Hand brake woes

[gazzap]

Hi all

I'm 2 months into ownership of my first Chimaera (95, 4,0 HC) and have thoroughly enjoyed trouble free motoring for this time, until ....

Friday night, parents down for a visit - chance to show off the new car, couple of test drives round the country lanes - fantastic stuff, all impressed. I parked the car on the drive and we all went inside the house. About an hour later there was an almighty bang, I knew what had happened without looking, but sure enough the car had rolled down the drive and come to rest half way into the garage (unfortunately, the door was closed at the time).

The good news (if there is any) is the car has got away with 2 smallish areas (about 2inch square) where the paint has been chipped off - no other damage. The garage door is only 7 ft wide, so I'm impressed with the way the car managed to hit dead centre from a good 15 ft run up. The bad news is the garage door looks pretty much knackered.

So .... forgot to leave the car in gear and the hand brake wasn't strong enough to hold the car as the brakes cooled down. I gather I'm not the first person this has happened to? Do they all do this?

I'm coming to terms with what's happened now .... but it helps to talk about it.

Cheers, Gary

[beano1197]

They all do that, Sir.

[Have suffered this same *unique TVR feature* myself, with miraculously no damage, except to my blood pressure - slopes of Lyme Regis, no less, and you can imagine the possibilities!]

[Hut49]

I need to hit that 3rd click if the handbrake is going to have any effect and that means a big tug and possible spinal injuries. So I've got used to leaving it in gear but sometime I'll forget.

The drive at our house slopes away from the house towards the road - nothing too major, just gentle. A friend of mine comes over to lunch with his ferrari. Twenty minutes later the door bell rings and there's this guy asking if anyone owns the red ferrari that's blocking the road! Unbelievable the car had rolled down the drive, between the substantial gate posts and rolled out to stop across the middle of the road! Not one scratch, just a rather embarrassed ferrari owner.

So the morale of this story is that it's not just tvrs whose h'brakes don't work!

Hutch

[Don]

Yes they do all do that, sir.

However - you can do something about it - but its expensive! Once you have hit the limit of adjustment you need to have a NEW handbrake cable installed. We had this done and the handbrake is now 100% as good as the one on my Porsche (i.e. properly effective).

Bad news is its a pig of a job because the cable runs through the middle of the car. You have to dissassemble hald the blasted car to get to it.

The job was pricey but worth it IMO as I no no longer have to worry about securing the car...although on a hill I still leave it in gear as a matter of course....

[wolosp]

quote:
They all do that, Sir.

I parked my car in a company car park, and was talking to a colleague for a few minutes when I noticed the car begin to move! After that, I always stick the thing in gear.

[shpub]

Push on foot brake before applying handbrake and the grip fairies will sprinkle magic dust and the handbrake will hold better.

If the pads are on their way out, the handbrake often doesn't work too well.

Most owners leave in gear just in case.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[s_willy]

I parked my first Chim on a slight slope, upto the third notch. Didn't stop it rolling down the slight hill, into, up and over a hedge ending upside down. Total right off, 6 weeks of nail biting as the insurance sorted it out.

Now always in gear, wheels into the kerb.

[gazzap]

Will be much more diligent with the parking procedure in future.

Similar thing happened to my mate in his 306XSi (or so he rekons). First time, his car rolled across a T juntion onto the London Rd, but he noticed as the car was coming to meet him in the sarnie shop and stopped it, mid-crossing. Second time it rolled down his street and hit a brick wall. Oh, how we all laughed at the time! His revenge will be sweet.

[GreenV8S]

quote:
Yes they do all do that, sir.

However - you can do something about it - but its expensive! Once you have hit the limit of adjustment you need to have a NEW handbrake cable installed. We had this done and the handbrake is now 100% as good as the one on my Porsche (i.e. properly effective).

The gotcha here is that there are two handbrake adjusters. The caliper has a ratchet which takes up wear in the pads. Sometimes they seize or get clogged up with brake dust, so it's worth giving them a clean when the pads come out. Also, there's a cable adjuster in the middle of the car that takes up stretch in the cable. Problem comes when you use the cable adjuster to take up pad wear. The ratchet needs a certain amount of slack to work, and if you keep tightening the cable it doesn't get it, and doesn't work. So you end up tightening the cable adjuster more and more, eventually the mechanism in the caliper runs out of travel and your handbrake basically stops working. This also encourages the caliper to sieze. The answer is make sure the caliper is properly lubed and leave plenty of slack in the cable for the calipers to adjust properly, it needs a good three or four clicks.

