Well, it can't be good for it. <strike>The parking brake engages the rear brake pads and rotors. Driving it with the parking brake engaged can cause overheating and could damage the pads, rotor and/or brake fluid. </strike>Or you may have been lucky if it was only partially engaged. Did anything smell hot while you were driving it or when you stopped? Are you now feeling any vibration or pedal softness when braking? I would take it to a mechanic and have the rear brakes checked just to be safe.

Edit: above statements are incorrect. See jeff3820's post below.

 

The rear disc brakes are never used as the parking brake. There will be a separate set of brake shoes to act as a parking brake on the rear wheels. Therefore, the rear discs will be fine.

Does the parking brake still work? Engage it intentionally when moving in a parking lot. If it works, just has to stop the car, (and it is far less effective than the normal service brakes) then all is OK.

 

Thanks for the correction Jeff. My Elantra is the first car I owned with rear disks, so I assumed (incorrectly) that the mechanical parking brake engaged the pads in a similar way that it engaged the shoes on my older cars with drums. I should have looked in the shop manual before posting .... sorry to everyone for the mis-information in my earlier post. It makes sense now that I think it through, as it would be difficult to compress the pads mechanically without the hydraulics. It certainly makes for a more reliable system to have the two braking systems independent of each other

 

QUOTE (jeff3820 @ Sep 16 2010, 07:35 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=356726

Does the parking brake still work? Engage it intentionally when moving in a parking lot. If it works, just has to stop the car, (and it is far less effective than the normal service brakes) then all is OK.

If it isn't toast after driving half an hour at 45mph, I will eat my parking break.

 

QUOTE (Don67 @ Sep 26 2010, 07:17 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=358841

If it isn't toast after driving half an hour at 45mph, I will eat my parking break.

Depends how tight it was set...

 

QUOTE (jeff3820 @ Oct 9 2010, 05:58 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=362277

Depends how tight it was set...

Granted. But even at light pressure one would expect the surfaces to be seriously glazed now...

 

ive done it myself (not for as long) in my 2009 santa fe. after a short distance it does beep at you. im just not used to having a hand brake as a foot pedal so its easy to forget at first. it definitely doesnt seem to lock the wheels like the old handbrake used to.

i havent noticed any adverse affects from doing it occasionally

 

If you have rear discs then it applies a set of shoes via a "top hat" configuration. You'll notice the rear rotors are a lot taller than the front. If they still work you're fine. You may need to adjust the shoes via a small hole in the rotors or at the cable via an access panel behind the centre armrest.

 

Auto adjuster should take up the wear ; when backing up come to a full stop several times.

That should adjust the parking brake shoes so they grab better.

 

The parking brake shoes aren't self-adjusting with rear discs.