Handbrake Problem

[Veggy]

Hi Folks. I'm having a problem all of a sudden with my handbrake.
It's only when it's been left engaged overnight. My rear passenger wheel is
stuck and sometimes I have to drive about 100 yards up the street before it
pops. May I add the handbrake works fine whilst driving, it engages fine, no
need to use force when applying the handbrake and it holds well, it's just when
it's been parked for 6 hours onwards. Had it MOT'd and serviced and pre-warned
them about the handbrake issue but was told the handbrake cable is fine and
they couldn't see any other problems. This is again probably because the car
hadn't been parked for several hours so the handbrake was fine during the MOT
and service. I even returned the car to have the handbrake checked again and
they still said they couldn’t see a problem. My mate is going to look at it next week and he says it might be the caliper but any help would be great.

Any ideas Folks.

Regards,

Steve

Ford Focus Style 2008 1.6 TDCi

[alz]

this could be the cable sticking, my focus as got rear disks and mine was sticking, do the same for drums it was a quick fix, rear wheel off disconnected handbrake from rear disk-cal pulled out the inner cable as far as possible, trim off any of the broken plastic coving the inner cable, have a mate put handbrake on/off, at the same time pulling the inner cable, once it is free, oil it well, and re-attach. did this to mine and now its fine. the ideal way to fix it would be a new cable, but that cost money, I will wait until mine snaps, 3 mots later and I still haven't changed mine and no more sticking..

[Dee_82]

I have a similar issue, for me its usually water, works its way in to the drum, literally bonding the shoe and the drum together. what I found helps is braking for a full rotation or 3 before you come to a stop (dry the shoes and drum out) then when you come to a stop it doesn't stick so much if at all.

Brakes are fine, new shoes, cable correctly set, just when it rains or theres standing water it sticks.

will be putting discs on the rear soon so should help fix that! :)

[iantt]

Doubt its cable, more like its darren said, damp on shoes and drum sticking shoes to drum, have drums off, get some brake cleaner on the shoes, some fine wet and dry paper and rough up the shoes, clean out the drum, do same with wet and dry paper on drum.

check wheel cylinders for seepage in case some brake fluid is getting on shoes

[Captain Haddock]

The handbrake on my previous Focus used to stick on occasionally (associated with going through water); the cables were fine, it was the damp brake shoes forming a bond with the drum.

After the first time I found that pressing hard on the foot brake, releasing the handbrake and then reversing always broke the bond; here's why ...

The brake shoe linings are optimised for stopping forward rotation (since that's the direction the car spends most of its time heading; unless you're Ken Block :)) and thus the shoes have 'leading' and 'trailing' edge. When correctly assembled the forward rotation of the drum helps to pull the shoes onto the drum surface thus increasing the effectiveness; therefore if you reverse immediately after releasing the handbrake you get the opposite effect and that helps to break the unwanted sticktion.

Used to happen quite a bit with 1100/1300s and old Minis; the original ones, not the current tat (some of them are not 'Mini', they're more 'Dangerously Obese' ).

[Veggy]

Cheers. Thanks for that. Like i said i know it's not the cable as that has been thoroughly inspected. To be honest i darent leave the handbrake on anymore just in case it won't pop. I do reverse in my drive and apply reverse gear because i park on a down slope. I'll wait til next week when my mate strips it down.

[ScaniaPBman]

I had stuck on rear brake just a week ago. The car had been parked up in the garage with the handbrake off for 4 weeks.

When I came to move it the rear left wheel was solid, moving back and forward did not release it. I jacked it up to find that there was slight movement with the handbrake off but completely solid with the handbrake on.

The problem was in the drum and not with the cable.

What to do? It had been cold but not freezing however in desperation and being in a rush to get to work I poured a kettle of boiling water over the drum. Bingo the shoes became unstuck from the drum, perhaps because of the drum expanding.

There has not been any problem since. I did drive for a while with the handbrake on to warm up the insides fully and smooth off any rust that might have developed.

ScaniaPBman.

[Veggy]

Cheers ScaniaPman. It's definitely a handbrake issue. I leave my car in gear for days without the handbrake on and there's no problems, it's only when my handbrake has been on there's an issue