Handbrake woes

[totta Crolla]

Just how good or bad is your parking brake ?
My car failed its MOT on inefficient rear brakes and handbrake. I have freed off both sets of caliper sliders (anyone know what grease to use in these ?) and the back brakes seem much better.
The handbrake is a different story though, basically everything is working as it should it just does'nt seem very effective, it will lock the wheels solid when the car is on a jack.
As a test, driving off with the handbrake on is not too much of a problem though. Would this be normal for one of these handbrakes ?
Thanks

[evfan42]

Sounds like you wore your handbrake down too much by driving with your handrake on, which gave it less proficiency, the handbrake will lock up while the car is on jacks because it doesn't have any weight other than your hand pushing it, but if the car is pushing it, then it could move cause your handbrake is worn down too much.

Depending on which type of brakes you have in the back you may have to check the drums or the disk to make sure they are not worn down, also check the pads as well.

[totta Crolla]

Yeah thanks, recently had new discs and I have just fitted new competition pads, thought it may be these because they were cold when I did the test... not sure. How efficient is yours? If it uses discs will it lock the wheels at speed ? Drum handbrakes on cables are always better than discs though.
All I want to do is get the MOT and then I will fit a hydraulic handbrake, problem solved Wont pass the MOT test though

[Ivan141]

Have you tried adjusting the handbrake cable? It often stretches at age, so either replacement or re-adjustment is necessary.
My handbrake is pretty useless if you ask me, but it passes dutch MOT rules easily.

[totta Crolla]

Yep pretty useless is how I would describe mine ! Just have to see how I get on with it, even with it adjusted to the point where the brakes are dragging it's still pretty useless....
Beginning to think they are just hopeless handbrakes really.
Next issue is fitting competition seats to standard seat runners, that oughta be fun

[cannabolic]

use copper grease

[assassin10000]

rotational spare Wrote:Just how good or bad is your parking brake ?

My parking brake works crazy awesome. It sounds like from everything I've read here that you just may not have the e-brake/parking brake system correctly adjusted. I'll quote myself here on what you should do.

assassin10000 Wrote:Well since I've seen several post in regards to a poorly working e-brake/hand/parking brake - I'm posting this just to let everyone know I found that my 'way' of adjusting the rear brakes and parking/e-brake's to significantly improve how well the parking brake/hand brake works.

Mine stops the car from rolling with 2 clicks up if I'm stopped and on level ground. And not much further up when rolling/driving which is very nice if I need it to initiate or mid drift.. No need to use the regular brakes with, dive the car, weight transfer or anything else, it just grabs really well.

(I'm currently using pbr pads, bradi drilled/slotted rotors. But that shouldn't matter as far as the adjustment goes. I probably loose some initial 'bite' due to the loss of braking surface area due to the drilling/slotting on these small rotors.)

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Here's the written steps/How to adjust the parking/e-brake my way:

1. Jack up rear of car, remove the rear wheels. Be sure to use jack stands.

2. Undo the nut on the center cable and get as much slack as possible. (hand/park brake cable adjustment nut - on my vehicle I removed the top nut so I no longer need to remove the center console to adjust it, just put a deep 10mm socket down inside and turn)

3. Remove the brake caliper retaining/slide bolt on the bottom of the rear caliper. Rotate the caliper forward and slide back slightly for access.

4. Turn the brake adjuster in atleast 1 full turn (more is OK). Make sure to line up the notch/groove/slot openings on the caliper piston with the pin/tab on the brake pads. Slide caliper back on and put the bolt in a few threads by hand. (if this is the first time you've had your rear calipers off go ahead and turn it all the way down till it's basicly flush with the caliper, it wont hurt anything and helps free up the piston/adjusters)

5. Here's the trick to the adjustment.

A) pull the e-brake cable adjusting lever on the brake caliper towards you so you KNOW its all the way off. (after adjustment this gives you the most leverage/range of movement/clamping force)

B) Pull the whole caliper assembly towards the outside of the car (towards you) and push between the caliper fingers on the brake pads inward (away from you) so space/slack is visible between the rear brake caliper/fingers and brake pad on the outside.

C) Have someone LIGHTLY flutter the brake pedal so it forces the caliper piston out a little at a time.

What that will do is force the caliper out little by little and as it comes out and then back it rotates. The adjuster/opening on the piston will catch the notch and "auto" adjust the rear caliper correctly. You should have little to no space left after the adjustment.

6. REPEAT for the other side (can be done one side at a time) & install bolts for the rear calipers.

7. Reinstall wheels and put back on the ground.

8. Now you can tighten up the nut in the console hand-brake to the point where about 2-3 clicks up it will stop the vehicle from rolling.

Test drive - even if it doesn't work quite as well as mine it should be significantly improved.

NOTE: I do have 3 new e-brake cables and a new handle, but it locked up fine with the old cables as well.

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Here's the PHOTO guide which should help all the visual thinkers...







EDIT: It helps if you spin the piston in about 1/8-1/4 turn past the marks where it lines up and then back it out. Something to do with the design of the adjuster inside the caliper. Be sure to do so.





Post up you're results, if done correctly you'll be suprised and happy with how it works... or so I hope after typing all this out. EDIT: and now taking pictures, cropping and editing.

Here's a link to where the guys on dorikaze.ca/dorikaze.com archived it for future reference.

http://dorikaze.ca/dorikaze_guides_detail.php?a_id=34

Andrew

[Chixican]

Andrew - That's a brilliant write up. I'm lucky that my hand brake is working fine, otherwise I'd totally use that.

[totta Crolla]

Yes I did use this write up to get to where I am now and things improved,
there is an edit about turning the piston out again perhaps this is what I failed to do.
My caliper sliders seem very stiff although each time I take them out I give them a good clean/grease. I have tried using copper grease but this made no difference, anyone know what Toyota use as I reckon this sticking has something to do with the handbrake problem.

[assassin10000]

rotational spare Wrote:Yes I did use this write up to get to where I am now and things improved,
there is an edit about turning the piston out again perhaps this is what I failed to do.
My caliper sliders seem very stiff although each time I take them out I give them a good clean/grease. I have tried using copper grease but this made no difference, anyone know what Toyota use as I reckon this sticking has something to do with the handbrake problem.

It could be that your slide pins are mushed/misshaped from overtightening of the bolts previously.

Get some new ones & bolts from the dealer, I just lube mine with synthetic grease.

Andrew