All of a sudden E-brake hardly works...

[BHop]

For a few weeks now my e-brake hasn't been up to snuff.

I now have to apply the brake till it just about reaches it's end in order for it to hold ground. It also seems easier to push the e-brake down too.

At first I thought it was my rear pads, but that didn't make any sense as I just replaced them over the summer. I inspected them anyways, and they are like new.

What can I do? Can I make any adjustments to the e-brake?

Thoughts

 

[gijoecam]

Your e-brake is a drum brake inside the center of the rotor. You can manually adjust it through the little hole in the backing plate, but if it's never been looked at, odds are the adjuster is siezed-up. Remove the caliper, then remove the rotor, and the hardware's all right there.

Good luck!

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I'm willing to bet theat the e-brake shoes have ceased to be.

 

[bisjoe]

I'm willing to bet theat the e-brake shoes have ceased to be.

Me too. I had metal-to-metal on my rear disks ('96 Explorer) and when I pulled the rotors discovered that the e-brake shoes while not worn out completely had come apart on one side, just sitting in there loose, on the other side was all cracked and brittle. Apparently had been there the whole 116,000 miles.

 

[BHop]

Are these ebrake shoes easy to replace? Are the parts expensive?

Will both rear rotors need to be removed? Thanks!

 

[gijoecam]

If you can repair drum brakes, they're really no different. The shoes and hardware aren't very expensive, and it's not too difficult to replace them.

My bet is that the friction material is gone off one or more shoes, and there is at least one spring broken off of them. Just my guesses, but we won't know for sure until the drums come off.

-Joe

 

[BHop]

Thank you for the timely reply

I will get on this when I get the chance to.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Yes you will have to remove both of the rotors.

 

[Fusion213]

I failed the NC inspection due to a weak e-brake. I pulled it apart and found that my shoes had nearly as much friction material as the new shoes i bought... so I didn't remove them, I just tightened up the adjuster and she holds a LOT better... but still not good enough for inspection.
Not to highjack this thread but, how well does everyone's e-brake work? They said they needed to be able to hit my throttle in drive so it reads 1500rpm and the e-brake hold it. It definately can't hold it!

 

[TheJackal]

What do they do with cars that don't have a Tachometer?
Have you tightened it up all the way, and it's still loose?

On my old Crown Vic, the parking brake didn't work at all... I put it in drive and went to take the brake off and I was already rolling. The rear brakes weren't very good but everytime we'd take it to a shop nobody would do the work properly. (Sorta why I don't trust shops around here anymore)

Oh and the Exie's brake holds just fine.