.
- - - B) if it lights up then pull the cold start valve off of the intake manifold and put it into an empty bottle, and again with the engine cold and this time with the wires connected start the car, gas should flow freely into the bottle.
- - - C) if step A produced no light (at the test light) and if step B produced no gas, then it is time to think about the thermo time switch . . . . please let me know what happened

2) are the parking brakes prone to sticking? (I don't want to bother with a repair if it will simply replicate the problem).
- - - parking brakes that have bad cables or, more commonly, that are attached to seized calipers tend to stick, two part solution: buy new cables (always a good maintenence idea) and remove the calipers from the car and let them sock in DIESEL GASOLINE (seriously, this will clean up the caliper) and hopefully this will free up the piston. when you reattach the caliper you will have to bleed the brakes (also a very good maintence idea)

3) someone mentioned my rear brakes, calipers, rotors, etc. may now also need work as a result of the parking brake problem.
- - - the person who told you this either knows very little about cars or he is trying to make money off of you, the parking brake is attached to the brake system by activating the caliper when it is active, if the parking brake does not release and for example you drove with your parking brake up you wll hear a loud squeal and after about one mile you will see smoke coming from the disk, hopefully you didn't do this and in that case your rotors should be fine.

- - - i would also recommend changing brake pads

nevin_ak

Sadly, the parking break did seize... while driving; it happened just after snow tires were placed on the vehicle. After a skid-pull to the left, we pulled over to find smoke coming from the driver's side rear tire. We returned to the garage, they freed it up, mentioned some pitting on the rotors. This is a bummer, if it's true, since the brakes were in great condition this summer. So... if we ended up with a smoking parking break, what else should I be looking at?

Thanks a ton for your help; & I'll let you know what the various tests yield.

smoking10v-urq

you probably have a seized caliper, take the caliper off, romove the hoses, parking brake cable and pads, and let them soak in diesel gas for a day (24 hours), then clean them up, spray brake cleaner over them and reattach them to the brake lines (note; not to the mounting points!! do not re-assemble them) bleed the system, with the car on, pump the brakes, a nice forcefull push on the brake pedal several times, eventually the pressure is going to build up on the rear and then the piston should break free. note make sure that both calipers are re-attached and that the system has been bled of air.

as far as the parking brake , it is attached by a cable, it either works or it ddoesn't work, if the cable is worn . . . . no parking brake, if the cable is snapped . . . . no parking brake. it cannot (at least to my knowledge) lock the caliper unintentionally.

let me know what you come up with

-ben