moemoe

Hi Forum,

Had this issue for months now and finally decided to sort it out. Having issues with my parking brake on my 2000 ML55. The foot pedal looks alright, the light on the dash comes on when engaged, and off when disengaged. But the parking brake is very weak and doesn't hold the car. When I park at a hill and put the car in PARK, and engage the parking brake the car slowly moves until it gets stopped by the gear/ or park mode. So it works somewhat, but i would say only 5-10% capacity.

Since it works "slightly" i am thinking maybe the cable is alright but the parking shoes on the back wheels are worn? What do you think, and the parking shoes are they on both back wheels or just one of them?

Could be something else causing it? Another thing i noticed is that if it gets below 10 degrees of freezing i cannot disengage them one engaged, don't know if that info is relevant or not but i have noticed that twice now, so time to fix it.

thanks for any advice.

Plutoe

You need to have the brake system adjusted and remember this is not like the 1950's brakes you may have worked on!

moemoe

Yes need to be adjusted.... any suggestions or just useless comments? I was born in 1989.

Plutoe

Oh, so you want to know how to adjust the parking brakes-------A--go to startekinfo.com or B post your VIN!

moemoe

4JGAB74E1YA180538

VIN above, looking for troubleshooting areas...

Maj. Dundee

Another thing i noticed is that if it gets below 10 degrees of freezing i cannot disengage them one engaged, don't know if that info is relevant or not but i have noticed that twice now, so time to fix it.

When this problem occurs, does the parking brake pedal come up or does it remain down?

Plutoe

I have looked at the seven page parking brake adjustment procedure and have estimated that without prior knowledge of the system folks could injure themselves trying to figure out the adjustment process.Therefore I am not going to post the information.

moemoe

I read elsewhere that the parking shoes gets worn easily and those i can replace quity easy, at least try that first. Would you know if the parking shoes are on both back tires? or just one of them?

moemoe

Hi this happened twice now, and both times the pedal stayed down. I drove the car anyways (since the brake is so weak) and after about 5min it popped back up. Could it be broken/rusted/worn brake shoes? I know they are on the back wheels, but not sure if they are on both back wheels or just one of them. They are pretty cheap online, and i have seen some YouTube videos, and looks not too hard to change them out.

Maj. Dundee

If the pedal stayed down, then it is probably any one of the three cables that control the parking brakes. Spray liberally everything in the diagrams below with Liquid Wrench or WD40, especially the slack adjustment mechanism.