VX Hand Brake doing nothing
Hey i have just bought myself a VX Berlina II from a dealer but the handbreak is doing nothing (put it in neutral/reverse/drive with handbrake and the car rolls). it has been adjusted 2 notches and was told that is as tight as it could go but its still doing nothing, the car yard seems to think it needs to lose any surface rust or something until it starts working properly but i cannot see it changing that much, would it be something to do with the rear shoes? what do i do please?
**UPDATE** took it to a mechanic and he drove it around slowly putting the handbrake on slowly to clean anything out of it, this is now letting the hand brake hold facing down a hill but it didnt help facing up a hill (would still roll backwards), so then took it back to who done the roadworthy and they took both rear wheels off and tightened the brake as much as they could, it will hold on a small slope now but still no hill (so what now?), also with the car jacked up now the wheels are quite tight to turn, would his be the wheel nuts are done up too tight? they used an air gun*
Last edited by daNc; 17-10-2011 at 05:32 PM.
I had the same problem, I put a VY rear end in my VX then afterward the handbreak wouldent work at all, I was using the handbreak pads that the rear end came with,So i pulled it apart and put new pads on it and its working good now, The old pads still has plenty of pad left on them just wouldent grip. Some pads just get that way over time i guess,
Just try new pads and im sure you will have a good handbreak after that.
From my experiance i wouldent say rust would be the problem.
Good luck!
if it was anything to do with the pads wouldnt that affect the normal brakes at all because they seem perfect, just a little squeak here and there? the car does not come with warranty but it is covered under its roadworthy certificate so something like the handbrake not working should be covered under that would you say?
Cheers
The rear brake system in these use a centre drum shoe in the rear disc and don't actually use the disc brakes for the hand brake.
I can't see that "rust" would be an issue but more likely that the adjusters in the drums have worn and have "unwound" on the adjustment thread within, if this is the case tightening the handbrake in the car won't do much except stretch the cable.
sounds like you know what your talking about thanks, would getting this brake working the way it should cost alot of money do you think? im hoping its coveredOriginally Posted by alpine-wolf
Jakstas' Warden
The job is easy to do if you're that way inclined, when I repaired mine it was $8 each for the adjuster pawls for the drums from Holden, the shoes I was quoted $160 each which luckily didn't require changing. This is from Holden in NZ too, don't know what the prices would be like in Aussie, I did find that only Holden could supply the parts which enable them to charge what they want!! Thieving B@^7rds!
Ok thanks for the help, i will go to my holden dealer in the next couple of weeks when i get some cash together and hope that this does the job
First check there's tension on the handbrake cables to be sure that it is actually a problem with the handbrake shoes.
If there is, the actuator lever is running out of travel before the shoes hit the drum. Pull the disc off and turn the adjuster until you can just get the disc back on. Straight forward job but you do have to remove the caliper as well so make sure you're ok with working on brakes if you want to do the job yourself.
I've had this happen on both my VS and VX.
I'd go with what the other guys said. If they provided roady and it's still in date, the dealer is liable to pay. Simple, they sold you a roadworthy car that's not roadworthy. If they want to stuff you around I'd be calling fair trading Australia. Or tell them you are. Bet things get done.
remove your rear discs , clean up the shoes with some rough sand paper to clean any glazing, clean the internal disc with some fine paper also to clean any dust from the shoes up,,, they dont really wear as such as they only expand too lock up the rear wheels,,, BUT you never know if the previous owner drove a few times with the hand brake on,,,, replacement shoes are very cheap.. but as stated adjust the rear internall shoes
SILVERFOX
Yep, ask the 'dealer' how in hell it made roadworthy like that. And take it for a second r'worthy to see what else has been passed when it shouldn't have. Bastards!
'Ah well, I suppose it had to come to this.'
