O/s & N/s Rear Handbrake Cable (Drums)

[gwengo]

Hi Peeps!!

Got yet another problem with the wife's ford focus now. It's just come back from Kwik Fit with an MOT failure . We apparently need a drivers side and passenger side rear handbrake cable and have been quoted just shy of £200 to do it (sorry my language is awful). I think she's been doing handbrake turns in Morrisons carpark again :D. Anyway I've been trying to find a part number for these items and I cannot find anything. Does anybody have a clue?

The car is a mk2 2005 1.6 Ford Focus (with drums on the rear) reg number CK05 BDO

Also, has anyone had any experience in fitting these items before? It doesn't look to difficult according to the Haynes bible, but then again it never does until you actually start the job.

Any advice/guidance will be much appreciated. :)

Edited April 30, 2013 by jeebowhite
Removed reference to a swear word...

[Stoney871]

TBH you'd probably get a better deal from an independent garage.

You're best off getting the parts or at least their part number from Ford, at least then you can guarantee you get the exact ones you need.

[stef123]

Lmao, £200 for a pair of handbrake cables.

I have done these twice on the mk1. Pretty simple to do if you have a few tools and a little experience.

Both times I have paid around £30-£40 for the cables.

[gwengo]

Lmao, £200 for a pair of handbrake cables.

I have done these twice on the mk1. Pretty simple to do if you have a few tools and a little experience.

Both times I have paid around £30-£40 for the cables.

Lol, I know mate, I laughed in the guys face when he told me the price. Yeah perhaps £30 for parts then £45ish??? for labour but he broke it down as £109 for the drivers side, then £89 for the passengers side. Luckily my wife has just gone on her maternity leave so she doesn't need the car for now. I think this may be an opportunity to get the old spammers out. The job has a rating of 3 spanners in the Haynes manual, but it doesn't look that difficult. Probably wrong though. I am quite competent when it comes to DIY Mechanics. I've changed discs and pads and front bumpers, so hopefully this won't be much of a problem ( famous last words)

[ChrisH]

What a set of robbers... Just had mine done, they come as a set, cost me £28. Got my local garage to fit, as i felt it really needed to be an a ramp to do it... 1/2hr labour £19.50. Mine has rear disks, but it cant be that much different

[stef123]

How is the price different for each side... Lol

Anyway, the rear disc handbrake cables are much easier than rear drums.

With drums you might open a can of worms to be honest but I wouldn't let it put you off.

All you need to do is jack the rear of the car evenly, then you should have enough to get under to the handbrake cable at the front where it splits.

Give everything a good clean with brake cleaner and make sure the adjusters and brake cylinders are all on good nick and not seized.

[soulman123]

Very strange high quote. I would pay no more than £40/50.

I have never done drums but discs were straight forward enough on a previous car.

The bently manual state something along the lines of once done, pull the handbrake up 4 clicks and then adjust so the rear wheels are hard to turn by hand and when released the wheels should freely spin. Just make sure the handbrake fully releases.

Good luck, definitely home doable especially with the nice weather lol

[gwengo]

Thanks for the reply soulman. I had the car up on stands today, mainly so that I can see if it was a single cable or a separate cable for either side (sep cable for each side if anyone wants to know ;) ). It looks like a really easy job to do, but I really don't have time to do it. Also I'm a bit unsure as to adjust it properly. So for peace of mind I'm just gonna grit my teeth an get a garage to do it and blame them if it all goes !Removed! up.

[soulman123]

If only I was as smart as you. I should have done the same on a few car jobs lol. Not sure how its adjusted on the focus but on the golf it had a 10mm nut you tightened or losened to adjust behind the handbrake.

I think if there is any doubt best left to the garage, being safety related an all.

You can make it up on some other job lol I'm sure you will have one eventually. I have a never ending lust but like you time is just no there. I will be letting the garage do some.

[stef123]

Thanks for the reply soulman. I had the car up on stands today, mainly so that I can see if it was a single cable or a separate cable for either side (sep cable for each side if anyone wants to know ;) ). It looks like a really easy job to do, but I really don't have time to do it. Also I'm a bit unsure as to adjust it properly. So for peace of mind I'm just gonna grit my teeth an get a garage to do it and blame them if it all goes !Removed! up.

It splits into 2 cables on the underside of the car, roughly below the handbrake lever

[gwengo]

Right, here's an update, whether you want one or not :). I got a few quotes from various garages and the labour prices alone were just rediculous. Quotes ranging from 70 - 120 just for labour then they cherged over the odds for the parts. With that in mind I simply found the right cables from Bromsgrove Motor Factors for £45 all in. That includes to main cable and the two smaller ones for the drums. Jacked the car up and did it myself. It took two evenings and the majority of the work involved getting the old cable off.

One piece of guidence I would give is, do not bother removing the exhaust. Although it would making access a lot easier, it really isn't worth the hassle and time. Simply pull the rear section off from it's rubber mounts. This gives you just enough access to remove and replace the cable in the exhaust tunnel.

Adjusting the handbrake is a lot simpler that I thought. just wedge a 2mm feeler guage in either drum between the shoe and the handbrake arm. Adjust the handbrake bolt from inside the car until you hear one of the gauges drop from the drum :)

Deffo worth doing it yourself if you have the chance. Best thing is, it passed its MOT :D :D

[stef123]

Great news Paul, glad your sorted.

With regards to adjusting the handbrake, you should only need to back off/reset the adjusters and use the foot brake to bring the shoes into contact with the drums a few times which will make the adjuster move into the correct position and centre the shoes again. Once you have done that you adjust the cable until you have the correct number of clicks and make sure the drums don't drag with the hand brake off.

[jeebowhite]

Congrats on the job well done!

I would ask, if you have the ability to do so, take a few snaps and write up a retrospective guide on how to make the changes. then it will be easy for anyone else who needs to do it.

[gwengo]

Congrats on the job well done!

I would ask, if you have the ability to do so, take a few snaps and write up a retrospective guide on how to make the changes. then it will be easy for anyone else who needs to do it.

Hi Jeebo,

To be honest mate, when I was doing the job, the thought of taking photos was going through my mind at the time, but I had a very limited time frame to get the job done (evenings after work, light fading fast :D). Also I only have small axle stands so the access under the car was VERY restrictive, pointing and shooting a camera with my 6'2" height, 46 inch chest stature, in the space height of about 13 inches is virtually impossible, and some might say very comical :).

Saying that I do have some ramps, so next time the car is on the ramps I will take some photos of my undercarriage (pardon the expression :D), and do a little write up ;)

[jeebowhite]

I was going to do a few writeups' unfortunately though, it appears that I have learned a valuable lesson. do not take a micro SD card out of a camera, and put it into your android phone, I have now lost the pictures twice! :@

[gwengo]

That's strange? did your phone ask to re-format the SD card or did it just go ahead and wipe it? That sucks if it did

[jeebowhite]

not entirely sure, I plugged it in, went to browse to the directory and it was gone! directory is called DCIM, same as the phone camera, maybe it didnt like it...

Anyway, I ran EASEUS data recovery, and its worked a treat so I am recovering and backing up now...

[Stoney871]

Do like i do and link your phone to photobucket, every picture i take gets uploaded automatically.

[jeebowhite]

Yeah I just found that app a couple of days ago, but as I was using my 10mp camera (phone is not so good!) so thought take the card out, put it in phone then upload from SD card through phone to photobucket...

That didnt work so well!