Yeah, I'm pretty embarassed about this, but I drove with the emergency brake on for a good 40 miles. So against better judgement I drove 20 minutes to pick upagirl I'm seeing (20 minutes back to my place as well)out in the snow storm last night here in ohio. So anyway, I got the car running first to warm it up while I was clearing the snow and ice off of it. Well I decided to put the emergency brake on while it was running, although I guess it wasn't really necessary, and I forgot to ever take it off.

The thing is, I was driving fairly slowly at around 20-25 mph the whole wayto be safe, and with the conditions the way they were I hardly noticed if anything felt different. In fact, I didn't really notice anything at all. I didn't smell any burning, I could hardly tell if it was harder to get the car moving. What I'm saying is, while the drive may have seemed to have gone okay, I'm sure I damaged something on the porsche.

Anyway, my stupidity aside, I'd really appreciate if someone could tell me what on my 944 is probably damaged, and if and how it needs to be fixed. Thanks.

 

Nothing, probably just put a little premature wear on the parking shoes. It probably needs to be adjusted tighter anyways, as if it was properly set, you wouldn't have been able to drive with it on.

 

I'm surprised you didn't feel it in the snow. How well did your emergency brake hold before this incident? Jack up the car and see if the wheels still rotate freely. You can pull the drum and check the drum/shoes. You may not have done more than wear down your shoes some more.

 

I don't know a lot about cars... but would the wheels not rotate freely if some part of it became warped from overheating? I hope that didn't happen.

You may be right, I may have been noticing the effects of the brake being on and not have noticed because I thought it was just the snow. The thing is, a few times I was stopped at lights, and had a hard time starting, and the car slipped and would swerve a little for the first 0-5mph, but I really just figured it was the snow, because it was pretty bad, and I saw other cars slipping as well. Now that I look back, it must have been because of the brake. It's just not something that even crossed my mind, ya know?

I've looked some things up on wikipedia, so I think I understand how the brakes work. I guess this just means I'll need to replace the shoes sooner and possibly readjust the emergency brake so it's tighter since it might be too loose.

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'd take it in and have them pull the drum to take a look. I'm sure you haven't warped anything. Worst case is you'll probably need new shoes or an adjustment

 

You aren't going to have to replace the shoes. Like I said, I doubt your emergency brake is really working very well to start with because you were able to drive with it on. Trust me, if it was adjusted properly, you would not be able to move the car even under engine power. You just need to adjust the shoes tighter via the small window in the rotor.

 

Doc--is there a separate shoe for the parking brake? If so, makes sense that it would only need an adjustment.

 

Yes, there are shoes on the inside of the rotor for the parking brake system, completely seperate from the regular braking system.