How to tighten/adjust Ibiza handbrake?
- Thread starter Fortis
- Start date
I'm not trying to nit pick here, but having a handbrake that is not working as you need it to, can end up being more than getting the cables adjusted, in my world, I always look at finding out the root cause of this and not just taking the easy "sticking plaster" approach as that only covers up for a short time, what the real problem is.
So, your best plan would be to hand that car into somewhere that is competent to carry out a full brake service, on both front and rear brakes as it sounds like that car has never had that work done in its life and main dealership workshops view that as additional work, so just give the brakes a quick look on the passing while checking items/areas.
So, your best plan would be to hand that car into somewhere that is competent to carry out a full brake service, on both front and rear brakes as it sounds like that car has never had that work done in its life and main dealership workshops view that as additional work, so just give the brakes a quick look on the passing while checking items/areas.
Just needed tightening. It wasn’t holding right on one side of the car but it was a quick fix
Oh yeh I’m agreeing, he did a full brake service too and a bit more for me too like fluid ect.... just mentioning he tightened my hand brake
After the initial 3 years from new period, replacing brake fluid every other year is a good plan and in line with what VW Group recommend.
Edit:- and yes the rear brakes have auto adjust with rear drum brakes, which play up after a while of no servicing, and the rear disc brakes also have auto adjustment on the hand brake.
Edit:- and yes the rear brakes have auto adjust with rear drum brakes, which play up after a while of no servicing, and the rear disc brakes also have auto adjustment on the hand brake.
i wasnt aware of that. will have to get a bottle as soon as i remember where i misplaced my front pads and discs
Hmmm? I'm just hoping your chap knows what he's doing, If he's a proper workshop then he should so you're probably "sorted". However it's worth knowing that most cars now-a-days have self adjusting brakes. The fronts are pretty much always discs and are very simple in that the piston in each caliper just follows the pads as they wear so it (the piston) slowly protrudes further out of it's cylinder as the pads wear (probably the only indication you get of this is that the fluid reservoir level drops slowly as the pads wear - unless you want to take the wheels off and really get your hands dirty. Rear brakes, which may be drums or discs depending on the manufacturer's specification, are a bit different in that they nearly always include dedicated self adjusting mechanisms. We could spend a lot of time discussing these and what goes wrong with them but suffice it to say they tend to seize up. Often the result of this is that the pedal develops somewhat longer travel but often it's the handbrake operation which people notice most. It becomes less effective and pulls up further - hence people think the cable/s need adjusting. In practice what has actually happened is that the adjuster has seized and the clearance between the lining/pad and drum/disc is increasing because the adjuster is no longer taking up the wear. Ok, the uninitiated will tighten up the handbrake cable which temporarily takes up the slack but now the handbrake mechanism is no longer returning fully when the lever is released (because you tightened the cable) so the "ratcheting" mechanism of the self adjuster can not "reset" to the next "click" so you've just disabled your self adjusting mechanism by overtightening the handbrake cable. You can carry on doing this for a while, tightening the cable more and more as the friction material wears away but because the mechanical advantage of the levering mechanism is being reduced all the time the effectiveness of the handbrake becomes poorer and poorer. You're on a looser if you continue doing this.
Unless your cables are in poor condition and require to be changed the cable adjustment will seldom require any attention. Most of the time what you need to do is sort out the problem with the adjusters and check that the handbrake levers are returning fully to their resting position when the handbrake is fully released. In my experience with drum brakes you can often dismantle the self adjusters and clean and lubricate them - not always though as the ratchet teeth are sometimes corroded/damaged but you can buy new adjusters at reasonable cost from factors or on ebay (dealers are often on the expensive side). Seized calipers can also be stripped and overhauled but are more difficult to deal with and some parts are hard to come by. You may well find that there is severe internal corrosion (particularly of the piston) and it gets hardly worth while then. Because of this problem remanufactured calipers are stocked by most factors and are, I find, often the best and safest solution.
I've just replaced a front caliper on my daughter in law's Jazz which was semi-seized due to corrosion of the piston. It was not retracting and dragging enough to make the pads smoke slightly! - I'll try to upload a picture of it taken after I had burnished it with some fine wet and dry. People are mentioning in this thread that brake fluid needs to be changed regularly (ideally every 2 years, maybe 3 if you're lazy) this is because brake fluid (unless it's the silicon type) is hygroscopic (it absorbs water) This has the dangerous downside that if the fluid gets hot enough to boil the absorbed water it will turn to steam. Steam is a gas, brake fluid is a liquid. Gasses are compressible liquids are not (within certain parameters) A gas, be it air or steam, in your braking system means NO BRAKES. Oooops! But a side of this that people don't often think about too much is that old brake fluid containing some water, as it will, promotes rust in your brake hydraulics. Wheel cylinders, Calipers, Master cylinder, and (very expensively) the ABS unit. I already know that the jazz has rather "iffy" rear discs with heavily worn pads so she's going to let me have the car to renew these parts. Having seen how bad that front caliper was I'm expecting problems winding back the rear calipers and, if I have time I'll be popping the other front caliper piston out to check it too. I won't be surprised, although I'm hoping for the best, if I end up with calipers all round. By the way I'll be doing a complete system flush with clean fluid.
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