How to unstick your handbrake
Car Parking Brake Stuck? Too Loose? How to Diagnose Handbrake Yourself!
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hey friends it's len here from one auto
in this video we're going to go over
some of the top issues that you might
find with your emergency brake let's get
started
[Music]
have you ever heard the term use it or
lose it well that especially applies to
your emergency brake on your vehicle
especially for people that have an
automatic transmission
essentially if you have one of those
you're kind of just slamming it right
into park when you get to where you're
going
maybe either forget about the emergency
brake or parking brake
or maybe you just don't even think about
it because well why would you right
with that said if you have a manual
transmission more than likely those type
of people will be using the emergency
brake mostly because well if you forget
to put it in gear when you park
you don't want to roll away so it's
pretty common habit to actually use the
emergency slash parking brake at that
time
so common symptoms that you might have
if you had an emergency brake issue
would be something such as maybe the
fact is you try to pull on that
emergency brake assuming you have the
handle
and maybe it just doesn't want to lift
because it's very stiff
maybe it lifts right up like a maniac
because well it's not stiff at all and
maybe there's something going on back
there
or even you use the emergency brake it
feels like it's perfect you go to
release it and then maybe you go to
drive
off and your vehicle is kind of just
like
the whole way and it feels like
something's hanging you up like maybe
you have your brakes on even though you
know you're not stepping on that brake
pedal
for common reasons why maybe your
emergency brake doesn't hold well when
you try to activate it maybe the e-brake
lever just comes shooting right up or
even the pedal goes right to the floor
might be because of a simple thing such
as maybe the adjustment in the back
usually there's going to be an
adjustment that kind of separates your
emergency brake shoes that are located
inside of the drum area of either your
rotor or your drum brakes
with that said if you tried to pull up
on that emergency brake and it tried to
separate the shoes if there's too much
gap between the shoe and the drum
it's not going to be able to hold onto
the drum to stop your vehicle or hold it
from moving in any way
another reason why when you try to
activate your emergency brake and it
just doesn't hold
could be maybe your cable is either
broken or frayed in some way or even
stretched
so to talk about a common cause for why
when you try to activate that e-brake
maybe it's very stiff
you either can't pull up on the handle
or push down on the pedal at all
would be mostly the fact that your
e-brake cables are damaged in some way
maybe they're seized up and they just
can't function
aside from that it's less likely that
there might be an issue with the back
of your actual brakes aside from that
there might be an issue with the back of
the brakes it's a little less likely but
there is a pivot point on there that the
cable is supposed to attach to
and if it's frozen in any way of course
that's going to cause it so you try to
pull
and maybe it just can't pull the cable
because the pivot in the back isn't
pivoting the way that it should
for a common reason why the emergency
brake might not want to release could be
essentially the cable
or even that pivot like i had said
before but basically what it comes down
to is when you go to apply
the brake you're using human force
whether it's pulling up with your
muscles or pushing down with your leg
muscles on that pedal
of course that's plenty of force and
it's probably going to get things moving
fine
but on the other hand when you go to
release it all you're kind of doing is
releasing pressure you're not actually
applying pressure in the opposite
direction
so the way that it's going to release is
by pressure from the springs
whether there's a spring on the
emergency brake cable that's supposed to
kind of release the tension
or even in the back where the drum area
is where the emergency brake shoes are
if those springs are weak or damaged in
any way there's no way that it's going
to be able to release
to start your diagnosis of course you're
going to need an understanding of how
the emergency brake is supposed to work
up inside of the passenger compartment
you're either going to have your foot
pedal that's the emergency brake lever
or of course the hand pedal
there's going to be a cable that comes
down through your passenger compartment
and usually it's going to run along
the left side frame of your vehicle of
course that cable is going to split off
into two
and of course there's going to be two
cables one goes towards the left rear
wheel and the other is going to go
towards the right rear wheel
and these cables are going to generally
lead down to the backing plate of your
vehicle and it'll lead to a pivot that
looks like this
and that of course is going to lead into
the drum area of your brakes
unless of course you have four wheel
disc in which case the cable will attach
right here
and it'll just kind of pull on this
lever and you as you can see
everything's right out in the open
now looking from the other side to find
where your e-brake shoes are you're
gonna have to remove the caliper and the
rotor so we'll just go ahead and set
this aside for now
