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Handbrake Miracle question.

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  • 07-02-2012 9:08pm
    #1
    Cian92
    Registered Users Posts: 827 ✭✭✭


    A few days ago my handbrake broke, could be pulled up the full way easily and wouldn't hold the car. Anyway I ended up driving around with it broken for awhile untill yesterday, by mistake I drove a mile with the broken handbrake up.

    I noticed it was up, put it down, and kept driving. When I got home, the handbrake was miracously fixed! What happened? Did something maybe snap into place? It seems as good as new :D I suppose I should probably still get it checked out.


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    #2
    colm_mcm
    Registered Users Posts: 73,388 ✭✭✭✭colm_mcm


    What car is it?


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    #3
    Plug
    Registered Users Posts: 9,248 ✭✭✭Plug


    What car, year etc?


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    #4
    SilverBell
    Registered Users Posts: 431 ✭✭SilverBell


    Cian92 wrote: »
    A few days ago my handbrake broke, could be pulled up the full way easily and wouldn't hold the car. Anyway I ended up driving around with it broken for awhile untill yesterday, by mistake I drove a mile with the broken handbrake up.

    I noticed it was up, put it down, and kept driving. When I got home, the handbrake was miracously fixed! What happened? Did something maybe snap into place? It seems as good as new :D I suppose I should probably still get it checked out.

    Yes.... get it checked out to be sure. Its unusual for a problem to rightify itself like that.
    What may have happened.....
    1) probably due to wear, something became loose (not held in its usual place) popped out and found a new place, hence the brakes started working again. But this may only be temporary.

    or 2), cos the lever was pulled up and you drove.....something got very warm and expanded, so the mechanism became tight again???
    Is it free now that the vehicle sat for a bit?


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    #5
    ltdslipdiff
    Registered Users Posts: 759 ✭✭✭ltdslipdiff


    A lot of cars have self-adjusting mechanisms that are supposed to automatically adjust as the shoe wears. Its like a wedge shape that drops (or should) as the wear increases. Sometimes this gets stuck and doesn't adjust. I'm betting its an older VW like a Polo perhaps? The other possibility is you have a leaky wheel cylinder thats lining your drum with fluid making the shoe useless. If you drove with handbrake up for a distance, you could have burned off the residue and now you have friction again.....


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    #6
    salamander27
    Registered Users Posts: 121 ✭✭salamander27


    Something similar happened to me before. Turned out the brake shoe lining had completely parted from the shoe and was moving around the drum. Sometimes the hand brake was great other times woeful!


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    #7
    Cian92
    Registered Users Posts: 827 ✭✭✭Cian92


    It is a 1998 5dr Fiat Punto, 1.2 Engine.

    It still seems to be working fine, I have left it sit overnight now. Strange :confused:


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