If it's set up correctly they should work fine, but they will feel a lot heavier than a normal car since the seating position gives you far less leverage. It helps to get them on that last click if you hold the footbrake on firmly, and I would suggest you leave it in gear as a matter of course (I do this in all cars, that handbrake cable will snap sooner or later). Just remember to take it out of gear before you start it. I recommend using a high gear to ensure the car doesn't move off on the starter if you do forget.

Cheers,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

[joospeed]

quote:

quote:
Yes they do all do that, sir.

However - you can do something about it - but its expensive! Once you have hit the limit of adjustment you need to have a NEW handbrake cable installed. We had this done and the handbrake is now 100% as good as the one on my Porsche (i.e. properly effective).

The gotcha here is that there are two handbrake adjusters. The caliper has a ratchet which takes up wear in the pads. Sometimes they seize or get clogged up with brake dust, so it's worth giving them a clean when the pads come out. Also, there's a cable adjuster in the middle of the car that takes up stretch in the cable. Problem comes when you use the cable adjuster to take up pad wear. The ratchet needs a certain amount of slack to work, and if you keep tightening the cable it doesn't get it, and doesn't work. So you end up tightening the cable adjuster more and more, eventually the mechanism in the caliper runs out of travel and your handbrake basically stops working. This also encourages the caliper to sieze. The answer is make sure the caliper is properly lubed and leave plenty of slack in the cable for the calipers to adjust properly, it needs a good three or four clicks.

If it's set up correctly they should work fine, but they will feel a lot heavier than a normal car since the seating position gives you far less leverage. It helps to get them on that last click if you hold the footbrake on firmly, and I would suggest you leave it in gear as a matter of course (I do this in all cars, that handbrake cable will snap sooner or later). Just remember to take it out of gear before you start it. I recommend using a high gear to ensure the car doesn't move off on the starter if you do forget.

Cheers,
Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)

all very true. I remember bringing this to the attention of tvrcc guys when we were back in the land of domino (anyone remember that?) .. it's VITAL that at service time the cable adjuster is wound off to release the tension, then the caliper adjusters will be able to do their stuff. incidently I have never had to change a handbrake cable because it's stretched, I strongly suspect this one hadn't been adjusted correctly and fitting the new cable meant they adjusted from square one and got it right this time (only guessing). if your handbrake is tight onto three clicks it IS too tight. It WILL work much better if it's slackened off onto four clicks so you can feel the free play before the handbrake lever starts to move the cable. griff / chim / tuscan / tamora handbrakes are excellent if adjusted correctly, if they are anything like marginal make sure it gets adjsuted correctly at the next service, ps send your dealer the bill for the garage door ..!! teehee.

[GreenV8S]

quote:
all very true. I remember bringing this to the attention of tvrcc guys when we were back in the land of domino (anyone remember that?)

Remember it well, those were the days eh? JU's daily mail shots, jumpers for goalposts, ...

I'm pretty sure it was Joolz who explained this in the first place. In fact if you look back far enough I'm pretty sure you'll find most of the good tech tips here lead back to Joolz.

[joospeed]

quote:

quote:
all very true. I remember bringing this to the attention of tvrcc guys when we were back in the land of domino (anyone remember that?)

Remember it well, those were the days eh? JU's daily mail shots, jumpers for goalposts, ...



stop already, you'll have me crying for the old days soon ...!!

[lateconvert]

I only ever leave the car in gear now and will not touch the handbrake since the handbrake has stuck on twice now, once outside a pub where I had to leave it until the next day and luckily when I returned after lots of heaving etc it finally flew off, and once outside my house (blocking-in my other car so I couldn't move it for 2 days) when nothing I did could get it off (eventually the button disappeared inside the handle). Bear in mind the car cannot be pushed or towed in this state so Mole Valley had to visit me and completely dismantle the central console to release it so they could get it back to them to sort.
I now have a mental picture of it happening in the middle of a major roundabout and not even being able to push the car into a less embarassing spot so as I said I won't touch it now (makes steep hill starts an art).

[bjwoods]

My griff nearly took out 2 other TVR's at Hawthorns once. Parked in their customer parking area on a slope, after quite a hard drive there (brakes hot).

15 minutes later in the showroom, spot it starting to roll ever so slowly. Jonathan and myself just make it, catching it from hitting a cerbera and a tuscan with about 6 inches to spare.

So brakes had cooled down a bit, handbrake slightly less effective. 3 notches, plus in gear for me now.

Very close to major embarrasment.

My mum took out her garage door with a metro a couple of weeks later, handbrake on slope :-)

B

>> Edited by bjwoods on Wednesday 25th September 23:11