**UPDATE** took it to a mechanic and he drove it around slowly putting the handbrake on slowly to clean anything out of it, this is now letting the hand brake hold facing down a hill but it didnt help facing up a hill (would still roll backwards), so then took it back to who done the roadworthy and they took both rear wheels off and tightened the brake as much as they could, it will hold on a small slope now but still no hill (so what now?), also with the car jacked up now the wheels are quite tight to turn, would his be the wheel nuts are done up too tight? they used an air gun*
thanks
Using the rattle gun to do up the wheel nuts (I sure hope they didn't do them all the way up with the rattle gun) won't cause the drag. Sounds like they might have adjusted the shoes a bit too far and now they're dragging on the drum. Perhaps new shoes are required.
EDIT: I should note that by "tightened the brake as much as they could", I assume you mean they wound out the adjuster inside the handbrake drum, rather than just tightened the handbrake cable?
they removed the rear wheels then took the rotors off? then he stuck a screwdriver in the bottom part of it, dont know exactly if that was the cable or adjuster
Yep, that's how it should be done. If the handbrake still isn't holding then I'd suggest all that's left is new shoes, but I might have thought your mechanic would have inspected them and advised at the time. The handbrake is engaging with plenty of travel left on the lever?
by travel on the lever i can pull it up quite a bit i get about 7 clicks out of it (before i took it back today i would only get 2 or 3 clicks i think but would still pull right up if thats what you mean
Don't get confused between the pads and shoes.
The Commodore rear brakes are disc with pads, but inside the disc rotor is separate drum brake setup - that is the handbrake. So how well the rear brakes work when driving has nothing to do with how the handbrake works. The "pads" for a drum brake are called shoes.
Checking on my VX, 7 or so clicks should be fine. If you pull on the lever with the button in, can you feel the cables tensioning up nice and tight long before you run out of travel on the lever?
It sounds like none of the guys you have taken it to know what they are doing!
The wheels being tight to turn sounds to me like they have over tightened the either the cable or the ratchet mechanism inside the drum and now the brake shoe is rubbing /almost locked on tight.
If you've had no luck getting it seen to by a mechanic, If you are confident at being able to do it I would have a go at doing it yourself, its fairly simple to do if you have the tools some time and patience especially if the rear discs don't want to come off first time!
The handbrakes on these can be an issue if they are not set up properly, from either slipping or with a small pull on the handbrake lever slamming up hard and locking.
To do it you'll need to pull off both rear wheels and loosen off the adjusting locknut for the handbrake inside the car.
Remove the disc brake calipers and hang them with a bit of wire from your spring trying not to twist the brake line too much.
You will probably have to loosen off the adjuster inside the centre drum to get the disc off, there should be two holes in your disc one with a rubber plug and one without, rotate till the hole with no plug is about 6 oclock put a narrow flat screwdriver through it and see if you can flick the adjuster ratchet up until it loosens off on the drum to the point where you can pull the disk off, hopefully easily, if not you'll have to resort to CRC or the like and spray the centre hub area where it sometimes locks with rust and maybe a few sharp taps with a hammer to loosen it.
Pull disc off and check inside drum for issues dust, grease etc, give a good spray with brake cleaner.
Put disc back on and screw 2 wheel nuts on to lock disc in place find the adjuster through the hole at 6 oclock again and adjust till the shoe locks against the hub, then back off adjuster 3-5 turns, spin disc to check the drag.
Put disc calipers back on the your wheels and adjust the handbrake lock nut till your handbrake works at 4-5 clicks on the ratchet.
There should be some improvement.
do the rear shoes stop it from going down a hill forwards because that is holding now, its just parking it up a hill and it will roll backwards, also i took it to the top of a hill facing down and put it in reverse and the car rolled down, this isnt meant to happen is it?
thanks
*Yes im pretty sure when i pull it when the button is in you can feel it tightening as it gets closer to the top, and im not confident doing this sort of thing by the way
will any damage be caused driving the car with the wheels dragging? hopefully in the next week or 2 i can take it to another mechanic when i get some more spare cash
Posting Permissions
3Likes
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote