Hello, first time posting on here so sorry if I have this in the wrong place.

Took my 2008 MK6 for a MOT and failed on the handbrake and don’t really know what to replace or what to adjust as don’t understand it:

Parking brake:
Left 102KGF 
Right 99KGF 
Imb 3%

Anyone able to shed some light?

 

Hello Levi, not to be unkind but if you don't understand it then playing with brakes is probably not a good idea.

I would guess that you have rear drum brakes and that the auto adjuster inside the drum has seized up which is quite common. You may also need need new brake shoes. Looking at the figures above it looks like the handbrake cable is free to move as it is activating the brake shoes, just not hard enough.

The rear drum brakes need inspected, cleaned the auto-adjuster checked and freed and new brake shoes if required. Handbrake cable piviot points need lubricated

I agree. Does the handbrake lever come up high? But when the handbrake lever gets high some people try to solve that by adjusting the cable. But that’s not really the answer, that just masks the real problem which is down to the automatic adjusters inside the drum not working. Which is common. The fix is to adjust them up manually. But if someone has wrongly adjusted up the cable there is a chance the cable might need slackening. The drums need removing to see what’s going on in there. If your car is the model that went from about to 2005 to 2008 then the drums should be removed by undoing the bolts behind the brake plate after removing abs sensor. You do not do it by undoing the centre hub nut. BUT don’t try and do it if you do not know what you are doing. Hubs and brakes are extremely safety critical.

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Hello Levi, not to be unkind but if you don't understand it then playing with brakes is probably not a good idea.

I would guess that you have rear drum brakes and that the auto adjuster inside the drum has seized up which is quite common. You may also need need new brake shoes. Looking at the figures above it looks like the handbrake cable is free to move as it is activating the brake shoes, just not hard enough.

The rear drum brakes need inspected, cleaned the auto-adjuster checked and freed and new brake shoes if required. Handbrake cable piviot points need lubricated

Hi, I may have worded my first post wrong. The part I didn’t understand was how the percentage is read. On my certificate they circled the left hand side so I presumed only the left needed adjusting

As for the rest, I’ve removed the drums and just by looking at it I do believe it is seized. The car was sat for a year which doesn’t help. Tomorrow I’ll give it all a clean up and new shoes if required and hopefully it cures the problem.

Thank you for your help much appreciated 

 

 

 

It must have failed on the efficiency, not the imbalance.  3% imbalance is probably better than most!

There should be another percentage on there.

17 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

It must have failed on the efficiency, not the imbalance.  3% imbalance is probably better than most!

There should be another percentage on there.

Hi, here is a picture of my test result. This is the first time I’ve had a look at the parking test sheet 

https://imgur.com/a/5TJy5Zv

I haven’t checked the mot manual but it will show the manual with the limits on gov website. Perhaps limit is 100 and hence one is just below it.

That is an issue of a seized adjuster on the right hand side coupled with improper cable adjustment. This is quite clear once you look at the service brake efficiency. The footbrake is much more efficient on the side where the handbrake is less so. Slacken the cable before cleaning and freeing up all the moving parts..

13 hours ago, LeviBM said:

Hi, here is a picture of my test result. This is the first time I’ve had a look at the parking test sheet 

https://imgur.com/a/5TJy5Zv

That's actually a pass...   The minimum efficiency percentage for the handbrake is 16%...and yours is 16%.  

 

11 hours ago, isetta said:

I haven’t checked the mot manual but it will show the manual with the limits on gov website. Perhaps limit is 100 and hence one is just below it.

It's done by axle weights, so the numbers will be different for each car.  The efficiency percentage is 50% for service brake, and 16% for parking brake.