does anybody's parking brake actually hold the car ?
 

I had mine adjusted at service A but it quickly fell out of adjustment and doesn't hold the car on ANY incline.

Yeah, mine holds just fine and always has. Good thing with a stick because I don't always leave it in gear. Although I know once or twice, I hit it real quick and it wasn't enough and the car started to roll a little. But as long as it's down, it works fine.

Mine has always worked fine too. Engages with only 5 or so clicks I think. Is your pedal going all the way to the floor? Something must be loose with the cable...

I have the same problem. It clicks down like it's engaged, but won't hlod the car. I had it looked at by the dealer, but they said there was nothing wrong. Is there a DIY adjustment to the brake that could be easily done to fix this?

Mine worked great until it froze and I jarred it loose, now its really loose and requires being put to the floor to engage.

Once engaged I found it worked very well, I have sometimes tried to drive away with it on, and it doesn't even give the hint of budging, unlike some cars where you could practically drive with the e-brake on, just its noticably slow/sluggish.

I don't see how they could say nothing is wrong -- the parking brake must hold the car, especially a 6-spd! Tell them they're full of ***** and have them check another car on their lot.

mine doesn't go to the floor....I just have to push it very very hard...I mean ridiculously hard...my wife would never ever be able to do it sufficiently to hold the car.

So even on a slight incline it won't hold? When you say you have to press very hard, is it going through the "clicks" with normal pressure, or is it hard to push the pedal itself through the normal engagement travel?

same as bagwell's here... but mine does hold when pushed one click past the "initial" engagement point.

I do the following:

car on neutral, foot on brake, apply parking brake, release foot brake and put shifter into P.

I always do this regardless of the incline. You guys notice how you can put the car in P and then put the parking brake on and when you let go it usually rolls back a little?

I dont like how it rolls back, putting pressure on the tranny.

Is there any truth in that the P in the auto is a pin that locks the gears, thereby holding the car in place? I was told that the pin is no thicker in diameter than your thumb; therefore don't try supporting the car with it or else it will bend/break! :eek:

It's called the parking "pawl". Don't know how strong it is, but I agree with you -- I always engage the p-brake first in an automatic car so the brake is holding the car, not the trans.

Have the manual, I've only ever used the p-brake to hold the car while it is running. Never had a problem, all seems normal...

Manual, stop car, put in Reverse, turn off ignition, disengage clutch.

I complained about this several times and they 'adjusted' it several times. It seems to be working better as time passes. There is a slight amount of play regardless of how hard you mash the p-brake pedal. The transmission pin was explained to me also. "I was told that the pin is no thicker in diameter than your thumb" That's huge! Has anyone seen the parking brake innards? I'm guessing they are drum brakes by looking at them. I would like to know where the adjustment is as well.

Correct - it's a drum brake.

Cheers, BT

Guys, please look at this link:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automa...nsmission5.htm

Though I wouldn't call it "unbreakable", I've never actually seen or know anyone that has broken one. Sure, it looks small but remember there is a mechanical advantage because the torque is reduced through the driveline before it arrives at the pin.

mine clicks a few times and gets hard to press...but when I take my foot off the regular brake pedal, the car moves until the auto tranny stops it (in P).

if i try to drive with park brake on, I can't even tell its engaged except the MFD turns red and say "PARKING BRAKE!"

they tried to charge me for the adjustment, becuz it was done after svc A, but they did it for free becuz of the other probs I had with my car, its back to exactly the way it was beforet he adjustment...WTF..? have to adjust every 2000 miles ?!!

OK, one thing. On a hill, there's always a very slight movement of my car after the p-brake is engaged as though there's a little bit of play, but then it holds tight. On a very steep hill I might need to press it 1-2 clicks harder than "normal" -- I generally don't like to jam it down harder than necessary.

Something's definitely wrong with yours. Maybe whatever is on the other end of the cable (the brake end) is jammed or something, since it seems to be only clicking a few times (i.e., normal pedal travel). I can't imagine it's a very complicated mechanism for the service guys to check. They would definitely be p!ssing me off by now. Instead of worrying about who's paying, why don't they just f'ing find out what's wrong??

There shouldn't be any question as to who is paying, I don't see why they try to charge you. Even if it's not in for service A, it's still covered under warranty. They need to fix it under warranty. They will get paid, by warranty but not by you. That would piss me off too.

I had a problem with mine when I first got it, somehow "the "Cable had jumped out of its seat" they said making the parking break no longer hold on hills, maybe you should ask them to check this... I think it was form forgetting to realese the parking break one to many times, I am not used to a parking break, but rather an emergency break which you can look over and see, why doesn't our car have an e-brake, it makes no sense to me??

Resurrecting this thread to get some answers
 

I was on an incline parallel parking today and pressed down my parking break and the typical resistance was lost and broke.

It no longer engages the breaks and my guess is that the line broke.

Has anyone had this problem before? and is it a possible DIY fix?

Thanks!

There's been a couple of threads on this, with some pictures. There are several cables involved. One goes between both rear wheels and is pulled with a yoke between them to activate both sides. You can access this point beneath the rear seat. Good place to start.

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...3-20ebrake.jpg

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...ts-e-brake.jpg

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...seat-20nut.jpg

Thanks Glyn, looks like my memory isn't so accurate. There are two cables from the yoke but the effect is the same if either of them is broken.

One thing that will get the hand brake out of adjustment is to run the car without disengage it. By the same token the hand brake deserves the same attention to maintenance given to the rest of the brake system.

thanks Glyn :bow:

the diagrams and pictures are very helpful. hopefully i can localize the problem easily.

much appreciated