Parking Brake adjustment

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Andy1234

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Messages
19
Hi, The parking brake on my PHEV no longer holds when on a hill and the lever is fully up. I've had a look and the pads still seem to have plenty of life left in them. Can anyone advise is there are any cable adjustment nuts at the lever and is there a relatively easy way to access them or does the entire central consol need to be removed?
 
Hi Andy1234,
I wouldn't adjust your hand brake cable, check the hand brake mechanism at your caliper as this is normally seized, have a look at this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNd_JIuw6vY.
Could be a warranty issue.
 
Nope, I definitely had this when I first had the car with full travel on the handbrake after a few thousand miles but not engaging the brakes, you could feel it (like worn shoes). Fixed by dealer when car went in for body repair, so I don't know what they did but has not recurred.
 
greendwarf said:
Nope, I definitely had this when I first had the car with full travel on the handbrake after a few thousand miles but not engaging the brakes, you could feel it (like worn shoes). Fixed by dealer when car went in for body repair, so I don't know what they did but has not recurred.


What does Nope mean?

Fixed by dealer when car went in for body repair, so I don't know what they did but has not recurred. How does that help OP.

The OP has already told us that the disc pad were OK, The first thing to do is to check operation of the hand brake lever on the back of the calipers, and if they are seized pass the work to dealer if the car is still under warranty.
 
Thanks for the advice and I'll certainly check the caliper operation, that is once the snow had gone as I don't fancy around around in it!
 
I have also found a previous thread SEIZED REAR BRAKE CALIPER by Hypermiler in Feb 2017.

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2299
 
Jimc said:
greendwarf said:
Nope, I definitely had this when I first had the car with full travel on the handbrake after a few thousand miles but not engaging the brakes, you could feel it (like worn shoes). Fixed by dealer when car went in for body repair, so I don't know what they did but has not recurred.


What does Nope mean?

Fixed by dealer when car went in for body repair, so I don't know what they did but has not recurred. How does that help OP.

The OP has already told us that the disc pad were OK, The first thing to do is to check operation of the hand brake lever on the back of the calipers, and if they are seized pass the work to dealer if the car is still under warranty.

My point was that it wasn't seized calipers - very different feel to "overstretched" brake cable, which seemed to me to be what the OP was describing.
 
Had a look under car today and handbrake arm on offside caliper is not releasing when handbrake is released although it is possible to move this with a little persuasion but it sticks once again when handbrake applied, maybe some lube can release this?

Whilst this is an issue the handbrake lever still travels fully to the top without fully holding the car so I'm still thinking that the cable may be stretched and could do with adjustment if possible?
 
Hi,
You have found the reason your hand brake lever has excessive travel, because your lever isn't returning fully your automatic adjustment isn't working. The lever has to return fully to engage a ratchet which turn a bolt and a nut inside the caliper piston, this will travel forward as the brake pad wear.
Lubricate using WD 40 or similar releasant and exercise the lever until it is fully free and it return without any assistance, apply copper gease will prevent it from seizing again.
Your hand brake should come back to normal, if not then consider adjusting the hand brake cable.
 
So I've had a go with the wd40 but couldn't get it to fully return without assistance and have also applied some copper grease. I think the problem is getting the lube to the moving part as there is a rubber boot between the arm and caliper that is covering this. I'll leave it a while with the grease on but not sure it will have much affect. There is a nut on the end of the arm which I was thinking if I remove it and the arm may give access to the internal moving part but didn't want to remove it in case it I couldn't get the arm back on. Do you think it's worth removing this?
 
How much travel do you have on you hand brake since you started exercising caliper lever.

This can take alot of exercising but, you should see that it get better all the time, work the tight area and occasionally do the full movement, which will have less travel as the adjustment take up the play.

I wouldn't slacken the nut, unless you are confident with re-assembly.

If I was doing this I would remove the caliper from it's crade, which would allow the piston to move more, but you need to have the correct tools to turn the piston back for re-assembly of the caliper.
 
There's about 30mm movement before some resistance is felt and if immediately re applied it travels about half way before resistance.

I worked it for a while last night then pulled lever fully on and released and left hand brake off over night hoping that the spring tension would slowly help return to it's home position and I felt it had returned partially by the morning. I've done the same again at work so as you say it may start improving over time.

I'll keep working it each evening and see how much improvement I get over the next few days and then decide if i need to take it into a garage.
 
Some more info on the parking brake here:

http://mmc-manuals.ru/manuals/outlander_iii/online/Service_Manual_2013/2014/index_M1.htm







handbrake.jpg
 
That's a great find MrPastry, I have down loaded another RU workshop manual, but not as informative as your, will help Andy1234 alot more than my instructions.
 
Thanks for all of the advice everyone.

I have been working it again tonight, did about 100 movements of the lever from under the car using some mole grips and there is a significant improvement with the lever now only around 5mm from returning to the home position. I'll keep up with this each night and I'm hopeful that I'll eventually get there with it.
 
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