V50 Brakes : V50 Handbrake / Parking brake

[IainG]

Hi

V50 2.0D manual 2005

Just had an issue with the Handbrake lever suddenly coming up as if a cable had broken, then OK again.

Bit of history.

The rear brake callipers and pads on these cars are a combined unit where the handbrake acts on the same pads via a cable, and a lever on the back of each calliper, same as Ford & Mazda(Same similar to photo)

Checking brakes prior to MOT
Rear pads a bit low so decided to change them,
Genuine pads purchased.
Small lip ground off each side of disc on each side. Disc well within thickness, (Pads and discs both changed last time)
Piston on each rear calliper wound back in with proper tool.(one was a bit tight to start with, but went in OK)
New pads fitted
Slider pins removed and cleaned, rubber bushes cleaned, greased and tested, callipers slide freely by hand.
Foot brake pumped gently a few times and pedal came back as normal.
Hand brake checked and worked fine.
Wheels back on and tested on the road, All fine
Been taking the braking easy to allow the new pads to bed in.
Brakes have been fine for a month. Handbrake also fine parking on steep drive every day.
Also have tested the handbrake whilst driving. The rear of the car reacts evenly and the brake seems to pull evenly
MOT on Tuesday and a straight pass. All brakes working well and balanced.
Yesterday drove a few miles, foot brake and handbrake working perfectly,
Parked up and pulled the handbrake on. The handbrake lever came all the way up as if a cable had come off and the foot brake moved down to towards the floor at the same time.
Released the handbrake and reapplied, all back to normal. Foot brake pressure and position back to normal.
All back to normal on the drive home.
Popped in to the MOT garage to see if they had come across this before and hadn't.
Went home and removed rear wheels and checked all the cables for the hand brake and the rear callipers for any issues, checked all the linkages and cable connections to see if a cable could actually come off and then catch on again, can't happen.
Everything seemed perfect.

All I can think is that something could have stuck in the self adjuster mechanism on one if the rear callipers,(from when I wound them back in to change the pads) still allowing everything to work normally.
During the MOT brake testing I would imagine the brake pedal and handbrake would have been operated harder than I had been doing since the pad change so could have freed something?
I then drove the next day and think the self adjuster could have suddenly moved and everything then reset again.
It is the only explanation I can think of.
Any other thoughts / ideas??
I will obviously be cautious for a while and if it happens again will investigate further.
Will get the MOT centre to retest the brakes again just to double check.


Iain

[IainG]

Hi

77 "reads" and no other thoughts !?

It has however been fine since so I do think it could have only been a stuck adjuster.

Iain

[BJB]

I had the same problem last year, automatically bought another caliper, as I suspected an internal problem with the mechanism. Best to work the handbrake until it does it again, and find the one that the lever swings right against the caliper.
Bought a genuine reconditioned ATE unit (Exchange) rather than cheaper new unknown..

[big yinn]

I had this happen on mine. As far I can tell there is something in the handbrake mechanism in the caliper that doesn't always catch. Its not really something I could fix, so ended up replacing the caliper and its been fine since.
I did notice that the piston was quite stiff, so perhaps that had put additional strain on the handbrake mechanism in the caliper and caused it to fail?

[IainG]

Hi
Thanks both for the replies.

All still working well at the moment, however if it does happen again I will have a look under and see which lever is pulled over and then replace that caliper.

Iain