My parking cable seized up, the shield is broken and the steel cable inside is rusted, it must be caused by car lift pad placed directly under the cable over chassis pivot point by Firestone where I have my regular services done.

I looked under the car, the cable is running behind the heat shield of the exhaust pipe, so how do I replace it myself without having to take the exhaust pipe and heat shield off?

 

you have to drop the exhaust where the y pipe connects to the cat..

after that its pretty easy

 

Haha just replaced my left wheel e brake cable the other day.... It wasn't too bad since I was also putting a new exhaust in at the same time but you just have to get the car up on jacks. Then take the exhaust off up to the y pipe them once that's off you take off the heat sheild and slide out the old cable. Then bracket the new cable on where all the old brackets were then put the heat shield back on then put the exhaust back on take the left or right (whichever side your working on) wheel off then slide the new cable on and your good. I had to adjust my cable though. There is a adjusting nut right under the e brake lever. Hope this helps!!

 

Thanks for the tips folks. It is on the left side, the car is up for inspection in couple of months, so I have to fix it while weather is still good.

The Firestone guy told me the problem few months ago while I was doing oil change there, the rear left caliper was leaking brake fluid, they wanted to charge me almost $800 to replace brake cable, both rear calipers and rotors. So I took the car back and replaced both calipers and rotors myself under $300, but I didn't replace bad parking cable, just disconnected it for time being.

Here is another problem with the rear brakes, after I installed new calipers/pads, rotors (got parts from Advance Auto Part), both rear wheels make some rubbing noise, when I turn the wheel, I can hear the brake pad rubs the rotor on both side. The faster the car goes, the louder the noises become, so what should I do? To re-surface the rotor to make it thinner? The rotors are brand new, I am pretty sure that the calipers are rebuild ones.

 

most of the time that noise if from the new pad making contact with the rotor. sound should be gone in a week or less.

 

I finally decided to replace the bad left rear parking cable today, spent 3 hours on the driveway underneath the car and managed to take off the parking cable without needing to remove the exhaust pipe and heat shield, only to find out that my replacement cable that I ordered from AutoZone is bad as well, one of coil like rubber shield on one end is broken and the steel cable is exposed. No good, so I called AutoZone back, they have to order another one, called Advanced Auto Part, Pep Boys, Napa, none have it in stock, so I have to put back the heat shield, dropped car from the stands and went to AutoZone to have them re-ordered, frustrated, 3 hours wasted.

I also stopped by FireStone at where I have my car serviced regularly and showed them what happened, of course, they won't admit that it was their fault. Oh well, I didn't expect them to anyway, just want to complain about this to them.

The new cable will be arriving on next Wednesday, hopefully, next weekend's weather will be nice, but I won't expect to spend another 3 hours, probably 1 hour is enough since I know how to put it back now.

 

how did you remove the cable w/o taking out the exhaust? i have to replace my parking brake cables for inspection too.

 

You do not need to remove any of the exhaust. Just take down the heat shields. I removed the heat shields years ago durring the cable install. I never put the shields back. No issues.

95-03 cables should all fit. Im using a 2000 cable and its the same exact part. Double check to see if they have any of those years instock.

 

I did this last month. Rust proofing made it really messy, and only one bolt got rounded.
I bought Nissan cables from the States. It was around $44 a piece. Everything lined up perfectly and fit great during re-assembly. A wobbly 10mm is your best friend for the bolts above the mid-pipe heat shield as well the bolt holding on the passenger side heat shield.

 

if your car is high enough off the ground, you only have to remove the sheild. You will have to work with it a little but it can be done without disconnecting the exhaust.

 

Can you please share with description how you did without removing the eahaust pipe?
Many maximaites including I would appreciate it very much. Thank you.

 

Its not that difficult to do. Once you remove the exhaust shields, you will see a joint where two cables are hooked onto and there are one 10mm bolt holding each one, You need to take those off and unhook from the joint and follow thw lines back to the wheel unscrewing all 10mm you see then do the same thing installing the new one.