BMW E70 Parking Brake Failed

johnmolloy554

Came out yesterday morning and found "Parking Brake Failed" error message and car wouldn't go forward or back. Essentially the electronic hand brake won't disengage.
I've used the little red tool to try to manually disengage and no luck. Any ideas? I'd rather not have the car parked up until 2nd January!

bulleyes

You will need to apply a serious amount of force with the red tool to disengage the hand brake. If you,ve been trying to move the car forward and back with the brake on it will be a little harder to release. You will hear the brake callapers opening with a clunk once you,ve pulled hard enough on the release cable.

Hand brake may need to be reset afterwards.

gctest50

wiring maybe ?

Update on the park brake failure .... Had the car in to the dealer for a power steering recall , so had them look at the park brake . Turns out the wiring loom is quite tight as it goes to the control box underneath the car . With the normal running of the car , the loom can get stretched and therefore the wiring plug starts to move in the control box socket . The dealer has now re routed the loom to give more slack . its only day 3 since i had it done , but all seems fine so far ... fingers crossed !!

from : http://www.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700241

johnmolloy554

bulleyes wrote: »

You will need to apply a serious amount of force with the red tool to disengage the hand brake. If you,ve been trying to move the car forward and back with the brake on it will be a little harder to release. You will hear the brake callapers opening with a clunk once you,ve pulled hard enough on the release cable.

Hand brake may need to be reset afterwards.

Thanks for posting so fast Bulleyes. There was a good 3 inches of slack in the little cable in the boot and I was getting no where with the tool. Out of frustration, I moved the car back and forth a little bit and that seemed to tighten the parking brake even more, so I gave up.
I read your post and decided to try again and the cable had a lot less slack after my movement efforts so there was resistance for the tool to work and hey presto it did!!

I'd imagine I'll get the warning lights until it's been reset???

Preset No.3

Well lucky you that got it released. DO NOT using the parking brake again until you get this sorted. At the very least the park brake acuator needs to be replaced. I managed to get a 2nd hand part online but it was still a long job to get everything swapped out and replaced. If you can live with the 'parking brake failed' then do that. If it does come to getting it replaced drop me a PM I will put you in touch with someone that didnt completly rape me on the cost.

johnmolloy554

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Well lucky you that got it released. DO NOT using the parking brake again until you get this sorted. At the very least the park brake acuator needs to be replaced. I managed to get a 2nd hand part online but it was still a long job to get everything swapped out and replaced. If you can live with the 'parking brake failed' then do that. If it does come to getting it replaced drop me a PM I will put you in touch with someone that didnt completly rape me on the cost.

This is the second time it's happened in the last few months. I've seen reports on different forums of $1,000 etc. What did it cost you in the end if you don't mind me asking?

Preset No.3

I think I got the part for about €300. I did a bit of a contra deal with the mechanic for the labour.

RockMonster

Preset No.3 wrote: »

I think I got the part for about €300. I did a bit of a contra deal with the mechanic for the labour.

Hi interested in locating this part for an 08 E70. I've parking light failure light on my dash so need to get it fixed prior to upcoming NCT and Fk'd if I'm gonna pay what my BMW garage want to charge.. Daylight robbery. Anyway if you could reply it would be great.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

R

Leonard Hofstadter

What was wrong with the good old fashioned mechanical parking brake, you know the one you operated with your hand? Electronic parking brakes are a complete gimmick, and sadly as the OP has discovered, catastrophically expensive to put right when they go wrong.

RockMonster

captainspeed wrote: »

What was wrong with the good old fashioned mechanical parking brake, you know the one you operated with your hand? Electronic parking brakes are a complete gimmick, and sadly as the OP has discovered, catastrophically expensive to put right when they go wrong.

Agree completely.. Feckin pointless unit.. up there with Diesel Particulate Filters..

Preset No.3

RockMonster wrote: »

Hi interested in locating this part for an 08 E70. I've parking light failure light on my dash so need to get it fixed prior to upcoming NCT and Fk'd if I'm gonna pay what my BMW garage want to charge.. Daylight robbery. Anyway if you could reply it would be great.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

R

I don't know the part number but you are looking for a brake acuator.

Leonard Hofstadter

RockMonster wrote: »

Agree completely.. Feckin pointless unit.. up there with Diesel Particulate Filters..

In fairness DPFs are useful, they stop diesels from clogging up our lungs with even more soot and particulates than they already do (they are filthy dirty things even with them, as the VW emissions scandal shows, but at least they're not as bad as they could be without them). A real PITA if they go wrong I accept as replacing a DPF is very expensive.

Electronic parking brakes serve no use whatsoever other than keeping the marketing people happy. I would always rather a traditional parking brake, aside from the reliability you have so much more control over the car and it's much easier to pull away smoothly with a hand operated one.

RockMonster

Preset No.3 wrote: »

I don't know the part number but you are looking for a brake acuator.

Yeah l'm looking for one, I'm nearly 100%sure part no. 34436850289, I'll edit post if incorrect.

John T Carroll

captainspeed wrote: »

What was wrong with the good old fashioned mechanical parking brake, you know the one you operated with your hand? Electronic parking brakes are a complete gimmick, and sadly as the OP has discovered, catastrophically expensive to put right when they go wrong.

I drive my daughter's 2008 Passat frequently and apart from any personal likes/dislikes vvs the traditional handbrake I have one fairly serious safety concern. When you press the button a red brake light in the dash and a light in the button itself are illuminated for maybe 30 secs or so, this is fine as far as things go but if one forgets to press the button then no audible alarm is sounded when you open the door, I find this incredible bearing in mind that an audible alarm sounds in all cars ( for the past 30 years?) if you forget to switch off the side lights which isnt a safety issue atall apart from running down the battery after 10 hrs or so. I think the more modern VWs havs anti creep back or somerthing like that and if enabled? will apply the brake if the car moves after leaving it.
My daughter, after getting a few bad frights (one when the car moved off with two children still in the back when she got out to retrieve something from the boot) because she probably forgot to engage the parking brake even though she's adamant that she did, now engages first gear as well which I think all older drivers do/did as there was no/little hand brake in some of those older cars.
She's had no problem with the calipers etc, I just replaced a faulty switch about 2 years ago for around €40.

gctest50

John T Carroll wrote: »

I drive my daughter's 2008 Passat frequently and apart from any personal likes/dislikes vvs the traditional handbrake I have one fairly serious safety concern............

The USA ones seem to have an ordinary handbrake :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/171895082494

easy swap maybe ?