Handbrake cable adjustment problem on 1.9Td

[steviewonder7]

Hi Folks,

Looking for a bit of advice here,if you would please.
When the xantia failed its m.o.t one of the things it failed on was the offside(drivers side) handbrake not pulling up enough.I new this was very near the end of its limit so I purchased a new right hand side (drivers side) handbrake cable from GSF and asked the same garage who carried out the m.o.t to fit it.
The garage did this job for me and the car passed it test.I noticed the other day after removing the offside wheel (I was going to renew the drop link which the garage somehow managed to miss) that the brake disc was not at all being held tight by the caliper with the hand brake on....which was obviously a little strange.I therefore re-adjusted the new handbrake cable as much as I could with adjustment afforded me at the end where it is connected to the caliper.......but... upon applying the handbrake several times,it would not pull up tight on the disc(via the caliper) and stop it rotating.To this day it still does not pull up enough.

Question....surely the new handbrake cable couldn't have stretched that much already???

Is there something I may have missed? I didn't get a chance to look at the handbrake end where the other end of the cable is connected.
Would it have been best to fit a new nearside handbrake cable at the same time knowing that they were probably new and not stretched to any degree and therefore probably going to stretch at the same rate?
I am wondering if the garage has bodged this job somehow and there bodge has come undone.

Could the garage have damaged the caliper in some way by over doing the caliper internal mechanism,and if so is there a way to check this.

Look forward to your reply's Steve

[CitroJim]

Hi Steve,

The chances of damage to the caliper are slim. The biggest risk of damage comes if someone attempts to retract the caliper pistons not realising they have to wind them back. Doing it in the "conventional" way will break the helical thread mechanism the handbrake auto adjustment works on. It is easy enough to check, remove the pads, wind back the pistons, replace the pads. Operate the footbrake and check that the handbrake lever on the caliper does not need to be moved very far to apply the handbrake.

I definitely recommend both handbrake cables are relpaced at the same time. Although the job is easy enough (actually easier than it looks ) you don't want to do the job twice if you can help it.

There are two things the garage may have failed to do. One was to ensure both handbrake cables were equally adjusted so that the handbrake compensator remains in the middle of its travel and secondly, to ensure the nipple of the new cable was properly attached to the compensator. It may have partially pulled out of the compensator. Both these errors will result in the compensator sitting at the extreme end of its travel one way or another and thus exerting a unequal pull on each caliper.

Firstly, I'd release all adjustment from both calipers and then adjust both cables so that with the handbrake right off, the caliper end nipple is just touching the edge of the caliper operating lever. Pull the handbrake on and if all is well it should come up about three clicks and pull the brakes on equally. You can tell by looking at the angles of the caliper handbrake lever in the off and on position; both sides should be substantially equal and at say two click up on the handbrake lever it should take equal force to move each front wheel.

If all this fails, you are going to have to dive under (car well supported please!) and look at the compensator and check both cable nipples are properly seated in the compensator. The BoL actually covers this well but essentially, the compensator lurks under the exhaust shield. Follow the cables until they disappear into the heat shield and the compensator is about 6 inches further on. Just unclip the heatshield and hold it away with a lump of wood to gain access. You have to do the compensator by feel. The nipples flick out the sides of the compensator and are replaced by poking the outer cable into the compensator as far as it will go (it is easy not to push it far enough) and then pushing and pulling the inner until it drops home. You can tell it is home then by feeling it nicely seated in the compenastor with your fingers. It's hard to explain in words but you know when it's right by feel and the fact that however hard you pull on the cable inner, it won't budge. The other way to be sure the inners are properly home in the compensator is that with the handbrake right off, you'll use about half to three quarters of the available adjustment on both sides to achieve the point where the nipple is just touching the caliper handbrake operating lever.

Phew. That was a long ramble. I hope it makes some sense Steve...

[jeremy]

To adjust the handbrake - start engine and get to normal height. Apply footbrake really hard and operate the handbrake lever vigorously. Now release footbrak and apply handbrake. Any different?

Gives you something to do at traffic lights!

Make sure the cables are adjusted in accordance with the manufacturers instructions. If they are too tight the adjusting mechanism may not operate properly.

The mechanism doesn't seem to work as well when the pads are nearly worn out. (well my BX doesn't)

[steviewonder7]

Thanks Jim for spending the time answering my handbrake woe's.I did understand what you were saying and will get the car up on ramps in the next couple of days and give the handbrake system a good going over..especially now I'm better armed.I was hoping that it was unlikely that there would be damage to the caliper.I put in fresh brake pads(both sides of course) about a month prior to the m.o.t so I assume the garage wouldn't need to mess around with said caliper too much (you never know though).

Jeremy...I'll give that idea you proposed a go and see what occurrs

Thanks again Steve.