Frozen Brakes in Winter

This has only happened to me twice in 5 years, in the winter, after the wheels get packed with snow from extended driving. Temps were below 25F.

 

After being parked a few hours or days, the pads act like they are glued to the rotors, even though I have cleaned the packed snow out of the wheels. And this happens even though I leave the parking brake in the released position.

 

To get the car moving, I have to gun the engine, engage the clutch, and BANG, the pads release. Not a good sound.

 

The first time this happened was in a parking lot, and it threw an ABS error code, because I dragged a locked wheel a few feet on ice.

 

I am guessing it is a combination of ice and rust, between the rotor and service pads?

 

Any other 4th gen LGT owners having this winter brake experience? Any way to prevent it from happening?

I've had the tires freeze in the ice/snow but never the brake pads. Do you still have the oem pads ?

Not that, that should make a difference. Have you ever greased the sliders and pins ?

I'm still on the original pads. Haven't greased the pins.

It happened again this morning, after being in the 15F garage all night.

I'm going to try dragging my brakes for 50ft before parking, when the temps are this low, to see if it helps.

I've had that happen a few times when I had my 05 LGT. I've had it happen when it was really cold out and I've also had it happen when the car sat for long periods of time. I think it is just moisture and rust build up like you say. I used to switch between my stock pads and hp+'s for the winter and I'd also check the slides when I did pad changes and never noticed a problem. However I did have to replace the right rear caliper, because it kept getting stuck closed late last winter.

 

Check to make sure you still have a good amount of pad left, because I think part of the problem is when the pads are really small the caliper piston sticks out farther and it could be the pistons getting stuck a little bit.

It happens in both my cars, leg and sti. If they sit for too long say 5 days or more it takes a bit to "break away". Happens both in summer and winter after the car sits for 5+ days as mentioned above.

It happens in both my cars, leg and sti. If they sit for too long say 5 days or more it takes a bit to "break away". Happens both in summer and winter after the car sits for 5+ days as mentioned above.

 

 

You let your car sit for 5 day's without driving it....Mine has only done that a couple of times while I'm on ski vacations. Normally mine sits one or two day's at the most.

I get that exact same situation after I wash my car and leave it over night without having driven it to dry the rotors....the pads stick to the rotors due to a bit of rust...same will happen in the winter when the brakes are wet. Wet pads and rotors = rust = sticky pads at start up.