i installed new rotors and pads a moth and a half ago and my ebrake has been basically useless since even before that. i followed the procedure in teh fsm several times. and it isnt ne better. theres tension in the handle, but the car still rolls on the slightest of hills.

 

could be frozen calipers. could be frozen guide pins. the spring that releases the braks (near the rear calipers) may be rusted. jack up the rear. take off the wheel. have someone pull up the brake and see what does or does not move.

 

I had this problem too when I installed the new rear pad for the first time. As far as I remember there are 4 grooves on the side of the piston and when you swing the caliper back in you need to get to the right groove that shoud provide the closest fiit of the pads to the rotor. If you get to a wrong groove the pads are going to be too far from the rotors and there ebrake cable wouldn't be able to press them against rotors. This was my experience.

 

I just bought my car and it came with a bad E-brake. Now I need to replace rear rotors, pads, and calipers. As well as the two rear brake cables. That should fix my E-brake problem at least