Parking Brake Adjustment

[Colin Palmer]

Hi all

What is the best procedure to adjust a handbrake (parking brake)?

About 1 year ago, my handbrake was struggling to keep car still on a hill. So I found an adjuster for the handbrake in the car, which tightened the cable. This did the trick for a while but then it happened again a couple months later.

So I took it to a shop and they adjusted the handbrake via the drums… I would love to know how to do this? Is there only 1 cable – if so, does the brake cable control just one drum or both?

Thanks

Colin, London, UK

Topic

[college man]

what year,make and model are we on?

[Colin Palmer]

Hi,

My car is a 2001 Ford Focus UK Model.

The parking brake lever is between the driver and passenger seat.

However, I know the brake can be adjusted on the drums but not sure how this works.

Thanks

Colin

[college man]

see if this helps

[Colin Palmer]

Thanks I will watch the brake video and feedback any questions 🙂

[college man]

Your most welcome. 🙂

[Krys Kozlowski]

The parking brake cable usually splits somewhere underneath the car and usually goes into the rear brake rotors. If you take off the rim you may see little holes in the rotor through which you can adjust the strength of the parking brake pads’ pressure.

Sometimes, you can also adjust the y crossing where the one cable goes into two, or, as you have probably done yourself, you can readjust a screw right at the park brake handle.

[Colin Palmer]

Hi kkozlowski

This is brilliant. Thanks.

If adjusting strength through holes in rotor, I take it there is a risk that one wheel could end up gripping more than the other so equal amount of adjustment needs to be done both sides… is there a quick tip on how to check this?

Also, I take it these adjustments need to be done with handbrake off (not engaged)?

Thanks

Colin

[Bill]

Yeah…that is a brilliant reply if you have rear disc brakes but i believe your car has rear drum brakes. If your Focus is the same as the north america model there is not a park brake adjustment in the drums. Your repair shop probably adjusted the shoe to drum contact and that will help the park brake hold.
The cables are two seperate cables that connect with a shorter one at the front where the adjustment is.

[Colin Palmer]

Hi wysetech

Yes I think the North American / UK Ford Focus are similar… it does look like the Ford Focus that Eric changes the clutch on one of his videos.

I know my local repair shop had to get to drums so it does sound likely that they had to adjust the shoes themselves… why is this better/necessary than just adjusting the cable in the cabin?
After the shop did the adjustment it was much better.

Thanks

Colin

[Krys Kozlowski]

First, to clarify what I was talking about,

http://www.2carpros.com/forum/automotive_pictures/192750_ParkingBrake07SantaFeFig17_1.jpg

You take off the rotor/disc and find an opening on the disc that is not for the bolts (if there is one. There used to be one on the 99 to 2004 ish ford focus diesels in germany, but I’m not sure about yours). You will need to turn the disc until you see the adjuster, which looks like this:

This adjuster can be moved with a flat headed screwdriver as follows:

http://repairguide.autozone.com/znetrgs/repair_guide_content/en_us/images/0996b43f/80/20/5a/58/medium/0996b43f80205a58.gif

As far as the tightness goes, what I do is I lift the car so I can get underneath yet still get to the parking brake (or just raise the rear on two stands), I pull the parking brake up two or three clicks (German cars 1 or 2, Japanese and US cars 2 to 3), then I check if the rear wheels can be turned with quite some effort by hand. If both are more or less the same, you’re done. If not, adjust them (after releasing the lever back to normal) to grip on firmly (you’ll feel that with your screwdriver, then loosen them up a bit, pull the lever to 2 to 3 clicks and try turning it again.

You really want to get to a point where you can barely move them on 2 to 3 clicks. And they should be evenly adjusted.

I also seem to remember (and just reconfirmed on youtube) that older Fords had an alternative adjustment screw somewhere on the back of the housing. Here’s the link for those (even though I’m pretty sure the Focus is way too new for that method)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IxW-cgOooM

Attachments:

• user8827_pic28882_1283304961.jpg

[Bill]

The whole rear braking system in my experience is kinda dumb, or as you would say “DAFT” on those cars. I think that both adjustments go hand and hand on those cars also. When you apply the park brake it’s supposed to keep the shoes adjusted but it doesn’t work very well.

The info that kkozlowski supplied is VERY! good but i don’t think it applies to your car.

[Krys Kozlowski]

Well I’ll have to admit, due to highway speed regulations, there are very few cars left on the German market that still have drum brakes on the back. Perhaps that is different on UK models. They do tend to overheat at frequent high speed driving.

So yea, what he said 😉

[Colin Palmer]

Thanks everyone and thanks kkozlowski for the picture of the brake adjustment and how to adjust – very useful. That has helped me a lot.

As for cars here in the UK, many cars have small engines. I would say the average is 1.6 litre. This is due to the cost of fuel. Prices are approx £1.35+ a litre, which will be about 2 dollars a litre. I think in the US you per by the gallon? So our price per gallon is around £6 (approx 9-10 dollars a gallon)… very expensive… I do about 350 miles a week and it costs me about 45 pounds (75 dollars) to fill up on a 1.6 litre car…

As a result, many cars, especially cars with smaller engines have drum brakes in the rear.

As for sports cars, executive cars etc, they will have discs on the rear.

Colin

[Benjamin]

[quote=”kkozlowski” post=65431]

This adjuster can be moved with a flat headed screwdriver as follows:

http://repairguide.autozone.com/znetrgs/repair_guide_content/en_us/images/0996b43f/80/20/5a/58/medium/0996b43f80205a58.gif

[/quote]
that return spring in the circle look wrong to anyone else?

[Krys Kozlowski]

I’m from Poland and do live in Frankfurt Germany 😉

As for the circled bit on the piture, i pulled them off of Google to be fair. Spring might look oversized for that application to be honest

[Author]

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