Rust on caliper, less than 600 miles
 

Hey guys, had an incident today and need some help and advise. I came home from work, up my 30 degree driveway that levels flat where I park. Either I didn't have it in gear, or the e-brake failed. As soon as I sat on my couch, I heard some noises. Opened the door, and my car had rolled backwards down my driveway, across the street, and landed in a small ditch. My front lip/bumper was glued to the pavement, and the rest of my car was in a flooded yard. The tow truck guy could not get to my hook, and ended up pulling me from a winch tied to my wheel. After I got out, my car was covered in mud from loss of traction in the yard. I had TC on the whole time, hope that wasn't the issue. After a thorough rinse, and a scratched up lip underneath, this is all I can see that has changed.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/caliper1.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/caliper2.jpg

I've never used any type of brake cleaner before. I really want this off my brand new car. Is there any way I can make it look better without taking the wheels off? What would you do? Any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to owning a new car. You'll see every sign of aging live!

Just looks like antisqueal grease or brake dust running out from the pad sliding contact points a bit to me.

i've seen at least 5 cases of our cars rolling on their own now. starting to make me nervous. i know Honda recently had a recall re: this in an alarming amount of their cars.

Before the tow truck came, I tried to reverse out of the situation. Fail, nothing but mud slinging. Then I tried to go forward, fail. Scraped up my front lip pretty good. Tow truck guy wouldn't even go in the yard my car was in, said his truck would sink.

I have already tried to scrub it off with no luck. I'm looking for some type of cleaner I could use with a brush to make it better. Any suggestions on what to get? Also, could this have just been natural due all the rain lately? Was wondering if anyone else has this issue naturally.

I'm thinking it happened when I was trying to get out of the yard with VSC and TC on. It was pouring down raining, and I couldn't get any traction. I'm guessing the VSC applied the brakes in the back too much and caused this? I don't know, but I know it's really going to bother me.

I'm definitely reporting this to the dealer tomorrow then. The more I think about it, the more I doubt that I didn't have it in gear or the e-brake up. All of my cars have been manual transmissions, and this has never happened. It's almost impossible to roll back from my flat garage. I think the time frame from when parked till "crash" was about 5 minutes or so after I thought about it more. I was lucky though, normally a car is parked right where my car rolled onto the street.

So should I just pick up some standard brake cleaner, apply it to that one area, and wash off? That would be ideal, but tell me if it's not likely.

Red caliper paint because racecar. Seriously though it'll make em look better. Lots of colors to pick from.

same on mine after 16k miles. will paint them black someday. good afternoon project.

Might even want to file a complaint with the NHTSA if you are sure you had the e-brake on...this is the only way to force Toyota to investigate the issue

Ugh, I park on a very inclined driveway every night. I don't want to hear stories of the parking brake failing.

When you got to the car was the parking brake set? Is the parking brake working normally now? Do you normally leave it in gear or set the parking brake or both? Were you distracted when you got out of the car? Perhaps by not wanting to get wet in the pouring down rain?

I leave my cars in gear and with the parking brake on for that reason.

My S2000 rolled with the e-brake up into one of my other cars years ago. No real damage thankfully since it was about 1mph roll before it hit.

it will never fail if you leave your car in 1st gear.

i've had 3 seperate cars roll on me before (luckily no damage) all because of USER ERROR

1. make sure your cable is adjsuted properly
2. make sure you've pulled the lever far enough, some people think 1 click is enough and go on their merry way.

Park it in gear. 1st if pointing uphill, R if down. Pull the parking brake first and take your foot off the brake (to let the parking brake take the load), then shift into 1st or R.