Something weird happened yesterday. Last week after a car wash at home, I parked my car in the parking slot and generously sprayed the wheels/alloys with running water from a hose. Yesterday in the evening, as I was about to take the car out, I engaged first gear and tried to move forward, the car simply refused to budge. It jerked as if hand brake was engaged. I check the hand brake, it was already released. I tried to reverse, it jolted again.
I got down to make sure nothing was obstructing the wheels, everything was clear. I engaged first gear and revved hard, the car very slowly moved but felt as if the wheels were locked. I engaged and released the hand brake a couple of times, it seems that the hand brake might have got jammed. So I reversed and revved hard again, again it painfully moved back slowly. I though something was seriously wrong and got down to inspect the tires again. I saw that the rear right wheel was jammed because of which it was being dragged, it was not rotating.
I jacked up the car and removed the wheel, and found that the wheel drum was completely locked/jammed, it was not moving. Below is a picture for reference.
I tried to exert some force with the spanner but it refused to budge. Fearing that I might break something, I went out looking for a mechanic, but being a holiday, not one mechanic was to be found. So I decided to give our own Maruti helpline service a shot. Surprisingly, their service was available and said a technician would be calling soon to confirm the problem. 5 mins later I get a call from the on-road service mechanic asking me the nature of the problem, I explained to him about the scenario. He calmly said not to worry and advised me of a solution over the phone. He said “aap drum pe chot maaro”, in other words, strike the wheel drum repeatedly with a hammer gently. He explained that since I had sprayed water over the wheels, the “plates” got stuck after the water dried and after hitting the drum a couple of times, it will become free. I was told to strike here…
I asked him is it safe to do so, he said completely safe and to callback on his number after I have tried it. So very reluctantly and apprehensive of the outcome, I started to the strike the spots gently with the spanner. After a couple of tries, still it was not moving. Then I started again with a little more force, and after about 15-20 hits, viola the drum became free. I rotated the drum several times, still it felt as if it was not rotating freely, but atleast it was moving. I put back the tire and took out the car for a short drive, everything felt normal.
Now that I come to think of it, it might have happened once before last year. When I tried to take the car out after it was stationary for a week, it felt as if the same wheel was locked, but that was just for a second, there was a “khat” sound and the wheel became free. I let that incident go thinking that it might have been something usual. Now since it has happened again and this time it was more severe, it has got me worried. The maruti technician said that its normal and might happen sometimes, nothing to be worried about. I asked him do I need to take any kind of precaution so that it does not happen in the future, he said none.
So the question is, is it really normal or should I do something about it ?