Today's top tip - rubbish handbrake

[S-Express]

Rear disks, pads and handbrake cables in good condition and still having to use 2 hands to get handbrake to stick on?

I failed my MOT on handbrake yesterday so took the car back to work, got it on the ramps, cleaned off the pads, de rusted the discs, took slack out of handbrake cable etc and still the handbrake was rubbish. (All the above parts including calipers have only done 3000 miles since new).
Went back to MOT guy for help and he gave me the following tip - not only did it allow me to pass my MOT it gave me a pretty good handbrake (better than I've ever experienced on any Audi 80 before anyway!)

Solution is simple:
1) slacken the handbrake cables right off (using adjustable threaded bar above prop)
2) pump the foot brake HARD and repeatedly
3) take up slack in handbrake cable until you get your hand brake to preffered no of clicks

That's it - I was sceptical at first, but it really works!

[mcandmar]

Thats an interesting way of doing it, will give it a try next time.

I found the most common problem is the self adjustment gets sticky and dosent compensate for pad wear. Usually if you look at the lever on the calliper it isnt fully released. The way i always do it is to fully push them against there stops, usually they need a gentle tap with a hammer to get them all the way off. Then pump the pedal to push the piston out fully, and while holding the pedal in pull the handbrake lever up a few times. Double check the levers are returning fully, then adjust the cable so it just start to lift the levers off there stops. The key is to make sure each mechanism fully releases and there is no slack inside the calliper mechanism before adjusting the cable. If the levers are slightly off there stop you are losing part of the range of movement from the cam mechanism. I've had to do the same on A6s and TTs, there all seem to suffer from the same issue.

If the handbrake mechanism on the calliper is sticky and wont fully return then you will have to dismantle it to clean/grease the cam mechanism. I hate having to do that, its not that difficult a job just fiddly trying to compress the spring to remove the circlip. A large socket/vice/and patience is all you need.

[bluequattro]

My MOT bloke doesn t test brakes on my quattros, just asks me if they work-course I say yes, n he says OK!
Saves his time on road test and I get a pass!