Car Parking Brake Stuck Too Loose How to Diagnose Handbrake Yourself

Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A 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. 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 you 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 it to roll away. So, it's a pretty common habit to actually use the emergency/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 [vocalization] the whole way, and it feels like something is 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 try to pull up on that emergency brake, and then try 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 you 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 will 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 a four-wheel disc, in which case the cable will attach right here, and it will just kind of pull on this lever, and as you can see, everything is right out in the open.

Now, looking from the other side, to find where your e-brake shoes are, you're going to have to remove the caliper and the rotor. So, we'll just go ahead and set this aside for now. And 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 is 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 going to 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, and 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 axle.

This one is 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 backside 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 to 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, and you want to talk about it, leave it in the comments section below, because I always love to hear from you. While you're at it, if you liked the video, smash on the like button for me because it would mean the world. Go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell. That way there, you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.