Hi all.

Just had my rear pads changed by a mate, got home and my handbrake is nearly touching the headlining!

It did it in the garage too and he thought it was because I hadn't pumped the brakes enough before putting the handbrake on even though I told him I had.

He whipped the wheels back off and wound the piston back into the caliper and re-fitted. It seemed fine then until I got home and it did it again.

He just told me to give it a couple of days to see how they settle and he will wind them back again if it doesn't change. I've found on here about there being handbrake adjustment under my cup holders, does that need doing? I don't know anything about brakes but I'm a bit nervous as my car is parked on a steep driveway.

What are your thoughts please?

it should not need the handbrake cable adjuster moving, if you did that, it would just be covering up the real problem. sounds like one of the adjusters in the caliper is not working right.  I saw something on here recently about this. it said with the handbrake pulled right up have a look at the calipers and see if the position of the arm that the cable pulls on is pulled much further round on one caliper compared to the other. That will show which side is playing up. 

It was working fine before the new pads though. My old pads were almost down to the metal so the fact they've now got about 10mm of material on the new pads then the mechanism shouldn't be having to move as much or doesn't it work like that?

Actually, I did a tiny handbrake in the snow a few weeks back and it came up high once immediately after that then worked fine since. Could it be a sticking cable? Like I said, I know nothing about them.

Edit -

Just been out to the car, if I put the car on the level road I have 6 clicks on the handbrake and it feels normal. Once I'm on the slope and need the footbrake on whilst applying the handbrake it shoots up to 10 clicks? 

Will it hold on 10 clicks? If it does stick your head under and look if you can see which side the cable has pulled the caliper lever arm more. Should be pretty obvious.

Then on flat ground look again with handbrake off and see if both caliper lever arms are fully off. If not you may have a sticking cable. 

Under no circumstances tighten the cable at the handbrake lever inside

5 minutes ago, iantt said:

Will it hold on 10 clicks? If it does stick your head under and look if you can see which side the cable has pulled the caliper lever more. Should be pretty obvious.

Well it's not rolled down the drive yet lol.

What would the lever being pulled more indicate though Ian? Something needs replacing, resetting, lubricating?

Edit

I've just seen you've edited your post so I will check that tomorrow and see if I can see anything obvious, it will have to be very obvious though as I haven't got a clue!!!

Will it be a case of a new cable or other parts too?

Depends what's wrong with it. You need to identify which side is causing this first

 

Update - Just had my head under the car. With my dad pulling the handbrake click by click there is far more obvious lever movement for clicks 4,5,6 on the passenger side than the drivers side. Both have obvious movement for click 1,2,3 and both levers appear to fully release.

The old pads were more worn on the passenger side than drivers.

After a drive there is no excessive heat in either disc, my old Mondeo ST had a sticking cable causing one side to hold on, I only knew when I smelt the red hot disc.

I've given both arms a spray with WD Silicone to see if it helps.

Any ideas what it can be now?

I don't want to be buying new cables and calipers when it could be either or something else.

Just to repeat, it's only apparent that something isn't right if you apply the handbrake - 6 clicks, apply the handbrake with foot brake already pressed - 10 clicks. I've been parking on a slope for 2yrs and it's only started doing this yesterday after new pads were fitted. There was the single occurrence a few weeks ago after a little handbrake in the snow on the old pads but it never did that again until yesterday.

 

My mates just had it all apart again and it's still doing exactly the same, 6 clicks until the foot pedal is pressed then there are 10 clicks.

He said there is slightly more travel on the passenger side lever and it was the passenger side pad that was down to the metal where as the drivers had 3mm remaining.

He and his colleague are both thinking it needs a new passenger side caliper but are not 100%.

I'm going to give it a few miles until the slight disc lip has cut into the pads to rule out my theory that the handbrake could be clamping on the lip and then when the foot pedal is pressed it's pushing past it. I could be completely wrong but I don't want to be paying out for new components if it is not going to sort the problem.

If I didn't park on a steep drive I would never have known there was something wrong.