there it is so now with the rotor off
you have a nice clear view of the
e-brake shoes
and if you were to look right up behind
here you can see where the pivot's
supposed to be
essentially when i pull on that e-brake
it should be spreading these shoes
right here and pushing the shoes up
against the drum aspect
of the brakes in the back okay so now we
know how the e-brake is supposed to work
but now we should probably talk about
how to diagnose
an e-brake issue to start that obviously
you would want to be in the vehicle and
you would want to try to use that
e-brake and just see what happens
does it pull up super easy does it pull
up kind of hard or does it seem like it
works fine but it seems like your
vehicle is dragging we need to know all
these things so we can continue
diagnosing
so to start essentially what we would
probably try to do is to take a quick
inspection of those e-brake cables see
if they're broken or frayed or even some
of that sheathing that's supposed to be
a protective layer
is ripped off of there or even damaged
in any way after you've done a quick
inspection of those e-brake cables what
you're going to want to do is try to get
the brakes apart so you can have a nice
clear view of the emergency brake shoes
and all the happenings that are going on
inside
once you have it apart to this point you
should be able to activate that e-brake
and see if the e-brake shoes open and
close as they should
if they don't there's a possibility it
could be an issue with the cable itself
or even the pivot back here so let's
continue on
the next thing that i would want to do
is try to single out the cable from the
pivot point to see if the issue is going
to be the cable
or even the pivot point so i just took
it off right like this
now i'm gonna go give the cable a little
tug and see if this moves
so when i pulled on that cable you could
tell that the passenger side cable was
moving very freely
and then over on the driver's side where
i still had it connected you could see
that the cable was trying to move a tiny
bit
but it definitely seemed as though the
pivot point was stuck and it wasn't
allowing the shoes to either
completely expand or even contract they
were just kind of stuck at whatever
point they were at
so let's go with the assumption that we
know that the cable is good at this
point
i'm going to reach along the back where
i have that pivot point i'm going to
kind of work it like as if i was the
cable itself i'm just going to pull on
it
and then i want to see if the pivot
point up on the other side is moving
like it should
so i have the shoes hanging on here and
they don't have any springs or anything
like that but
just to show you when i pull on it like
as if i'm the e-brake cable
you're going to see this try to spread
right if it doesn't spread
and it's frozen then there's no way that
these shoes are going to be able to open
up
and then press out against the rotor
braking surface so at this point the
next thing that we would need to do is
go ahead and take the e-brake shoes and
everything apart so we can see the
e-brake pivot
clearly sometimes you'll be able to take
them right out of the vehicle and you'll
be able to work on them at that point
maybe on a nice vise
or on a bench of some sort other times
you might have a predicament like this
one
where you just can't get it out unless
of course you drain the differential and
pulled out the axles
this one's kind of stuck in here luckily
ours moves but you'd have to go with the
assumption that for some reason it just
doesn't and i can't take this and pivot
it or i can't reach from the back
and make it actuate like it should what
you of course need to do
is get it to the point that you can try
to maneuver it generally if you spray it
with some penetrant
you could try to heat it up you just
want to be very careful because
generally on the back side right here
where the backing plate is
there should be some sort of rubber boot
and that's going to help keep moisture
out of there
if you end up melting the boot obviously
you're going to have another issue
if there's a way for moisture to get in
here and sit in here you're going to
find that you have this issue once again
even after you've cleaned it up maybe
you know a couple months down the line
as moisture accumulates and builds up
rust
overall if you happen to find that the
e-brake pivot and cables work as they
should
it might come down just for the fact
that as you pull up on the e-brake
maybe it's putting as much pressure as
it can but the e-brake shoes are just
out of adjustment meaning you have this
little adjuster back here
it's going to be located right in
between the shoes generally opposite
from the pivot point if it's out of
adjustment maybe it's squeezed in too
far
you can pull on that e-brake all you
want the shoes will try to expand but
they're not going to come far enough out
to hit up against the inside of the
rotor braking surface
okay friends so that's pretty much what
i've got for common e-brake issues
talked about a couple of the symptoms
that you might find and we talked about
a couple things that i would check
and hopefully try to fix if i was having
an emergency brake issue
i hope that this video helped you a lot
and i hope that you're not necessarily
having an e-brake issue for yourself
but if you are hopefully you learned a
little something along the way
if you did you want to talk about it
leave it in the comments section below
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