Rear brakes sticking

[fishuhalik]

I have a 1998 Countour SVT, and yesterday I washed it. I wash it often, but for some reason this time the rear brakes decided to stick. Thankfully I noticed the smell about a mile away when I pulled into work. I took the tire off, smacked the caliper a couple of times with a hammer, and it worked fine after that. This happened about a week ago, and there's been no further problems. My question is this. I'm driving up north this weekend, it's a 370 mile round trip, and am wondering if I should be concerned about it happening again if I happen to drive through some rain or something. I asked some guys at work what they thought it could be but they were stumped. Any ideas?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Is the emergency brake cable attached to the caliper? Did you use the E-brake while washing the car. It yes to both its probably the e-brake cable sticking. As long as you don't use it it will be fine to drive. If the answer is no to either of the above it may be worth removing the caliper and checking the slides to make sure there not frozen and the pads to make sure they are not binding in the mounting bracket

[fishuhalik]

No to the ebrake. Sounds good, I'll do that tonight. I shoulda mentioned, the ebrake's busted. I tried ripping it on dry pavement going about 40 mph and it snapped like thread! Oops. That was earlier this spring, though, and this is the first time this has happened.