parking brake barely holds my car ?

[dorifuto.boi]

hey guys. this is kinda worrying me.

i pull my hand brake almost all the way up and my car is still sliding down my driveway. so i click it one more notch and then the car stops rolling (but the brake handle is like allllll the way up) let me know if yuu need a picture or something

this isn't right is it ? btw i have rear disk brakes.

any advice would be much appreciated. should i be this worried ?

thanks a lot,
d

[fenixus]

hey man. fix is very simple probably. i did it last year.
you would need to remove both rear wheels (car on jack stands with chocks securing front wheels from moving!!).

you must have drum-in-disc in rear, so discs are for braking while driving and small drums are for parking brake only.
I have normal (ugly) drums in rear though.
at least on my drums there is a hole (covered by a rubber grommet) which after removal gives access to the star wheel.

All i needed to do was use two flat screwdrivers, one for prying up a small metal arm (you will see it with strong flashlight) and the other one to turn the star wheel in order to tighten the brake shoe. the goal is to make the wheel turn snug (with brake shoe a little touching it). once you do that correctly you will notice shorter parking brake travel (5-8 clicks max) before this brake holds the car in full stop (e.g. in driveway).

hope it helps, not sure if your brakes (drum-in-disc or whatever it's called) are built the same way as regular drums per the parking brake component.

[RichieRichJP]

woah woah woah hold your horses!
The first and easiest thing to try is the bolt that's attached to the ebrake handle. You have to look inside the center console on the left side of the handle. Move the left side of the plastic and you should see a 10mm? nut down in there. Try tinkering with it first before doing anything else.

[dorifuto.boi]

lol ok -.-;;
what does that bolt do ? adjust the e brake cable ?

[RichieRichJP]

yes

[fenixus]

hmmm ... thing is that this nut shouldn't be touched BEFORE adjusting the star wheel in drums (for parking brake), at least in regular drums ... that's what i've been told.

choice is yours of course.

[Mike Gerber]

Fenixus, he has rear disc brakes:

"this isn't right is it ? btw i have rear disk brakes."

I too would adjust the e-brake handle tension first. Many of our cars use a double nut set-up to adjust and lock the setting in. The shoes wear a bit over time and the cable also stretches out over time. I remember reading that normal tension on the handle allows for 4-7 clicks when pulling up on the handle, but I'm not absolutely positive that all years are the same, so check a manual.

Mike

[dorifuto.boi]

thanks guys.
apparently the recommended number of clicks is 3-6. i had to give it 11 clicks before it held the car.

got it adjusted with the two nuts and now it takes 6 clicks to hold the car. thanks guys =]]

[fenixus]

sorry then. i have no idea how parking brake works with rear discs. i thought there is still a small drum built into it (just for parking brake). my bad

[dorifuto.boi]

its cool bro no worries. thanks for yuur help anyways.

on rear disc brake cars, there are two ways that the parking brake works. one is that the parking brake pulls a screw which pushes a brake piston down. the other way is like you said, there is a mini drum brake in the hub of the rear disc brake and that mini drum brake serves as the parking brakes.

i THINK the camry has the mini drum brake setup so i think ur right. but i guess the first step is to adjust the cable like they said =]

[uibalnme]

Originally Posted by fenixus

sorry then. i have no idea how parking brake works with rear discs. i thought there is still a small drum built into it (just for parking brake). my bad

They work just the same as rear drums do. There is a star wheel, and they can be adjusted at the drum just like regular drums. However, with rear discs, the drum isn't used for braking. So, the easiest way to adjust them is inside the car at the brake handle.

I've done the rear disc swap, and I had to do both adjustment. I adjusted the parking brake at the drums, and then adjusted the cable tension at the brake handle to the 3 clicks I prefer.

[Mike Gerber]

"sorry then. i have no idea how parking brake works with rear discs. i thought there is still a small drum built into it (just for parking brake). my bad"

"i THINK the camry has the mini drum brake setup so i think ur right. but i guess the first step is to adjust the cable like they said =]"

You are both correct. Toyota uses a small drum inside their rear disc brakes for the emergency brake. It's built like a man's old style hat, with the brim being the main brake disc area and the top portion of the hat being a small drum brake. It has normal disc brake pads for the brake disc portion and small drum brake shoes for the e-brake portion inside the small drum. The e-brake cable works on the shoes in the small drum.

Mike

[RichieRichJP]

Make sure you don't over-tighten it also. This will cause the brakes to engage in the rear. You may not exactly notice it, but your pads could be making contact to the rotors as you drive and not clamp enough to notice a slow-down. Listen for it.

[fenixus]

this one should fairly easy to check. with rear of car on jack stands see if both rear wheels turn almost freely (they should be a little snug, not entirely free revolving).
if they cannot make one turn on their own then brakes are holding them down.

[dorifuto.boi]

ok thanks for all the help. i'll make sure that i didn't overtighten it.

also since we're on the topic of parking brakes, when im driving and i gently pull the ebrakes, i hear a clunk sound. for example my finger is always on the release button and if i pull up then let it down then pull it up then let it down, it'll clunk twice while im pulling it up. is this normal ? lol