Time to move house!😀

i reckon fault is inside passenger side caliper. it's like the self adjuster thing inside the caliper is not engaging properly. when you have thin pads it is like at one end of the self adjuster and new pads it is at other end of it. so if it is faulty in some way it is possible for it to show the fault at new pads and not old, like you have. I have never dismantled one of these (I have much more experience on old cars with drums). Not sure how easy it is and what you might find broken / bent/stuck

7 minutes ago, isetta said:

i reckon fault is inside passenger side caliper. it's like the self adjuster thing inside the caliper is not engaging properly. when you have thin pads it is like at one end of the self adjuster and new pads it is at other end of it. so if it is faulty in some way it is possible for it to show the fault at new pads and not old, like you have.

Yeah, your theory makes sense with it being opposite ends of the adjuster, fully worn pads verses brand new.

It does sound to me like, unless you are handy with the tools yourself and are happy to dismantle your existing caliper to see what's wrong inside, you are going to have to have a new caliper

17 minutes ago, isetta said:

It does sound to me like, unless you are handy with the tools yourself and are happy to dismantle your existing caliper to see what's wrong inside, you are going to have to have a new caliper

I don't touch cars anymore, house renovations are more my thing now so I guess i will have to bite the bullet and buy a new caliper. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be the cable!

Well, I've bought a replacement new caliper. Hopefully that will sort the problem when my mate fits it later.

Somebody help please!!!

New passenger rear caliper fitted and no difference at all, the handbrake is still going to the max 10 clicks.

My mate tried adjusting the handbrake to rule that out and it made no difference, he slackened it right off, pumped the brake pedal a few times then tightened the handbrake adjuster until there was a slight bind then slackened off until the wheel spun freely. It made no difference to the 10 clicks.

The weird thing now is that when applying the handbrake the passenger caliper lever goes further round on the new caliper than it did on the old one? It is much further round than the driver side lever.

So, do I buy a new caliper for the driver side or a cable assembly or something else?

All this since fitting new pads!!!

Take a look at the adapter which converts the single cable from the handbrake into the two feeds to the callipers. Perhaps some ceasing there is causing this to happen? Unlikely but possible. 

Ask your mechanic mate to unbolt caliper, wind the caliper piston in as far as it would go, then wind it the opposite direction slightly out  but not to much so the pads bind. Refit and try it. 

11 minutes ago, iantt said:

Ask your mechanic mate to unbolt caliper, wind the caliper piston in as far as it would go, then wind it the opposite direction slightly out  but not to much so the pads bind. Refit and try it. 

He did that on both sides Ian, wound right in then 1 turn back and it made no difference. It's got him baffled too.

Got a duff replacement caliper, I've been there before and convinced I had done something wrong. Ended up getting another caliper and was ok, is it a refurbished caliper? 

26 minutes ago, iantt said:

Got a duff replacement caliper, I've been there before and convinced I had done something wrong. Ended up getting another caliper and was ok, is it a refurbished caliper? 

Yes it is Ian, it's a Pagid refurbished original.

Is that why the lever is going so far round on the new one then compared to the driver side because it's faulty?

Could the pads have been incorrectly fitted causing these issues before I throw even more money at it?

I've just read that the handbrake cables should be disconnected until the calipers are refitted with the piston wound slightly back out so it just fits over the pads, then pump the pedal and only then reattach the handbrake cable.

The piston was wound back out a touch but I'm sure the handbrake cables were already attached. Could that be causing all this trouble or is it still looking like a dodgy new caliper?

Final update - All sorted now. I bought yet another caliper to replace the new one on the passenger side and had it fitted today. Once it was all back together and the cable adjusted again it's all working as it should.

Luckily Eurocarparts took the faulty unit back and refunded with no quibbles so that was good.

At least I will sleep better tonight rather than the 3hrs I got last night stressing over what to change next!

Thanks to all that offered their advice.

Cheers

Wes

Good to hear you hopefully have got it sorted. You ended up having the same issues I've previously had then. 

8 minutes ago, iantt said:

Good to hear you hopefully have got it sorted. You ended up having the same issues I've previously had then. 

Yes Ian, it's looking that way. I never would have thought to buy another replacement caliper if you hadn't pointed me in the right direction so thank you very much!