Handbrake again!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 13:22

My car deciced to roll off my drive a few weeks back while it was locked (just as i had a bucket in my hand to wash it!!). Luckily i managed to stop it hitting another car by getting my foot behind the wheel (yep, it hurt my ankle s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: )

After getting the handbrake cable adjusted it was great and only required 3 clicks to hold, it's now back to normal and won't hold at all.

The garage who repaired it said there wasn't much more they could have done as the cable did not have much flex. Just called toyota and they want £55 & vat and hour just to look at it s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

I know this is a known problem etc but it's got worse after 3 weeks!

What else could it be? Maybe the rear calipers?

MRMike · March 2, 2004, 13:30

My car is like this. Had the same problem on my previous car as well. Don't let them keep tightening it as it will snap after a while. I've resorted to leaving it in gear.

GSB · March 2, 2004, 13:35

The handbrake is crap. Accept it. Then change your driving habits to include leaving the car in gear when you park it, and pressing the clutch when you start it, and it'll never bother you again.

This seems to be a coomon thing on all modern cars, it would seem that modern brake pad compounds just arent up to the job when there is no relative motion between pad and disk.

SteveJ · March 2, 2004, 13:38

Maybe I've been lucky - I'm on my 3rd Roadster and have never had a problem with the handbrake (the only braking problems I've had was a lack of ABS on my 2nd car s:evil: :evil: s:evil: )

Chris · March 2, 2004, 13:47

Likewise with me, but then again, my drive is flat, and always leave it in gear when I have to park on a slope. I think that there is even a page on this in the manual!

Tem · March 2, 2004, 13:56

Quote from: "GSB"This seems to be a coomon thing on all modern cars, it would seem that modern brake pad compounds just arent up to the job when there is no relative motion between pad and disk.

It's not the pad compound...I think. s:? :? s:?

It's a problem with all cars where handbrake is applied to disc brakes. Disc brakes are great at stopping the car, but crap at keeping it still. Drum brakes do a great job of keeping the car still, but aren't that good in stopping.

And to confuse things more, some cars actually have a drum brake for handbrake inside the disc...

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 14:49

Must be why my focus has drums at the back and discs at the front. Best of both worlds

aaronjb · March 2, 2004, 15:30

Quote from: "cstevens"Must be why my focus has drums at the back and discs at the front. Best of both worlds

Nah, that's cos it's a Ford, and they're cheap s;)

s;)

The best of both worlds is rear discs with in-hub drums (300ZX etc) s;)

s;)

Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of Ford bashing! s:)

s:)

GSB · March 2, 2004, 15:33

Quote from: "aaronjb"The best of both worlds is rear discs with in-hub drums (300ZX etc) s;) s;)

Oooh.... Think of the unsprung wieght though!

aaronjb · March 2, 2004, 15:36

True - but I didn't say the best was discs with in-hub drums.. Best of both worlds is.

Anyway, we were only talking about braking performance s:P

s:P s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Best for braking from speed & handling - plain discs, no arguments from me s:)

s:) Just makes for a fairly poxy handbrake on a lot of cars (I swear you could actually push my Renault along while the handbrake was on!)

Damned pedants s;)

s;) s;)

s;)

Slacey · March 2, 2004, 15:40

I've never had any trouble with mine, but I've been in the habit of leaving the car in gear for years, so it's pretty much irrelevant anyway s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 15:45

Quote from: "aaronjb"Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of Ford bashing! s:) s:)

Good job I am getting a Celica at the end of the week then eh, I presume being 4 disk brakes that these have a problem with the handbrake too?

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 15:48

Hi

Had the same issue with my handbrake (2001 Roadster) toyota dealer adjusted it 3 times but it soon got to the stage where you had to pull the handbrake right to the top to get it to hold.

In the end they took the rear pads off, adjusted the calipers and a few other bits and then put back together - then adjusted the lever so that it was locked on at 4 "clicks".

Its a bit of a long job (45 mins) as they have to sit pumping the brake pedal to fully set it but ive had no problems since. It is a bit of a known problem but not advertised as usual.

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 17:29

If the hand brake is failing to hold the car on an incline because of problems already discussed, how does it pass an M.O.T. test.

