Normally when you have the parking brake up your car shouldn't really move if you put it in drive does it...

Well i got bored today coming out of my parking spot and pulled the parking brake thinking it should stop my car. My car just kept rolling, it did slow it down. I made about 3-5 clicks upwards.

I'm guessing the previous owner just did the front brakes and left the rears. Because my fronts are great. Fluid is all there and everything. I'm just wondering if the parking brake cable needs to be more or less adjusted or i should just looking into rear brakes. It could be both but what does it seem more like?

 

My rear brake pads are brand new and I have to pull the E-brake all the way up or else the car would move, so I say that this is normal.

 

Really.. thats interesting. I never got to used mines since i'm an auto. But i would figure from driving other cars normally 2 clicks would keep a car from rolling in drive aleast.

Well thats interesting any other info..

 

e-brake really doesn't apply a lot of force (80% of braking force is in front). It is enough to keep the car from rolling on a hill normally, but not enough to stop your car quickly from a roll... (static friction > dynamic friction).

 

I wasn't rolling tho, i do understand that 80% is in the front. but i pulled the parking brake then put the car in drive and left off my front brakes slowly and i was completely shocked that my car was rolling like normal. Well not normal i noticed a slight drag but its nothing like other cars.

I would be scared as heck if i had a 5 speed and only used the parking brake and left it in neutral.

 

well tighen it....there is a sticky about how to tighten it......and if you are worried youneed new breaks.....look at the....you can see the pad in the caliper if yo just look.......see if they are wore down alot.

 

Might have a caliper problem or ebrake cable tension issue. My 96 I30 will not budge when the parking brake is even applied.

 

I'm glad that I'm not the only engineering nerd in here.

 

Is 3-5 clicks the max for your e-brake?

Mine does about 15 or so, at which point it completely locks the rear wheels. Just because the rear wheels don't provide most of the braking force for the car, the wheels will still lock up if the caliper piston is extended as far as it can go.

With a properly working e-brake, you can drive around with the rear wheels locked.

 

Well no i just do 3-4 clicks normally whenever i drive any car. I dont like to pull it all the way up unless on a hill or something. Normally flat parking on manuals and autos if i use it i put it to 3-4 clicks.

The Stickie i just went over only shows you how to move the cable back to where it belongs. It doesn't show you how to actually adjust it. Right now it doesn't bother me, mainly because i dont use it. And well i'm started to make a list of things to do to the maxima in the summer in terms of summer maintience stuff. And this parking brake cable might be one of them.

 

What's the point of using it only for a few clicks? That barely touched the pads to the rotors, very little pressure. Almost the same as not using it at all.

That's exactly why it feels like it's not stopping the car, because at that little engagement there's no chance it'll stop the car.

 

tie up your parking brake buddy.

 

2 clicks doesnt really do anything for me too, i have to pull it all da way up

 

in the meantime, just set it to first or R gear when the car's off.

 

I thought I read somewhere that you're not supposed to make it click. You're supposed to push in the button even when pulling it up. I agree though that 2 or 3 "clicks" isn't going to stop you from rolling.

Hasn't anyone ever heard a story of someone driving with the parking brake on because they forgot to release it? So I'm assuming if you can drive with it on you're not going to get the big screen parking brake action Mr. Too Fast Too Furious :-)

 

dude pull it up until it's hard to pull it up... i mean don't rip the ebrake off... but have some *****...

 

I don't think that is true, never really tried to force it to go, but if my ebrake is on, I am not going anywhere. Really think that if you can move with it engaged something is wrong,i.e tension of cable etc.

 

Can you define 'ebrake on', though?

The OP is stating 3-5 clicks, which is 1/5th of the total engagement.

 

You can drive with it on.

If it's all the way on you'll be dragging your rear wheels and it'll feel like you're fishtailing when you make small steering corrections (i.e. FF drifting).

If it's only up a little, as in you let it down but not all the way (or you only do 3-5 clicks engagement) the rear wheels will still turn, but the calipers will be dragging. ****, I've done it before in my old Camry, when I first started driving, it was still engaged just slightly.

 

Nevermind my post i started to play around with it. And i found after my 6th click it starts to actually hold. I guess i got used to other cars, i work at a VW dealership and all VW's parking brakes holds the car from moving on the 1st click and definally the 2nd click. As compared to my max that needs 6 clicks to get the same results.

I relized that only pulling 2-3 clicks wont move the pads much to the rotor at all to stop the car and by it not stoping i figure my cable needed adjustments. I guess i can adjust my parking brake cable to kinda lock up my rear wheels on the first click if i adjust it right.. Right now i'm just happy that i dont have to replace a parking brake or my rear brakes.

 

I just pull on the brake until it comes to a reasonable stop--I don't count clicks. I just yank it up with a bit of force, and when it stops I don't force it anymore.

 

Yea thats what i normally do. But i just wanted to give you guys an idea of how much i pulled. I normally dont listen for clicks either. i figure saying 3 clicks would be easier then saying pulling it 2 inches up.

 

There's no reason not to pull it all the way up. IN fact it's not doing anything unless you do pull it up. Stop being a wuss and pull it all the way up!! lol.

Also have you ever noticed a thud when engaging from park to reverse or drive? Part of that is because you don't engage the e-brake and the car rolls ever so slightly, this harms the trans and since we already have week trans as it is, I highly recommend putting the ebrake up all the time.

 

nice, i've gotten into a habit of pulling the parking brakes on all the cars i drive except mines. for some reason i just don't think about it. I mainly use it from time to time keep anything from freezing up. But i guess i can just start to use them daily and save a little life out of my trans.

 

Me toooo