6G Celicas Forums

So my e-brake works fine for the most part, but when I park on a slope like my girlfriend's driveway, the car always seems to roll back slowly, no matter how hard I pull the handle. I've tried pulling it until it won't go anymore and it still doesn't want to stay. Any ideas on what the problem might be?

Could just be a matter of tightening the cable. First thing to check anyhow.

Also you should be putting it into reverse if the nose is sloping downward, and into first if the rear is sloping downward.

This post has been edited by Box: May 24, 2014 - 10:37 AM

When you pull up your parking break (PB) lever it pulls a single cable that goes under your car where it divides into two, one goes to the left rear wheel and the other to the right.

When each cable goes into its rear wheel it is fixed to the lower part of what is called the drum brake parking brake lever. This PB lever and the adjusting lever are both fixed to the rear brake shoe at the top pin of the rear brake shoe. When you pull up your PB in the cabin, you pull that drum brake shoe and in the end, both shoes get pressed against the inside of the drum to stop the car (or hold it on a hill).

When there is too much clearance between the shoes and the drum (normally fixed at 0.024"), and you pull and release the PB, the mechanism on the rear shoe is supposed to cause the adjuster star wheel to turn to decrease the clearance (such as when friction material wears off the shoes). It is likely that your brake system isn't properly doing that.

There could be a problem if there is too much slack in the brake cable, in which case your PB lever could not pull it tight enough (requires adjustment at the PB lever). There could be a problem if the star wheel adjuster is not adjusted properly. For example, when you put on new shoes, you initially need to give the brake system a position from which it knows how to keep the proper 'clearance' (requires a $17 tool that measures the ID of the drum and transfers the proper clearance to the OD of the shoes -- without the drum installed; you have to use two screw drivers, one to lift the lever arm off the teeth of the star wheel adjuster, and the other to turn the adjuster teeth so they move up, until you reach the desired clearance, as shown by that tool). It's made by AmPro and is called something like Brake Adjuster Resetting Tool (see my thread on "Need Expert Brake Help"). Of course this does not cover all possible problems with your brake cable, but the most common.

When you set your parking brake, you should feel comfortable that your car is not going to roll down a hill. They should normally hold your car on any reasonable slope you would encounter.

Where exactly do you tighten the cable? And I don't like leaving it in gear because I'm so used to leaving it in neutral that I stall it when it's left in gear lol

it's a balance between the dial adjusters on each rear wheel and the adjuster on the end of the brake lever.
you should be able to take the console off and screw the nut on the brake lever down just a bit. I would tighten it just a little more and then test to see if it holds the car on a hill. They say it should go 7-10 clicks on the lever, but if your ebrake shoes are worn or adjusted too far at the hub it may go a few more clicks. As long as it holds the car without the lever going All the way up you'll be alright. If not you'll have to take the wheel off and adjust back there.
It is possible to get it too tight, and the car may roll at first but the ebrake may suddenly start making an awful noise as it catches at a random moment while driving down the road. /cringe

if anybody remembers a band called Method of Destruction MOD, they had a song called What the FCKK was that FCKKing noise, ...it sounded just like that

This post has been edited by VavAlephVav: May 24, 2014 - 12:43 PM