W163 - Weak Parking Brake
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
W163 - Weak Parking Brake
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.
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.
#3
Junior Member
Thread Starter
#5
Junior Member
Thread Starter
#6
MBWorld Fanatic!
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?
When this problem occurs, does the parking brake pedal come up or does it remain down?
#7
Out Of Control!!
![](https://mbworld.org/forums/images/ranks/veteran_army.png)
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.
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#8
Junior Member
Thread Starter
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?
#9
Junior Member
Thread Starter
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?
When this problem occurs, does the parking brake pedal come up or does it remain down?
#10
MBWorld Fanatic!
![](https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbworld.org-vbulletin/829x569/2018_03_07_033034_a1519489ef25f9faf8375ee006a57f11045ada01.jpg)
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.