weak e-brake - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Studious · 07-14-2003, 03:23 AM

is it just me or does the gen 3 have a really weak ebrake

Nick · 07-14-2003, 03:54 AM

pedal brake works fine, and i use it lots to play in winter

well that is until my mother borrowed my car to go get groceries last summer... pffft women

maybe its just worn or stretched cable, or even maybe just adjust it (centre console)

MalooMAN · 07-14-2003, 06:23 AM

the cable doesnt stretch. it just gets out of adjustment, your back drums (lucky ppl get Disks) shoes (Pads) get worn and it just needs a little adjustment. well that is what my auto tech teacher told me.

Nick · 07-14-2003, 06:24 AM

cables stretch

Gen3caMLos · 07-14-2003, 07:51 AM

You may need new shoes for your rear drums ( I'm assuming you have rear drums). I was noticing the same thing on my 93 LE, and I when I got all the brakes replace, I noticed the e-brake was a lot stronger, and there wasn't as much roll (if any) when I engaged it when I parked. My parking lot is on an incline.

My .02

Nick · 07-14-2003, 09:14 AM

the camrys with rear disc still use drum/shoes for the ebrake! well gen 3...

menaboy64 · 07-14-2003, 04:21 PM

On my gen 2 I just replaced all the brakes (front pads and rear shoes) and my ebrake is useless when before it barely engaged. Any suggestions? also if anyone tells me to adjust it then explain how on a gen 2, thanks

Nick · 07-14-2003, 10:09 PM

drive in reverse pretty fast, like 30kph and slam on the brakes, do that a couple times, its how you adjust rear shoes

i don't know about gen 2, but in gen 3 the adjustment for the cable is in the center console, undo the lock nut, adjust the nut to 5-7 clicks for ebrake engagement, tighten the lock nut

***Silver Streak*** · 07-14-2003, 11:09 PM

My ebrake sucks as well...if I lock the brake, put the car in reverse or drive, my car moves as if there is no ebrake. I just replaced my rear rotors and checked out the ebrake shoes but I wasn't really sure how much shoe there should be.

I thought for cars with rear disc brakes that they don't need to be adjusted, provided that you drive in reverse once in awhile.

Meisner · 07-14-2003, 11:29 PM

Actually, I just fixed this exact same problem on my gen 3 with rear drums. I got brand new drums and shoes (around 50K miles on the old shoes...about 100K miles on the drums)

The adjuster works when you put the e-brake on. Driving in reverse and hitting the foot brake doesn't do anything. What did change the adjustment was rolling about 10 mph and stopping fairly hard by using the e-brake only! I could hear the clicks of the adjuster. I kept doing this in forward and reverse until I couldn't hear any more clicking.

At this point, the lever still didn't really work, but the brakes felt great with the foot brake. So I pulled the center console and adjuster the cable. Now it works perfectly! I adjusted the cable so after 4 clicks, the car won't move at all. When the e-brake lever is down, the brakes are not on at all.

Steve

Studious · 07-15-2003, 02:47 AM

even when i tighten my ebrake i notice a difference in strength but it doesn't last long, in all the other cars i have driven they have really good ebrakes, just as good as mine when i do get it tightened!

kocho · 07-15-2003, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Meisner
Actually, I just fixed this exact same problem on my gen 3 with rear drums. I got brand new drums and shoes (around 50K miles on the old shoes...about 100K miles on the drums)

The adjuster works when you put the e-brake on. Driving in reverse and hitting the foot brake doesn't do anything. What did change the adjustment was rolling about 10 mph and stopping fairly hard by using the e-brake only! I could hear the clicks of the adjuster. I kept doing this in forward and reverse until I couldn't hear any more clicking.

At this point, the lever still didn't really work, but the brakes felt great with the foot brake. So I pulled the center console and adjuster the cable. Now it works perfectly! I adjusted the cable so after 4 clicks, the car won't move at all. When the e-brake lever is down, the brakes are not on at all.

Steve

Not sure if the g3 is the same as g4, but the e-brake on the v6 with disks in the rear is weaker than the one in i4 with drums.

Plus, I'm not sure how the adjuster would move on its own by just applying the brake pedal... It has no link that I can see. I think it needs to be adjusted manually, by taking the wheel off and poking in the opening with a screw driver (or a "tool")

I have the i4 and the parking brake was much stronger than it is now, after I updgraded to rear disk brakes. In both cases the cable and shoes are adjusted, so there is no slack - just the brake shoes on the drums are much bigger and operate on a wider diameter so they stop better. My brake lever feel is the same as before, but I the stopping power is less, so I need to pull harder to get the car to stop on an incline...

As for adjusting, there should be about 5 clicks of moderate pull on the brake lever, perhaps up to 8-10 at a full strength pull.

Nevertheless, the brake seems to be weak aither way, compared to other cars, where you can block the wheels easily while the car is in motion. It is very hard to block the rear wheels while in motion on the Camry using just the e-brake - almost impossible on dry road...

Studious · 07-17-2003, 01:54 PM

another thing i noticed i drove my friends g3 v6 with the ebrake on the floor(pedal) and it seemed naturally stronger than mine...

VVT-i Owns · 07-17-2003, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kocho

- he g3 is the same as g4, but the e-brake on the v6 with disks in just the brake shoes on the drums are much bigger and operate on a wider diameter so they stop better.

Thats basically the reason, discs brakes have a ebrake system that locks the rotor i think.

anyways just apply e-brake before putting tranny into park and its done its job.

arcasmachineracing · 07-17-2003, 09:03 PM

DOUBLE POSTER!

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I am just playing... just click edit... delete.