A few days ago, my E-Brake handle became very loose. Now my rear brake is having this funny burning smell and it grinds when i'm going to a stop or when I start moving at a light. Also, I would have to pull up the e-brake at least 14 clicks before it locks the rear wheels. Anyone have tips? I'm assuming my E-brake cable is broken, or caught..

On another note, just picked up a 2010 Corolla Type S for my mom.

 

The cable could have stretched/broke or something. also if the smell could be your parking brake shoes are probably toast. but i could be wrong.

 

Do you know what could've caused this to happen? Is this a simple fix? Or do I need a mechanic to tear down everything?

 

grinds? your pads may be worn all the way down. take off your wheels and check

 

My pads/rotors were just replaced a 3 months ago. Roughly 5k miles. I will check it out tomorrow.

 

Anyone else have inputs on this?

 

you'll have to forgive me, but i'm not too sure if our cars came with parking brake shoes. I'm researching that as well. But these links will give you a great start to replacing the rear rotors/pads and ebrake adjustments. from what i gather, some techs mess up on re-installing the ebrake cables properly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVpCsrfeV9k

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/1997/BR.pdf

 

...your caliper is locked up.its locked onto the wheel and everytime your tighten it it makes the problem worse, the fool proof test is to drive a few miles and then feel your studs on your wheels to see if they are hot, watch your hand because i got burned once.
if it snows watch out, your rear end will wanna fishtail like no other.

 

The youtube video does not mention cleaning and relubricating the caliper slider pins. INMO this is the most important maintenance task to do, especially on rear disc brakes.

 

i had this happen it turned out to be the cables failing ....

how it happen for me was i would pull the lever the brakes would hold

i release the lever, it was very loose and brakes would still hold ... i had to crawl under the car and pull the line to release the calipers from the rotor ... the lever would then be tight until i pulled it again

it might be one cable or both the driver side cable rubs on part of the suspension and over time it wears though and water gets inside rusting it and seizing it

if you want to replace them yourself its kind of a PITA only cuz you have to get behind the heat shield and all the bolts is rusty and breaks it took me a few hours to get it all done


i have also have the caliper seize on me as well so it could be that

i did notice when that happen to me one pad would be worn all the way down and the other was have alot of meat on it

do u notice when you coast you come to a stop ALOT faster then you normally would
gl

 

I had the same thing happen to me and it wasn't what I expected.

What happens is rust builds up on the parking brake arm on the caliper and gets down into the parking break mechanism causing it to bind. This is not similar to how a rear caliper usually fails. Usually the piston will continue to advance and not return or the pins rust up. Once I learned where the parking brake arm one the caliper was I was able to release it with my hand if I pulled the brake but I just didn't use my parking brake anymore. I had prefect functioning rear brakes minus the parking brake. If you don't want to fix it right away you can put a ton of WD-40 on it and it will fix it for a while. Replacing the spring on the parking brake doesn't help much either.

 

Usually, this happens after a 4th gen is put on a lift, and the mechanic doesn't pay attention to where he/she is putting the supports for the lift. This crushes the e-brake cable housing, which opens, and after a while it will rust, and then lock up the rear caliper.

Fairly common problem actually

 

Hey guys, just wanted to update you guys, It was a frozen caliper. I changed that out, and the e-brake is so much better. No sounds, smoke, or smell. I want to thank you guys for all of your valuable input.

 

Go me for being right!
good to see it be resolved without any problems!

 

nice! Always loved a happy ending! lol