Rear Brake Shoes

[jp_haus]

Hey everyone,

I've noticed some trouble out of the handbrake on my newly purchased 07 3.0si lately. It doesn't completely hold when parked on a hill and after about the 4th click, it has a significant section where it doesn't catch at all then finally it'll catch one last time at the very top (which does hold the car).

Worn down teeth
I went in to investigate and found the middle section of teeth on my handbrake are in fact worn away. Based on what I've read on here swapping that mechanism out is A) not a simple job and B) somewhat difficult to find a quality replacement part for.

Handbrake adjustment
I decided maybe tightening the cables was the solution since in reality, the 4th click on the handbrake should be fine to hold it. I went through that procedure a couple of times trying to get it just right and saw no real effect. The guide I followed said to tighten it down to where you can't spin the wheel at all, then back it off 7-8 turns. I assumed that may be too loose for my situation so I took the advice of a youtube video that said back it off just until you don't feel it drag. This would give me the tightest possible tension on the cables while still allowing the wheel to move freely from what I understand. Please correct my thinking if needed here.

Brake shoes / rear pads
Now to get to the main point of this post- I'm wondering if swapping out the brake shoes could help things. I can take the rotors off today and inspect them but I'm not sure what to look for outside of them being cracked, obviously worn down, etc. I didn't find a concrete MM thickness to look for on here or Google. Someone claimed 5mm is the standard for a band-new shoe? Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be carried at the local parts store so the Z will remain on jack stands to wait on shipping if you all believe this is a potential solution. I was about due for rear pads as well. They weren't squeaking yet and no indicator from the sensor but worn enough to go ahead and tackle. Unsure if that could play into this at all. I've begun swapping those in but holding off putting it back together until I decide if brake shoes are worthwhile.

 

[jp_haus]

Update:

Upon inspection, the brake shoes look to have a good amount of life left in them. They don't look perfect, but not seeing anything that would be hindering them from holding the car in place. Cleaned the area, scuffed up the surface of the shoes a bit, and put things back together.

 

[Street]

I’ve always known the z4 handbrake to be typically poor to the extent I park in gear by habit now. In the odd zed however it’s been spot on so possible to get right!

Before adjusting I normally drive around for a bit with the handbrake partially on. The logic being it helps seat them and take a layer of crud off the surface touch points.

Fully agree with your method. Tighten then back off little by little. Just to check you are engaging the service spring under the hand brake when doing this right?

My only other suggestion is to keep an eye on the pivot pins that the brake shoes are connecting to the brake shield. The brake shield rusts and those pins eventually pull through meaning the shoes have poor leverage.

On the handbrake teeth; you can extract the handbrake from above. You’ll need to gently bend the tunnel metal in a few places to get your socket down. After that a few bolts and it’s out.
The metal tunnel is hidden and the small bend won’t interfere with the strength etc. however if thats not acceptable for you the otherway is from underneath. You’ve got to remove the exhaust, heat shields and the complete handbrake unit.

There are good units out there. It’s also possible to recut the teeth using a grinder or dremel. HTH

 

[jp_haus]

Yep, I always park in gear too. No reason not to the way I see it. I could use some input on how tight to leave the adjustment honestly. The video I saw said loosen til you feel no drag but it’s not like the wheel will spin completely freely even if it’s backed all the way off. There’s always some level of drag to it.

Yes, I engaged that hook for the handbrake in the interior. It was a bit hard to do but I got it. What’s that do exactly? I’ve seen some saying it’s not necessary but that’s the way to do it by the book so I wanted to go with what was deemed official.

Interesting you bring up the idea to dremel new teeth. I briefly had this thought but was unsure if the mechanism would “click into” a deeper valley that was fabricated if you get what I mean. Does it have enough movement in it to fall into a deeper, fresh one?

 

[Rockhopper]

For my last MOT i had new disks, shoes and fitting kit. The tester said it was one of the best manual handbrakes he'd tested! I've never used it since. The handbrake shoes should never really wear out unless its been incorrectly adjusted and its dragging a bit. Bits of my old shoes had started to fall apart which is more common.

 

[Mr Tidy]

My handbrake sticks if I leave it on for any length of time so I always park in gear to avoid that horrible clunk when it releases as I drive away.

I've put up with it because it does work fine in normal driving use like at traffic lights, etc. I'll need new rear brakes soon so I'll get it sorted then.

 

[Rockhopper]

I should add that my car is automatic.

 

[x-driver]

You should see what a nightmare that handbrake is on a heavy e39 5 series. Those more or less very same brake pads have to hold a few 100kg more. It's a totally undersized system. A few months ago I bought new Brembo pads as the previous set started to fall apart. I mounted them and spend a lot of time trying to adjust them. They wouldn't firmly hold the car no matter what I did. I was told then that only OEM pads would do the job (there is your advice). Well, next time...
I had the bowden cables replaced a few years ago on that car, so it shouldn't be a problem there.

 

[jp_haus]

Figured I'd circle back to this. Adjusting the e-brake tension helped a bit but still doesn't hold on more aggressive hill angles. I feel confident in it enough to park in the driveway and leave it in gear but would really like for the brake to hold on its own. I think I'll look into dremeling fresh teeth into the midsection where they have been worn down. My only question about this is will the lever catch on these new teeth I create if they are "pockets" rather than "studs"? I'm not familiar with how exactly the handbrake operates to catch where it needs to. I'm wondering if it possibly only has so much movement or length to it so if I make spots for it to catch it may just glide over them. I made a very rough sketch lol to show what I mean.