Arg, not again! It's been very cold the last two days here in the DC area, and once again my rear calipers/e-brake is frozen! The e-brake handle in the car has no tension after I release it, so I assume the lever arm for the e-brake cable is stuck at the caliper. I just replaced these calipers last year due to the same issue....and 3 years before that, and 3 years before that......WTF is wrong with our rear brakes??? I greased everything properly when I did them last year, and yet the issue came right back. I replaced my e-brake cables about 10 years ago, and they're in decent enough shape and otherwise work very well. I have only installed aftermarket calipers since OEM are too expensive, but this is getting ridiculous! Is there anything I can do to prevent them from freezing up like this? I'm just going to have to leave the car in gear with the e-brake off if this is how it's going to be!

 

You likely have moisture in the cable line that is freezing. The cable should be sealed, but considering age and wear and tear, plus it sounds like you use it every time you park, then moisture can get in.

I don't know for certain with the 4th gen, but normally the parking brake is actually shoes inside the hub of the rotor. In that the cable doesn't work the hydraulic caliper at all. So there could be moisture buildup behind the rotor causing those shoes to stick...

 

Interesting. I do use it every time I park since the car is a manual and my driveway is rather steep. On the 4th gen, the parking brake uses the main pads; there are no shoes in the rotor. Maybe I'm just due for new cables....

 

Here's an example of someone adjusting the shoes inside the rotor...

 

Yeah, that's what I was unsure of...

 

These calipers are crap no doubt.

Check the parking brake cable where it routes around the trailing arm bushing. Any signs of damage?

Disconnect the cables at the calipers and check for sticking or binding. If you are feeling up to it, check the equalizer too (the piece that connects the handle to the two cables).

 

I did both sides (Cables) about a year and a half ago, What a difference!

IIRC, about $100 or so plus shipping for both.

Hopefully, they're still available. Dorman might have something too but I'm glad I went OEM for another 19 years. Don't laugh cause I'm keeping mine that long. LOL

 

The 4th gen 4dsc don't have adjusting shoes or drums on the rotors. it's a simple rotors front and back with calipers and brake pads. The 4th gens calipers suck really bad and they are known to seize out of nowhere. The rears especially.

 

I decided to just order new cables and see what happens, since I really don't feel like installing new calipers again. I found some on closeout at Rockauto, one side was only $8 and the other was about $45! Shipped to me, the total was about $70, so I'm not going to complain about that! I'll do a full inspection and refresh of the system when I install them and post back. These calipers seem to be about as simple as they can get, how is it so hard to make them reliable?

KP- I plan on keeping mine at least that long! I'm in it for the long haul, but with cables being as simple as they are, I didn't see the need to go OEM.

 

 

Well, crap, too late now, the order has already shipped. I'm curious to see what the differences are between an aftermarket and OEM cable. If you could post up pics when you do the job, that would be awesome! I guess if these fail then I'll replace them with OEM.

 

+1

I replaced the OE cables with Dorman cables on my 1998 Max 5 years ago. One year later the cheap Droman's seized up! I installed OE Nissan cables 4 years ago.

A trick to keep them from seizing is everytime I remove the rear wheels I spray lubricant thru the cables using this tool

 

Well, ****. I take it the OEM cables have been fine ever since?

 

No doubt they're still holding up. It was below zero for 2 days this week and the cables still easily released.

Dropping the exhaust shields if the hardest part for installing the cables. You can rotate and bend the resonator and Cat shields off. Only the Y-pipe shield couldn't bend enough so I slid it over the CAT so I could reach the cable divider.

 

Well, you guys were right, I needed to replace my e-brake cables again!

I bought some cheap ones from RockAuto and hoped for the best. One was on clearance for $8, and the brands didn't match, but I figured they had to be better than what was in the car. The two brands certainly constructed them differently, but from what I can tell, it's an updated design over the ones I put in the car 10 years ago. This coincides with what I saw on the Nissan parts website, where it mentioned a new part had superseded the older one. It of course didn't mention what the change was, but I think I know what it is! Keep reading for details....

So the ones I installed 10 years ago didn't have much in the way of brackets attaching them to the car, so many zip ties were used:



As soon as I detached them from the caliper, I knew they had failed by the amount of water that dripped out of them:



The outer covering had split in multiple locations:







Yeah, I can see how all that water in there would freeze up and keep the cable from retracting!

So, what is this revision to the cables? Well, it looks like Nissan (and the aftermarket) decided it would be smart to put a sheath around the cable to prevent it from coming in contact with water and rusting up!



What a fine idea! As I mentioned, I bought two different brands of cables. One brand obviously wasn't as precise about putting the sheathing all the way to the end of the cable....



Still, that's a hell of a lot better than no sheathing at all!

The new cables came with actual brackets too, hooray! However, one of the brands had breaks in the outer covering, while the other had it fully sealed up for the length of the cable. That kind of bugs me, but what can I do about it now?



I sprayed a bunch of cable lube down either end to hopefully prevent it from locking up if and when it gets water inside it.



I then zip tied the rubber accordion to end of the cable to keep it from coming loose:



And with that, I put it all back together, and marveled at my cables being properly attached to the car once more:



I adjusted the handle so it clicks the recommended 10-11 times, and could immediately tell that the cables moved much more smoothly than the old ones. I'm pretty confident that this will solve my frozen e-brake problem, but I won't know for sure until another month or two goes by. Thanks for all of the help with this one, I can't believe I overlooked my cables for so long. Lesson learned: if you have problems with a frozen e-brake in the winter, detach the cables from the calipers and let them hang down. If water comes out, it's time to replace your cables!

 

That is some mighty fine documentation you've done there. Great job!

 

 

According to my Chilton manual, 1995-2003 cars with the hand lever should travel 10-11 clicks. 2002 models with the foot pedal should travel 4-5 clicks. Adjust the 10mm nut at the base of your e-brake handle until it travels 10-11 clicks. If you adjust it properly and there's still slack, you'll need to dig into the system and investigate. Does your e-brake work now if you pull up all the way?

 

not at all. When you lift the E-brake lever, look under it in the slot where it was resting, like through the rubber shrouding or w/e the hell its called. Attached to the underside of the e-brake lever is the bolt you have to adjust, you dont have to do anything at all to reach it other than raise the ebrake lever up. All you need is a 1/4 or 3/8 10mm socket, wrench, and an extension.