Dodgy handbreak

T

TommyGG

Member
I went to Halfords for my MOT and asked them to look at it. It has the following symptoms:

- When I pull it, it either doesn't go very high up and engages firmly, or very high up and doesn't engage which means the car rolls! (Dangerous!)
- Rarely, but every now and then the whole hand break sort of pops out. If I disengage it and push it down, it's fine again.

Halfords said they'd take a look, and they reported back to me that they adjusted it and it should be fine. It seemed to work better, but now a couple of weeks later it's doing it all again.

Anyone know the likely candidate? Wouldn't be surprised if the cable has never been replaced like some other cables in the car which I've replaced. Could it be a worn cable?
 
Mine has the same issue, it's a replacement cable job... I always used to roll backwards when on a steep hill no matter how hard I pulled the handbrake back... common fault apparently.
 
I'm sure it's the handbrake itself slipping out of it's mounting of sorts.

Mine has done it once or twice which I'll have a look at when I get a chance.
 
Mine does this too.

I asked my Indy to have a look when it was in for something else and he basically said its a bitch of a job and to leave it until it gets any worse unless i really wanted to fork out for it!

Has anybody else had it sorted?
 
Mine has always had the issue where i have to double pull it to fully lock it.. first pull click fine but it rolls, second time i pull up it locks the car, and no rolling... even took it to the dealer under the warranty and they said they have adjusted it but it still does it!!
 
I also have it.

A couple of times i've gone to pull it up and almost reached the roof! Felt like something had broken, but when I released and re-engaged it, it was fine.

Very odd. A lot of older bmw's seem to have the same problem.
 
I get this occasionally too. Pull up and it feels like it's not connected to anything. Next time it'll be fine. Not frequent, but a little scary when it happens.

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk
 
Mine feels bit loose too, it has an auto box so putting it in P helps but I was just wondering, is that something I can adjust?
Perhaps loose cable?
I have the centre console out t the moment and had a look but I can't see any adjustment nuts like in other BMWs I had in the past.
How can you tighten it?
 
The hand brake has a self-adjuster below the lever in place of the traditional manual adjustment anchors. One does the adjustment at the rear wheels after taking the self adjuster out of play. Sounds like the adjuster's grip on the cable is marginal. I'm guessing the cable has been worn in this area more than the adjuster getting weaker in it's grip, but that is a possibility as well.

Unfortunately, proper access is from below and there's all manner of stuff in the way that needs to be removed first. Dealing with the quirks until it's really broken is one approach, but when it goes you can only park on level ground. Depending on where you are, may not be that easy to find. Carry a wheel chock in the boot?
 
I casually mentioned it to my garage when the car went in for service. Told them the handbrake was lifting higher than I would wish. Collected the car later that day and hey presto all tightened up and as I would want it to be. No drama, no teeth sucking or bull s**t science, just plain old "job done". No separate charge on the bill either. Can't be that difficult surely?
 
You can adjust the handbrake piece of pi55 but thats not the issue. If you handle is high all the time adjust it. You take a wheel bolt out and allign it with the adjuster and turn it with a screwdriver.
If your handbrake handle shoots up when applied every now and again like it isn't connected to anything then thats a different issue which is described in the first post.
 
You can adjust the handbrake piece of pi55 but thats not the issue. If you handle is high all the time adjust it. You take a wheel bolt out and allign it with the adjuster and turn it with a screwdriver.
If your handbrake handle shoots up when applied every now and again like it isn't connected to anything then thats a different issue which is described in the first post.
 
Luke the spark said:
you could park in gear, wouldn't that work?
Click to expand...
Sure, to a point. I never use the hand brake on level or slightly inclined surfaces. But on a real hill, even if the car doesn't roll off in gear immediately, it may just take a slight nudge to get it moving, perhaps just a passing lorry would even do it. I'd never park on a hill without the hand brake unless the tyre was hard up against a kerb or other obstruction.
 
I have exactly the same handbrake problem.

I've just taken mine into an independent BMW specialist (trusted and used for a while now) and he had diagnosed the handbrake ratchet wheel as worn. This is a common fault apparently.

If you lift up the trim and look down into the centre console void (just behind the handbrake) you can see the ratchet wheel. Two of the teeth have worn on mine and this is where the fault is.

A new handbrake ratchet is £85 from BMW. Centre console trim has to come out for fitting so it's a fair bit of labour to fit too, apparently.

Hope this helps, I'm waiting for repair too so in the same boat!


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Just got my break discs all replaced, rear discs very worn/rusted on the inside of the disc where the handbrake makes contact. HB seems miles better now but will report back in a week or so when I've had more opportunity to test it.
 
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