2003 Nissan Altima - Brake Problem

Hello,



I recently got back from a 1 week vacation. My car sat in the hot airport parking lot all week. When I started it up and accelerated, it didn’t move but tried to lurch forward as if the emergency brake was on. I checked the brake to make sure it was off, tried again, and still was stuck. I accelerated hard, heard a loud “thump” and finally was moving. Now, when I decelerate, my brakes “pulse” where they were fine before. What the heck could’ve happened with my car just sitting there? It’s a 5-speed manual if that makes any difference… I left it in 1st gear, but didn’t have the emergency brake engaged while it sat. I also checked to see if anyone hit my car in the parking lot, but it looks fine. Could it have something to do with the very hot (90+) and humid temperatures in Cincinnati last week? Any help is greatly appreciated!



Thanks,



Andy

Sitting for a week should resulted in only some surface rust on the rotors, which would have been scraped off very quickly.

Brakes are nothing to fool with. Get them checked, pronto.

Heat and humidity accelerate rusting. On Guam we could almost HEAR rust form! Sounds like the spots where the pads were now have a different coefficient of friction than the rest of the discs.

I agree with NYBo, get this checked and corrected. Brakes are nothing to fool with. You may just need new rotors.

While I agree with both mountain and NYBo I suspect that just driving it and using the brakes will clear it up. At most I suspect you will need a easy re-service of the two rotors that the parking brake works on.

The problem is that brakes are so important, I can’t recommend not getting it checked out by a professional As Soon As Possible and drive there carefully. At most it will mean a couple of new rotors.