Uh-Oh...Drove w/the parking break on... HELP!

You smoked the brakes, obviously. That's what you smelled.

If I'm not mistaken, the parking brake sets the rear brakes. You may have glazed them... and heating the rotor probably didn't do it any good. hmmm... I wonder if you cooked the brake fluid.

You didn't have any problems driving home because the front brakes are used more than the back, when braking under normal conditions. Still, you need to check the rear brakes -- you don't know what damage was done until you look.

Depends whether you have drum or disk rear brakes. You ought to be able to see the drum or disk. Drum brakes have a cable that activates the brake shoes. Disk brakes (on all 6 cylinders I think) have a separate little drum with parking brake shoes in them, so riding the parking brake would have no effect on the standard rear disk brake pads. Whichever you have, the odor was the brake lining overheating and burning. In no way means you "ruined your car". Worst case, you would need to replace brake pads and possibly turn (or replace) drums. Best case, brakes are stil OK just worn more rapidly.

Its a 6 cylinder? Must be for you not to notice the drop in power. If the 6 uses the rear standard pads and disk, then you should have it inspected for charred linings,...if it uses separate shoes and drum ( a mini version of std shoes and drum) they wil have worn out,...that has been my experience of a GM Holden out here (Australia) subjected to the same thing. In either case, you'll need an inspection.

Modt of us do it at least once,...but perhaps for not so long..

Jason

I had to park on a hill today so I put the parking break (sic) =========== Here's another suggestion, after you get it fixed. When you park on a hill, before you turn off the engine, put the car in Neutral, and set the parking brake, then ease off the main service brake and pull up another notch or two on the parking brake lever as required to hold the car from moving, then shift into Park and turn off the engine. That way, you won't forget to release the parking brake when starting off and it will save putting extra load on the parking pawl in the transmission, so it will release more easily when shifting back out of Park. Plus, you'll learn how to set the Parking brake. I happened to be using the parking brake last night at a drive through, with the car idling in Neutral, two separate times took my foot off the service brake - but the car didn't creep forward - reminding me to release the parking brake. ============= By the way. Try this before doing work on the parking brake. If it still holds the car, they may be working fine, even though you burned the linings one time.

I too made that mistake on my 2002 Camry LE V6. Drove it at highway speeds and realized that shake was because of the damn handbrake being up.

When I got to my first brake job at 60,000 miles, I replaced the rear pads, and sanded the front and back rotors and they were good as new. The front pads were just fine, the rears were worn off because of the parking brake being on.

Oh, and I also purged the brake fluid to make sure that fresh fluid was there and it was not burnt.

Chill it aint that big a deal.

I did it last month after a trip to the dealer, one of the mechanics set the flipping brake and I didn't notice until 5 miles down the highway when the heated brake pads caught my attention.

If you want to do something get a basic brake job. Stay away from midas and such all they do is upsell.

You usually ignore the IDIOT lights?

If you have disc brakes in the rear, the parking brake is a drum type brake, the drum being the hub in the rotor. The shoes are about 4mm thick. Tolerance is 1-2 mm. You have to drive a LONG time with the P Brake on before you need new shoes. The Toyota dealers I deal with have NEVER sold parking brake shoes, and they are not available aftermarket. I'd say, if this is the system you have, you're good.

Also, were the brakes smoking? I wouldn't worry a lot if not. I drove mine with a sticking caliper; 15 minutes and I had billows of smoke pouring out! (Yeah, I know the smell you're talking about! Smells like some piece of electronic equipment smoked bad!)

If the pedal gets spongy, it means you boiled the brake fluid. You would have noticed this while you were driving. If this didn't happen ,get your usual brake service done about 5-7,000 miles earlier, and have them flush the brake system (unless you do it yourself...)