Why Is My Porsche Handbrake Suddenly So Stiff?

You’re a good driver. You always remember to engage the handbrake when you park and on steep surfaces. You do this for safety reasons. You also do this to protect your transmission for preventable wear and tear. So you’ve always had cars that do not give you braking or transmission problems. But what happens when you hop into your Porsche and try to disengage the handbrake only to find out that its stiff, completely stuck and won’t just move? May be you could drive with it engaged. But that can severely damage the braking system. Read on to learn why the handbrake gets so stiff sometimes and what you can do about it.

Cold

You may not know this but cold weather can cause the handbrake to freeze in place. This happens when temperatures drop to single digit numbers. It should not worry you though. All you need to do is first turn on the car. As the engine warm up, ice that froze the handbrake will melt. You can then disengage the handbrakes without a problem. You can also try to gently rev up the engine to heat it up to melt the ice around the handbrakes. If all these fails, find out which wheel the handbrake is connected to. The easiest way to find this out is to first refer to your car’s manual. Use a hair dryer to melt the ice.

Rust

Handbrakes can become corroded or rusty over time. As soon as this happens, the cable which engages the parking brake can easily get stuck. You’ll then have to tow your Porsche because fixing this on your own can be a tall order. You can also have a mechanic come over and fix it. Before then though, try to manually disturb the brakes. You can do this by applying and releasing the brake several times. You can also try to first into drive and reverse several times. This will move the vehicle back and forth intermittently. As this happens, the rust and corrosion that may have forced the handbrake to get stuck will get dislodged.

You Left The Brakes On For Way Too Long

You’ll hopefully have to leave the handbrakes on for at most, over night. Leave it on for too long and it can easily become frozen during winter or get stuck because of rust as explained above. With that it mind, inspect your car often or have someone to do it for you if you plan to leave it in storage during winter or you plan to be away for weeks or even months. You may want to avoid engaging the handbrakes especially if you know that your preferred parking area is temperature controlled.

The Handbrake Was Engaged Too Hard

You can accidentally engage the handbrake harder than you have to. You’ll have no choice but to use extra energy to pull the brake out. Pulling the brakes will most likely force the brake shoes to get stuck against the wheel drum. It can also stretch out the cable which runs from the handbrake handle all the way to the wheels. So if you try to release the brake repeatedly with no luck have an expert assist you. Simply call a mechanic.