BMW handbrake

Johann.

Hi Guys,

Have a BMW 318i, literally 2 weeks old. One thing that I’ve noticed is that when I put the handbrake on when stopped in traffic, or parking up, the car can tend to roll back an inch or two. I’ve never had this with any other car, ever. Also, if on a Hill for example, I’d pull up the handbrake with reasonable force (Again, no further or with anymore force than any other car I’ve driven) & the car could still roll forward/backwards unless it’s pulled up as far as it can go.

Is this the norm? Is it something I should let them have a look at? Not particularly worried about it rolling away on me, just if it’s defective etc.

Thanks,
J

MarkN

Bring it back to the dealer.

delly

What year 3 series? I have an '01 that I have to tighten the handbrake every 6 months or so. I lift the handbrake cover and when the handle is down, there are two nuts to tighten up. If you have the same model, it'll be obvious enough.

In saying that, your issue could be something else, but thought I'd share my own experience.

/EDIT Obviously if it is a brand new 3 series, then a return to the dealer is the only option.

Johann.

Yeah I will drop up tomorrow. I just thought there might be some like disc locking system or something similar, given the roll back of an inch or two.

Johann.

delly wrote: »

What year 3 series? I have an '01 that I have to tighten the handbrake every 6 months or so. I lift the handbrake cover and when the handle is down, there are two nuts to tighten up. If you have the same model, it'll be obvious enough.

In saying that, your issue could be something else, but thought I'd share my own experience.

It’s 181, 2weeks old.

delly

Johann. wrote: »

It’s 181, 2weeks old.

I was just editing my post, but yeah, dealer only. Suffice to say my issue isn't the same as yours .

Johann.

delly wrote: »

I was just editing my post, but yeah, dealer only. Suffice to say my issue isn't the same as yours .

I didn’t think taking tools to it so soon would be a reasonable approach

Foxhole Norman

Is it an Auto? My automatic E39 5 Series tends to roll forward or back a few inches depending on the incline when I'm parking with the handbrake, fairly sure it's normal for Autos.

Alanstrainor

delly wrote: »

What year 3 series? I have an '01 that I have to tighten the handbrake every 6 months or so. I lift the handbrake cover and when the handle is down, there are two nuts to tighten up. If you have the same model, it'll be obvious enough.

In saying that, your issue could be something else, but thought I'd share my own experience.

/EDIT Obviously if it is a brand new 3 series, then a return to the dealer is the only option.

Us 01 e46 owners know all too well how shite BMW handbrakes are! Mine gets used about once a year at the NCT . I've been scraping a pass for the past 5 years!

But OP, it's a dealer fix for you. Nothing to worry about, but good to get resolved.

biko

If the car (not started) moves upon pulling handbrake it would signal to me that the handbrake is not engaged properly, but it's the gears that stops the car moving further.

Try pulling handbrake with gears in neutral, will car move when you push it from outside?

Johann.

Foxhole Norman wrote: »

Is it an Auto? My automatic E39 5 Series tends to roll forward or back a few inches depending on the incline when I'm parking with the handbrake, fairly sure it's normal for Autos.

It's not an auto, no. I did read about the auto's rolling an inch or two, until handbrake locks. Thought it could be something similar here.

biko wrote: »

If the car (not started) moves upon pulling handbrake it would signal to me that the handbrake is not engaged properly, but it's the gears that stops the car moving further.

Try pulling handbrake with gears in neutral, will car move when you push it from outside?

Good shout. Thanks.

I did get the opportunity to stop it on a ramp in a car park this morning & all seemed ok. I'm beginning to think I might have just been too gentle with it on the one or two occassions during the week, still getting used to the handbrake.

Stallingrad

A manual handbrake in a 2018 BMW? Proves the Germans do have a sense of humour.

Odyssey 2005

Got a fright there. Thought the thread title read BMW indicators. Phew

Leonard Hofstadter

Stallingrad wrote: »

A manual handbrake in a 2018 BMW? Proves the Germans do have a sense of humour.

I'm quite glad that BMW still fit one, I hate electronic parking brakes and knowing BMW it's one more thing to go expensively wrong anyway.

So much easier to pull away smoothly with a proper handbrake as well.

Alan, despite their reputation E46 handbrakes work a treat when they're in good working order. The reason people think BMW handbrakes are rubbish is because somewhere along the line the shoes get dirty or get replaced with non genuine shoes and either results in a crap handbrake!

You need to make sure the handbrake is properly adjusted - and crucially, you're using genuine BMW shoes (anything else causes problems and genuine shoes aren't that expensive either - they were £55 + VAT in the UK last year so probably around €70 + VAT here). If you're still having problems having done this, take off the discs, go at the shoes and give them a good clean and get rid of any dust particles etc, that will sort it! It needs to go up 4-5 clicks to work properly (anything less and it's too tight), but at that stage it should hold the car no matter how steep the hill is.

I had to replace the shoes in mine because the previous owner took a shortcut when he uprated the brakes and put non-genuine shoes in it (which resulted in a non-existent handbrake on moderate inclines), I did it about a year ago, it had to be adjusted a couple of months after (because the garage that did it made a mistake), but it hasn't been touched since last May and it will still hold the car no bother at all even on the steepest of hills - in fact when it got its NCT a couple of weeks ago the parking brake effort was 36%, miles ahead of the 16% threshold needed to pass!

bazz26

I'm on my 3rd car with an electronic parking brake (2 of them BMWs) and never had a day's bother with it.

BMW did cut corners somewhat with the 3 and 4 Series but the manual handbrake is not too bad with the auto gearbox as the shifter has a parking brake anyway so you really only need the hand brake lever when parking up and exiting the car but I'd hate to have to go back to a manual car with a manual handbrake.

TBi

An auto should only ‘roll’ in park. This is just the parking pin engaging. A car should never roll on the handbrake. Something is wrong if it does.