Front brakes seized?

Got insurance?

Get it towed to a dealer, they will read the obd2 and reveal the secret.
Must be the actuator seized, honestly, tow it to an agreeable party.

 

how many miles on her?

 

If there are no warning lights on, then there may not be any codes to read. It is possible that there is brake drag. The car is meant to be towable while in neutral. That gets the transaxle out of the way, supposedly. Turning a wheel manually would also be turning the differential gears, which should then be easy.

If the brakes are locked up, then a short drive should heat them up a bit, which you can feel by hand. If not, then there might be a failed bearing in the transaxle case, which is rare but does occur. You might consider taking a wheel off and seeing if the brake pads are actually loose on the discs.

 

So it really feels, I'm hearing, like the brakes are applied, even though the car is off and no one is pressing the brake pedal?

I can imagine a way that could happen, though I don't think I've ever heard of it happening before. The brake power assist comes from an accumulator tank of brake fluid pumped to high pressure. Ordinarily it stays in the tank until you press the brake, and valving in the master cylinder admits some of the pressurized fluid. Valves in the brake actuator can also admit fluid from the accumulator. Perhaps if something isn't shutting off completely, the accumulator pressure could be constantly acting on the brakes.

There is a way to bleed off the accumulator pressure. Every time you press and release the brake pedal, a bit of fluid leaves the accumulator and then eventually returns to the reservoir. If you press and release the pedal a lot of times with the ignition OFF (so the pump won't just run and pump it back up again), eventually you deplete the pressure. It can take around 40 pedal strokes. Normally it's very easy to tell when you're done: you get 30 or 40 pedal strokes that are easy and feel about the same, and the next one feels hard as a rock.

In your case, if there might already be a funky valve, I can't guarantee it will feel that positive, but you should still eventually know the pressure is gone and all the fluid has returned to the reservoir (the level should be noticeably higher than it normally is).

At that point ... don't turn the ignition on ... and try turning the front wheels again, to see if they are easier with the pressure relieved.

If that makes a difference, I'll suspect something internal to the master cylinder/actuator, which won't be great news, but you could also check for anything dead simple like something in the way of the brake pedal preventing it coming all the way up....

-Chap

 

Sounds like it. You need to have the front brakes inspected to figure out what is the problem.

Even if the car is IG-OFF and therefore the shift selector is in P, if both front wheels are raised then you should be able to rotate each wheel. The wheels will rotate in opposite directions under that scenario.

 

no lube? shocking!

 

you should have a word with the service man whollast inspected/serviced your brakes. sounds like they're charging you, but not actually doing anything.

 

The front wheels should turn easily when the car is jacked up and brake is not being pressed. If in park, the opposite wheel will turn backwards, but will turn. Was anything done to the car right before this happened?

Avi

 

see post #7