Re: '86 4KQ emergency brake repeatedly freezing

[e6941tb@gnn.com]

sabutin@mindspring.com wrote:
> 
>    Hi all...
> 
>    I've got a samll question about my '86 4KQ. The emergency brake has
> repeatedly frozen since it got cold here in NY, something that NEVER
> happened w/my previous Audi, an '83 4K. It first froze engaged; after it
> thawed I decided not to use it on moist nights when the temperature supposed
> to drop a great deal, on the advice of my trusty Audi mechanic. Now it's
> frozen UNengaged, so I can't use it at all, as long as it stays cold. Is
> there a quick fix? Something particularly wrong w/mine? Are the '86s
> different from the '83s? I don't mind chocking the wheels, but it IS a pain
> in the ass, and since I bought it primarily because of its winter
> abilities...any suggestions?

You might want to reconsider that. Here's what happened too me:

I have an underground garage in my house. The driveway is fairly steep
and that requires the cars to be parked with both Reverse engaged and
the e-brake pulled up to the last click (my Q was caught twice with it's
nose up against the garage door, to which it had creeped in Reverse when
the e-brake was not completely up). 

In the winter, before a snowstorm I always leave the Q outside and the
Fox in the garage (obvious reasons).
One subzero morning 2 years ago I took my 3 buddies for a ride (the
purpose - to brag about what a chipped 200 turbo quattro can do in
snow). At the time one of them owned a VR6 Passat, another one - a
K-bodied Primus (absolutly the worst  car that I've ever driven) and the
third one - nothing yet. (BTW, the first one now owns an A4Q, the second
one - a chipped GolfIII and the third an AWD Colt (Mitsu) and a chipped
GolfIII. Speaking of propaganda! Do I deserve a price break on my new
A4TQ this spring, AoA?).

So, we've been merrily traveling at about 3 times the speed of traffic,
when somebody asked me to yeild the place behind the wheel. We pulled
over and got out of the car. At this point we've noticed white smoke,
coming from the LT RR wheel and boy, did it stink! The brakes were
seized. 
It turned out that when I released the lever while leaving the driveway,
the e-brake did not disengage. The jacket on the cable was worn through
and the water, that penetrated it, froze solid. The funniest thing was,
the car was so powerfull that I did not notice a dragging wheel even
with three passengers!

The cost of the e-cable if I replaced it when I first noticed the worn
jacket? Around $30 after some 1-800 shopping.

The cost of repair in my lazy case? $53 for the cable (dealer, no time
to be picky here), plus new pads (turned into charcoal), new rotors (the
old ones were still thick enough, but got hopelessly warped and glazed
all over. I had to cross drill the new ones too). I also had to rebuild
both RR calipers (time and some money were involved here too).

Even after that I got cheap and replaced only one cable. The second one
failed the same way 3 mos later, only this time I spotted the warn
jacket before it did any damage.
BTW, it never seizes to amaze me how symmetrical (well engineered) Audis
are: if one item fails, the similar one is sure to follow in a near
future. I learned my lessons and now always replace all similar items at
once if one of them fails.

Igor Kessel