Was recently told by a dealer service dept. that the parking brake did not work because the brake cable(s) are seized. Guessing the former owner seldom, if ever, used the parking brake. The dealer he quoted a price of over $400 to replace the cables. Given the car is a 96 with 130,000 miles, there is not a snowballs chance in hell I’m going to spend the bucks to have the cables replaced. I did spray some SeaFoam Deep Creep on the parking brake cable parts near the rear wheel but it still doesn't budge. Does anyone know of a way to “un-seize” the cables or otherwise make the parking brake functional without spending the big bucks??

Thanks

 

Look around the rear jacking points to see if the cable insulation has been damaged. The rear parking brake cables run close to the jacking points on the side and a lot of times, the insulation is cut open, resulting in moisture, etc getting in and corroding it.

I don't know if you can unstuck a seized parking cable. If you have a free weekend, you can replace it yourself as long as you can remove your center console, carpet and unhook the parking brake cable from the rear calipers. Some PB Blaster would help you loosen up the bolts that secure the parking brake cables to the underside of the car.

The dealership is charging you a lot because of labor.

 

Just looking over my papers from when I got mine done. Looks like mine came to around $250 for the whole job. It was $66 for each cable (x2).

 

dont do anything, ur not putting ur safety in jeopardy, we got a park option (if ur auto like me )

 

Yeah let's just kill our transmission instead of fixing the e-brake.

 

seriously? my back left brake is seized because of this somehow ... dont know details, but how does it kill our transmission, this interstes me to learn more

 

Well just think... if you're holding a 3,000 pound car with the transmission alone on a hill... that's a lot of stress on all of those expensive parts.

 

godddd./....
i guess...
ill get it fixed one day then...god damn

 

Yeah, my mom's friend killed her transmission parking in our drive way a lot (like a 40 fricken degree hill) w/o e-brake.

 

Sooooooo simple to replace....you may only need to do one side as well. One siezed cable throws off the balance on the split block under the car. You don't need to pull carpet or anything either. The whole process, short of adjusting the slack in the new cables, is done from under the car. Adjusting the slack can be done by unbuttoning the ebrake boot. I think it's 4 bolts total. Takes maybe 20 mins to do. I believe I paid $68 for the cable.

Also, parking on inclines doesn't really put much stress on tranny internals. When you put the car in park, a catch pin slides into a lock slot in a gear. Thats why the car will roll a little unless the pin is perfectly lined up. This catch pin holds the weight of the car, not the internals......thus the resistance when putting it back in gear. At most you might kill this pin ( which is generally an adjustable wear item).....but it should never cause a transmission to fail.

 

Ok, my car is on jackstands, and I have replacement cables ready to go in. They both connect to the split block ABOVE THE MAIN CAT AND HEAT SHEILDS!!! 20min job my *** if I have to drop the 8year/133k mile exhaust just to disconnect the end of the cable.

Please share how to make this 4 hour job come back to 20min.

Dave

 

i want to know to !!!!


Nick.

 

Mine was replaced; I bought part at dealer and my mechanic charged me I think $50. Only one.

 

Well, I've made some progress since I the left side cable replaced. But it looks like I need a special socket now. The front screw holding the right side cable to the frame is tucked way under the cat, and I'll need a 10mm universal jointed socket to play a trick just like you use on the knock sensor (which unfortunately is a 12mm). My short socket on a regular universal joint is too short to reach the nut over the stud, and my deep socket on universal is too tall.

Whoever said this was a 20min job got lucky. They only changed one cable. Since I have the updated (longer) cables from nissan, I must change both.

Dave

 

For the record, I finished the job. My short 10mm 3/8" socket on a universal actually did just fit on the nut/stud, and things went reasonably smooth from there. Some notes:

- definitely get the wobbly 10mm socket - it's very helpful and less frustrating than the short socket + universal combo.

- make sure your ***anus booster is up to date, I'm not kidding. The heat shields are nasty.

- wear goggles instead of regular safety glasses. You'll have rust falling all over your face and into your eyes.

- get the car jacked as high and level as possible. You'll need to really cram your hands around this stuff up to your elbows.

This is a 2 hour job if you have rusty parts to deal with.

Dave

 

I had a slightly different problem. I think not using my parking brake may have contributed to my right rear caliper seizing. I had both rear calipers replaced today, along with brake pads. Three different brake shops told me to start using my parking brake regularly. Does this make sense? I'm sure all three shops are not in collusion as they had nothing to gain with this recommendation.

 

I wonder why it bleeped t e t a n u s.

Dave

 

Yes it does. The parking brake rotates the pistons further than simply squeezing the brake pedal does.

Dave