In New York State, a working parking brake is required to pass inspection.
It makes me feel better. It lowers my level of rage and keeps me from commiting physical violence.
Since e-brake cables do not have fluid I have to wonder what that rodent was gnawing through.
Flexible brake cable?
Some years ago I diagnosed the home A/C at my sonâs as having a failing compressor. Washing the filthy condenser out accomplished very little. So he called a couple of state licensed HVAC guys out and was told. Second backed up the first.
âEveryone knows that you never wash out a condenser as it causes Freon lossâ.
Who knew⊠
or âEveryone knows that you never wash out a condenser as it causes loss of business from usâ
First off there are two parking brake cables, one for each rear wheel. The cables rarely break, they freeze up over time and then you can no longer fully apply or release the parking brake. A rodent wouldnât be able to chew through the wire rope inside and make the cable not work. When was the last time the parking brake was working properly? Your post doesnât actually say that your ebrake is even broken. Itâs probably a brake hose that got chewed.
This is much more likely.
Think about, every time you drive in rain, the condenser is being âwashedâ.
Damn!
And I bought this tool just for that purpose!
Tester
I can almost see your Freon evaporating in the breeze. 
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So âwashing outâ a condenser is the same as rising the exterior of the condenser? Regional dialect.
When replacing a failed compressor, the inside of the condenser most be cleaned, first the refrigerant must be reclaimed.
Back to the question. I suspect it was dirty water the came down the cable. But with all the questions on how a rodent could chew through a steel cable and what would leak out of a solid cable, it is time to either get it up on a lift or crawl under to determine what is actually going on. Drain line, brake line, hose to pump up the shocks, who knows? Or just a broken cable with the water and rodent a red herring to make the story more interesting.
Thatâs my guess too. Depending on cable configuration, âfluidâ is probably a mixture of whatever the cable is lubed with, road dirt, and water. Iâd want to know for sure it isnât brake fluid though.
Yeah you just taste it. Dip your finger in it and put it on your tongue. They all taste different and it wonât kill you. Then you know.
The issue with the A/C condenser was that the pressures (both high and low sides) were way low (115/83) and the compressor was rattling. The fins on the condenser could hardly be seen due to dirt, milkweed, and so on. Putting out 82 degree air on a 105 day was the best it got even after spending over an hour cleaning it out. The unit was on its last legs and likely due to never being cleaned out since the day it was installed new.
Those 2 HVAC guys were adamant about my âscrewupâ and firmly stated that the outside condenser coil (meaning the external fins) should be left alone and never cleaned with a water hose.
The first one said the problem was also exacerbated by the âdirty air intake filterâ which I checked originally and was actually fine. So what did he do? Replaced the 18 X 24 existing filter with an 18 X 20.
That of course led to a 4" gap across the top where unfiltered air was sucked in. Now there was nothing to hold the Freon in either inside or outsideâŠ
That reminds me of a Cheech and Chong routine.
33 posts and I still donât know what an ebreak cable is .
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⊠nor has the OP identified the fluid thatâallegedlyâleaked from that âcableâ.
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I found what an ebreak is but see no need for cables. I donât see why or where it would be installed in/on a car
https://www.vasp.at/wiki/index.php/EBREAK
â EBREAK
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EBREAK = [real]
Default: EBREAK = EDIFF/NBANDS/4
Description: EBREAK specifies an absolute stopping criterion for the optimization of an eigenvalue.
The tags EBREAK, DEPER, and WEIMIN allow fine tuning of the iterative matrix diagonalization, and are best not changed. They are optimized for a large variety of systems, and changing one of the parameters usually decreases performance or can even screw up the iterative matrix diagonalization totally. In general, these tags control when the optimization of a single band is stopped within the iterative matrix diagonalization schemes:
EBREAK determines whether a band is fully converged or not. Optimization of an eigenvalue/eigenvectors pair is stopped if the change in the eigenenergy is smaller than EBREAK.â
Gee, I thought is was E for Excellent
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Maybe the mouse just so happend to be near it when it broke and drank whatever fluid was in it and died next to it
But no really other symptoms besides the emergency break or I suppose some might call it a parking break tho no one uses it as that unless you live in a really hilly area and not a flat lander like myself lol.
Replace recommended? Or you think driving it another 6 months til the engine sezies is alright
Note what appears to be an up-turned metal ridge in front. The cable may have been damaged when a road-object was struck. Even if you decide to continue driving vehicle w/out e-brake (which I donât recommend), good idea to give that area a careful visual inspection to make sure something else wasnât also damaged, like a hydraulic brake line.
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Water intrusion and rust caused the sheathing to split.