Hey guys! I went for the 2014 s touring a little while back- what an amazing car.. Unfortunately a couple of days ago myself, and three passengers took off down the street with the parking handle pulled up- not all the way up, but more than half.. We traveled at about 35MPH for a little less than a mile before I realized it was on- put the handle back down and kept driving for a couple more miles. (I was on an incline originally and put the brake on just enough the stop the car from rolling back, but simply forgot to take it off. The car felt normal while I backed out of the drive way and pulled off and didn't notice) However even though I caught it early, and I drove a couple more miles after I turned it off, there was a noticeable smell of burning brakes when I pulled back in. Hours later I pulled away and everything brake wise feels fine so far.


So, what's the verdict here? To my own eyes, the smaller back rotors might appear slightly darker and smoother than the front- it's hard for me to tell- I'm not a certified mechanic.


So far I have had a Mazda mechanic visually inspect the rotors (while the car was parked with the wheels on- didn't lift it or take tires off) which he claimed looked fine, and test the parking brake which he deemed normal.


My real concern is for the drivetrain components (tranny, engine, etc.) receiving wear/damage since I had a full car load as well. Sometimes it feels like the rev-up of the engine through the first couple gears is a little slow..


Should I stop being paranoid? Can this hurt anything but the brakes? I have an AT.

 

Any input or feel-better stories for me guys?

 

Yea I have a feel better story for you.

Back when I was young and beautiful I owned a Volkswagen Beetle. it had all drum brakes that need manual adjusting. I had a shop machine hte drums and put new shoes in. I was driving on the autobahn at a good speed and then the car slowed down. Eventually I had to get of the autobahn into a rest area. My brakes were red hot! And i did not even touch them.
What happened? When adjusting these drums you should be able to turn the wheels by hand, even though you may hear a little scrape. Well in this case they adjusted them too tight and at autobahn speed they heated up that expanded the brake fluid an applied the brakes.

Feeling better now?

I had to get a tow. On a student's budget.

Now you should feel much better.

They loosened up the brakes by 1 or two notches and everything was fine.

You are fine as well and you even saved the tow.....

 

Seeing how far you drove that's a little assuring to my less than a mile trip with them on.. I still notice the first and second gears not giving me the power I remember before this, however it is a new car and it might all be in my head. What year was the beetle? My parents had an old one (70's) and that thing was solid- I'm not suggesting anything negative about mazda's current vehicles but I would imagine it would have a more "delicate" drivetrain then older rugged cars like your beetle. I tend to become extra nervous about these things when I get a new car. I wouldn't want something I did in the first couple months to affect my tranny down the road (pun intended)

 

Click on "98 mazda protege" in the header. It takes you to my garage and the beetle with the brakes was the green one. BTW none of the pictures show my own vehicle. I didn't have a digital camera back then.

I don't think your drive train has any damage from this episode. It was the equivalent of being fully loaded and going up a steep hill. If it makes you feel better you could have the transmission fluid exchanged. But I think that's a waste of money.

 

I think it's all in your head. It's when you've gone so far down the road that you start to see flames from the rear wheels that you have to worry about a problem.

All you did was pretty much put a little wear on the rear brake pads and that's about it. You probably put more friction on the brakes from applying the brake pedal than what you did lol.

As far as first and second gear: I think it's all in your head. What you did would not screw up first and second gear. Also remember that your car is new, like you mentioned. The engine has a break in period (I don't care if Mazda says there is no break in period... there is... otherwise they most likely would not have recommended easy and short distance driving for the first 600 miles lol). It has some loosening up to do. Also available power is dependent on the quality of the fuel you put in it and the energy content of the fuel (temperature/humidity/etc impacts). I have days when the weather is perfect and the car flies. And then I have days where it's just a little less because of a bad combination of weather.