Testing the hand brake is part of the test and has to achieve a certain percentage (can't remember the figure), if it can't hold on an incline how is this percentage figure obtained, (he asks scratching his head) s:?: :?: s:?: s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 17:30

i just leave it in gear too much simplier and it gives you peace of mind

Anonymous · March 2, 2004, 17:50

it could be to do with the temp of the disks

i remember it used to happen on some of the bigger citron cars. they ended up recalling a load of cars once it was shown on watchdog. perhaps send them and email as it is a British standards issue if its defective.

the handbrake's on the citron cars where connected directly to the rear disks. therefore when you had been out for a drive the disks would get hot, you then stick the hand brake on, after a bit of time the disks would cold down and shrink. it only need to be a very very small amount to then make the hand brake totally ineffective. which then results in you running down the hill after it.

vauxhall use a separate brake for the handbrake to stop this. i think Honda use a spring loaded mechanism but I'm not sure

if you are really worried about leaving the car on a hill you could always use that collapsible stop from the 2's tool kit.

don't know if that helps at all?

dimwit · March 2, 2004, 18:56

Our '2's done 5000 miles now and i tell you 2500 of them have been done rolling down-hill s:x :x s:x .
Toyota say there is no problems with the handbrake, just driver error!..
They also say their customer service center have had no other reports of this happening s:shock: :shock: s:shock: which i find very hard to belive...

Anonymous · March 3, 2004, 09:33

The car is going into a garage tommorrow who offer a brake check, I explained the situation and was told the it's a known problem on the MR2 for the rear calipers to seize up and so they may need replacing!

anyone know the cost of calipers?

I may ask them to adjust the calipers as Cartell appears to have had exactly the same thing!

Toyota had a quick visual look and told me that the brake pad 'wear indicator' (little silver u shape thing) appears to be on the outside rather than the inside. Anyone able to get a pic of how it should look?

Tem · March 3, 2004, 09:53

Quote from: "Viggs"it's a known problem on the MR2 for the rear calipers to seize up and so they may need replacing!

It's a known problem. Period. It's not MR2 specific. s8)

s8)

Happens to just about every car over here during winter, when you don't really need to apply the rear brakes, they get stuck. You can buy a new set if you want to, but you might as well lubricate the old one...

Of course the easiest fix is to just slam the brakes when you find dry road, which usually fixes the problem anyway.

But I don't think that's the problem here. If they were seized, the hand brake wouldn't work at all. Of course one possibility is that just the other one is stuck...anyway, just open them up and make them move. There's no need to buy new stuff...

Anonymous · March 3, 2004, 13:15

Quote from: "Viggs"After getting the handbrake cable adjusted it was great and only required 3 clicks to hold, it's now back to normal and won't hold at all.

I was surprised how many clicks the handbrake took and how high it got before working, on my new car, so I read the manual. It specifies, IIRC, 7-9 clicks. This is more than any other car I have run, but seems to work fine.

Andy

Anonymous · March 5, 2004, 12:15

Everything was check over and I was told that the pads and calipers are fine and the only problem was that the handbrake cable needed adjusting.

I explained that it was done a couple of weeks back but they said the garage may not have pumped the foot brake before they did it making the adjustment pointless!

hopefully it's sorted now but i will still leave it in gear!

The rubber seal around the handbrake is now loose. Looks as if these little plastic crosses have snapped and the glue has not held! s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

Anonymous · March 5, 2004, 13:24

Answer to the MOT question is that you can normally get the handbrake effort up to the mark by driving the car up the road with the handbrake on, this gets the rear pads and disks nice and hot, you then drive straight onto the rollers and handbrake effort will meet the required standard to pass.

Obviously as soon as the brakes cool down, they will be back to 'normal'.

As others have said this seems to be a fact of life with cable operated disk handbrakes, my last car (306) was also awful, and you could easily push the car with the handbrake on :-) :-) :-)

heathstimpson · March 6, 2004, 06:34

Funny enough I have never had an issue with any vehicles that I have had with rear disc brakes. My drive is on a slight incline and I never get a problem with parking the 2 with the handbrake on.

Anonymous · March 6, 2004, 08:31

Having had my 2 for about 6 months I have noticed the aforementioned observations too. I tried the method of driving with the hand brake on slightly for a few hundred yards but this was to get rid of surface rust which had formed due to the car not being used for a few days. This made a big difference to how much the lever came up when I next used the handbrake. My previous Celica used to suffer from this too when it was left for two weeks when I worked offshore. It had the handbrake drum system built into the back discs and I suspect the 2 is the same set up. The Celica needed new brake pads at one MOT and I think the job came to about £80. The problem mentione earlier with Citroens was on the Xantia. The handbrake there works on the FRONT disc calipers and it was blamed on the brake being applied when the discs were hot and when they cooled and contracted the brake slipped, but the real cause was dopey drivers just not putting it on tight enough on steep hills and also not setting the front wheels to direct the car into the kerb if the brake slipped. Not many people are taught to do this and I must admit sometimes forgetting to do it myself.

Anonymous · March 17, 2004, 20:55

Just had wifes car serviced and asked about handbrake. It is 'mini-shoes' within the disc hub. The shoes must be that small that they have minimal leverage/hold over all of the 'torques' that the weight of the car exerts on it. Definitely a case of leaving it in gear from now on!