driving with parking brake on

I feel like killing myself right now. Bought a new CR-V recently and
drove about 2 miles with parking brake on...at night...didn't even see
the "park" light on!! Now, the car feels different while accelerating
(though it could just be psychological). Any body knows what goes wrong
in the car in such a situation? Hate to go to the dealer with this
story and ask him to get my car checked :-(

CITR

 

The brakes wear rapidly when you drive with them on, but that's about it.
Normal brake inspections should catch the extra wear before it does any
harm... you'll just have to do the brake job a little earlier than normal.

The power train doesn't know the difference between the parking brake being
on and going up a long hill.

Don't kill yourself - enjoy your beautiful new CR-V!

Mike

 

Worst case: It is possible that you overheated and warped one or both
of the rear disks. That is about the only really bad thing that could
have happened other than the excessive pad wear mentioned by the other
poster. You could probably feel any warpage in the brake pedal (slight
pulsing) or when you applied the brakes. Drive slowly, apply the
brakes gently, and see if the car stops smoothly or if it seems to
slightly lurch.

Even if they are warped, any competent repair shop can turn them and
put on new pads. That is relatively inexpensive. It will be more
expensive to replace the rotors, but not that much.

All of this is worst case. Probably you did no measurable harm at all.
I drive down a long hill at least twice a week, and pretty much have
to apply the brakes all the way. That is the equivalent of what you
did.

Elliot Richmond
Freelance Science Writer and Editor

 

------------------

Odd, your ABS light should have come on after a few hundred meters too.
Maybe your CR-v doesn't have ABS . . . Two miles isn't very far, when
you think about how many miles you will go between brake changes.

'Curly'

 

Thanks for all the replies!
The 2005 CR-V (all models) has ABS as a standard feature.

 

I agree. If you know how to do the work yourself--do it. You will have to
remove both of the back tires. If you have not done this type of work
before--have your favorite mechanic or dealer check them for you. A
mechanic can easily determine if there was any damage that needs to be
repaired. Look at the bright side--this is not an expensive problem to
fix. I heard a story about some rich lady that purchased a Porche that had
an automatic trans. She decided that she wanted to go really fast one day
and placed the trans. in R which really screwed up the trans. She had it
towed to the dealership and the service manager asked her why she placed
the transmission in R while traveling at a high rate of speed. She said
that she thought the R stood for RACE. I hope this was a joke and not a
true story but I have heard the story repeated by several different
people.