Handbrake adjustment
- Thread starter Chocozai
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The cable needs tightening I believe, can anyone tell me 
You mean that thing behind the handbrake which I assumed was an ash tray? I did, and there's what seems to be another one underneath. What do I do with it?
Yours maybe has an ashtray in the cup holder. U need to remove the actual plastic cup holder part. Its a part of the centre console but just pops out
I hear this said all the time, and I'm not saying its wrong, but I don't see how it would work.
self adjusting supposedly, i swear someone said adjusting it otherwise was damaging, I adjusted mine on my fiesta as it have 6 clicks to out the handbrake on! But that was an older car.
To the OP, as you have the 1.2 engine, then you will have drum brakes in the rear, so, before messing around with the cable length, take your rear brakes to bits, clean them up and free-off the adjusters on the shoes - or replace the shoes, refit, adjust as per the Haynes repair manual (buy a Polo 9N one), and see how that now feels.
Whaaaaaaaaaat. That's sure more complicated then adjusting some cable. Thanks for the detail though. Why should I avoid altering the cable length with drum brakes?
Its more complicated, but its the proper way to do it. I didn;t realise you had drum brakes
Ah maybe that's why everyone on here told me not to touch the handbrake cable cos my rear brakes are discs and on my old car they were drums?
the opposite to what I was told by everyone on here then?! On my old fiesta it had drums we adjusted the cable so it wasn't 6 clicks but more like 3 was fine for 2 years I am more confused now!
Usually on our cars if it has drums on the back and the handbrake starts getting high its because the rear shoes dont self adjust very well. You can pull the handbrake cable up and it will help. But if the rear shoes are cleaned and adjusted not only will the handbrake be a lot better but also the footbrake will improve with a better pedal feel due to less travel.
Cars like yours however with rear discs providing the brakes are in good order a little nip on the cable will do the trick.
Cars like yours however with rear discs providing the brakes are in good order a little nip on the cable will do the trick.
Sounds like people had no clue, well on the Fiesta it was okay for two years, may tighten mine a bit then in that case thanks!
I think that its fair to say that most people are either a bit lazy or got other more interesting things to do, so adjusting the handbrake does seem to be what most people try first, especially with cars that have the cable adjustment easy to reach inside the car. Trouble is, the best plan is always to check that the moving parts of the braking system are free to move first - then move on to the cable. I'd think that modern handbrake cables are manufactured so that they will not stretch very much - not like in the past, personally over the past 20 years of looking after various pairs of cars I have never ever needed to adjust the handbrake cables. Prior to that my Fords did need their cables adjusted frequently inbetween bouts of trying to sort out the auto adjustors!
Remember the changes to the MOT wrt parking brake might be the cause of slacker cables being more likely to be tolerated.
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Just a quick Tweek up on the the hand brake cable will be fine, at my work we always have it so you get 4 clicks and struggle for the 5th, because go too far and you'll end up having the rear brakes binding or stretching the cable over time.
For disc rear brakes .. press brakes hard without hand brake on and they may self adjust a bit quicker .. i.e. tighten up.
Not sure on rear drums for these cars but if they are self adjusting then do the same thing.. hand brake off and stomp of the pedal as hard as you can when stopped.
Adjusting handbrake cable is the last part of the puzzle .. first make sure the brakes are free and adjusted properly .. otherwise one day you will have no rear brakes due to the lack of maintainance. If you cannot be bother to look at the brakes.. pay someone or take the bus; you are risking everyone elses life too..
Not sure on rear drums for these cars but if they are self adjusting then do the same thing.. hand brake off and stomp of the pedal as hard as you can when stopped.
Adjusting handbrake cable is the last part of the puzzle .. first make sure the brakes are free and adjusted properly .. otherwise one day you will have no rear brakes due to the lack of maintainance. If you cannot be bother to look at the brakes.. pay someone or take the bus; you are risking everyone elses life too..
Yes, I've been saying this for years, what is particularly important to understand with these cars is :- rear disc brakes - are the handbrake levers fully back to (or nearly) the stops with the handbrake off ------ rear drum brakes - can you "feel" the shoes being applied or just a hard and long "pull". If so, its best to sort these things out first, for the disc brake problems take apart, clean apply some thing like copa-slip, put together and consider fitting external return springs (probably clean up every year anyway) for the drum brake problems, prepare to replace the shoes as the linkage is part of them and its that that will be causing most problems. Not sexy stuff, but it can be handy to have a reliable hand brake!
For lazy people, I think the problem is, for rear drum brakes, they are invisible, so any work being carried out on them is going to be repair work - and that means fitting new parts to get lasting results.
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