Thread: Hung up rear calipar with a "pop" in the parking brake

This is sadly my first rear disc brake car, so I'm not positive on how the parking brake works.

I have an '04 GT, with a stock brake setup. I just replaced the pads and rotors all around with a nice new set. Going into this, I didn't know that the rear calipers needed to be turned it put them in. My first attempt involved cranking on them with a compression tool since I thought that the caliper just didn't want to compress. Once I googled it and learned my mistake, I turned the caliper in without an issue. I use my parking brake a lot (without a problem) as I do tend to park on slopes. On Christmas day, I parked at the in-laws and set the brake. I heard a fairly loud "pang!" sound about 1/2 way down on the pedal. As I left, I went to back up and I could feel the wheel drag and finally pop free. This is the same wheel that I cranked on the caliper when changing pads. I stopped after a 1/4 mile as I could feel the drag on the car. I threw some snow on the rotor and it sizzled off. The other rear rotor was stone cold. I got in the car and applied the parking brake and took it off a few times, each time it made that same popping sound. Tried moving again and I could feel the car was looser for it. I got home (only like 2 miles away) and checked it again. That rotor was very hot, and the other side was still cold.

I'm sure it's still hung up a bit, and I'll jack it up to be sure, but how does this work? I'm guessing that the parking brake turns something that pushes the piston out? If that's the case, did I damage it to the point that I broke the parking "threads" so it won't turn back it at all? The loud "pang!" sound seemed to come from the pedal, and not anywhere else in the car. The parking brake had worked perfectly up until this point. I plan to turn the caliper back in and see what happens, but I really don't want to spend $80 (locally) on a new caliper. Is it possible to just unhook the cable and let the parking brake work with just one wheel?

Well, I took it all apart again today. It's a lot faster since busting all the rust apart the first time

I jacked up the wheel and spun it. I could feel a decent drag. For example, after turning the caliper back in, the wheel would spin free and easy. After setting the parking brake a few times, it didn't spin more than 2 revolutions freely.

The popping (or "pang") noise was definitely coming from the vicinity of the pedal.

With the caliper off, I rotated the level that the cable pulls on. I could visually see it push the piston out each time, but it never retracted it. I'm not sure if it should retract it. Though, I'm sure it must retract it a little bit, just not something I could see. If it wasn't retracting the piston at all, the wheel would be seized up and not just dragging. I wanted to just unhook the parking brake cable, but I couldn't get it out. I think I might have to remove the brake line and work the caliper around to get it right. For now, I'll just have to remember not to set the brake and check it out later. I wanted to take the other side off to compare, but my back was bugging me so I called it a day.

I didn't look around a whole lot, but $80 is roughly what Advance and O'Reily's want.