handbrake snapped?

[vpcommo]

today i was stuck in traffic so i went to pull up my handbrake so could take my foot off the brake, and was on a fair hill so went to pull it to the top, and heard a big crack/snap and now the handbrake doesnt work at all and the lever is just loose and can go all the way up to 90 degrees. any ideas of what it exactly could be, snapped cable or what?

[GetToDaChopa]

lol sounds like a snapped cable then or the cable cold still be in tact but the link is broken o.O Get under the car and have a look if you can see anything out of place.

[danja]

Yeah, snapped, happened to me before.

There is a metal cable which runs from the lever to the rear brakes which is what will have gone. It's in two parts, there is a front part which is a single cable, that runs to the rear part where it splits into two cables - one for each wheel.

By the sounds of it you've snapped the front part, otherwise you'd still get braking to one wheel at least. It's a bit of a pain to replace, you have to get the drivers seat and centre console out, then get under the car and dick about there.

Note all that assumes you have a VT/VX, though I notice your profile says VR/VP?