DIY: Fix your crappy Parking Brake...make it work!

spearfish25

Since I got my car two years ago, I've thought my parking brake was horrible. I had to pull the damn thing as hard as I could to even begin to slow the car. It took multiple successive yanks to ever get the rear tires to lock. Some time ago a thread was devoted to discussing just how bad our e-brake is, and even the Fifth Gear guys couldn't get the rear to lockup for a drift maneuver at one point. See video here:



Well, I've fixed the problem with mine, and I'm guessing this affects more people as well.

There are two adjustments for the parking brake. Within the rear hub (remove the rear wheels) there are ratchet adjusters to set where the parking brake liners (the brake pads) sit in relation to the hubs (the brake rotor equivalent). Unless you're having issues with the car not rolling at a stoplight (the e-brake is constantly engaged slightly), you probably don't need to mess with this adjustment. I fixed mine without ever touching these ratchets.

The fix is found in the center armrest (see step 3 and step 8 in the image below). Pull upwards on the cupholder in the center armrest and gently move it out of the way. If you look down in the hole, you'll see the parking brake lever assembly along with a bolt and nut. Tightening this nut removes slack in the parking brake assembly cable (the cable pulls directly on the brake liners in the rear hubs to lock the rear wheels). I tightened the cable adjuster nut about 20 turns (about a 1/4" more of the bolt now sticks out). After tightening the nut, give the e-brake handle a pull and you'll see it requires more force to engage. Per the manual, the proper force/engagement click number is 44 lbs of force to get 6-7 clicks. Before doing this I got 6 clicks with maybe 5 lbs of force. A quick test drive just confirmed that a moderate e-brake pull locks up the rears easily. To confirm you didn't overtighten the nut, test your rolling resistance in neutral. If the car rolls easily, you're golden.

Enjoy your new e-brake functionality and find a parking lot to try this:

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ChrisSlicks

Nice write up. I don't understand why they come so far out of adjustment from the factory. Mine isn't as bad as some but I still have to pull it up further than I should.

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JB1

All it took was a drive in my car to realize your parking brake sucked

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WhiskeyHotel

My ebrake worked fine.

batman_4

WIN! going to do this today

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XwChriswX

Interesting, I'll prolly take a peek at this over the weekend.

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CharleyGFX

yeah.. I'm gonna wait till some more members confirm this mod, than I will do it to my 7AT. This will actually really help me slide around alittle more and have some fun

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Auston

Thanks for the info spearfish25!

Synack

My NISMO e-brake works perfectly. I have to yank it but its nothing outrageous. Maybe because of better brakes and suspension?

daisuke149

my ebrake doesnt raelly do much since the day i got it. park the car on my drive way, yank it up as far as it can go and the car would still roll down. so def need to get this tweaked.

m4a1mustang

Don't see how this would factor in at all. You have the same brake rotors and the e-brake is totally separate from the rear brake caliper and pads (the e-brake shoes make contact with the inner drum on the rear rotor).

More than likely yours was just in better adjustment from the factory than some of the others.

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6MT

My first question when I saw the thread title was .... why?! OK, ok.... drifting/racing reasons. Besides that, mine works perfectly. Just a slight pull and it engages. No hefty yanking required on mine (never has been).

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Andrew

2009 370Z Sport/Touring 6MT sold
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Synack

Very possible. On my Cobalt SS, I had to take off the e-brake handle cover and tighten the nut that determined how tight or loose the handle was. I tightened it up about twice as much as stock and I could lock up the rear wheels pretty good. And Cobalt's have a weak parking brake compared to most other cars.

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m4a1mustang

Sometimes they can come loose from the factory if they aren't tightened down enough, or they can just loosen over time.

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c41006

same thing here

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