rx6180
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2009
- Messages
- 118
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Long Eaton, Derbyshire
- Your Mercedes
- Ageing W202 C200 with rust
I am feeling a tad ignored after not one reply to my post on my parking brake issues two days ago, even though I'd searched for other previous posts on the same subject beforehand and only asked for a few things clearing up. But hey-ho, I guess forum contributors can't be everywhere. I can't. I guess parking brakes just aren't interesting. :neutral:
But here's the thing. I was all set to get my 14 year old car booked in at the main dealer, so I could get a courtesy car and still go to work. I phoned up and when I said I'd lost my rachet on the foot pedal and was talking about leaving the car with them for 24 hours, the guy at the other end said he could do the job in 15 minutes and it would cost me no more than £50. He then went on to tell me that there was a little spring on a pawl that could come off, and I said that I'd seen this on a forum, had tried to take the shroud off under the steering wheel yesterday, but had only got it partially off and couldn't see what I was looking at. It was also 2.5C when I was trying to do this in the street, it was trying to snow on me, and I'd got family on their way to visit. I gave up and went inside to get warm.
So then I said to the nice gentleman on the telephone, "My release handle has gone all floppy, as if it is not connected to anything, is this the same thing?" (Which was also the basis of my unanswered question two days ago).
And he said "No, that is something different. It sounds like your cables are seizing up. If they need replacing it will cost £600".
To which I replied
"OMG!" (Just like Janice out of Friends - no you don't know what I'm talking about, do you?) "That is more than the car is worth!"
So, credit where credit is due, my favoured M-B main dealer has always had technicians willing to give free advice over the phone (do they all do that?) and he told me to take out the back seat, expose the parking brake cable adjuster underneath and soak it with easing oil to see if it makes a difference, and then if I needed to, to book the car in after that.
But here is the thing. I think the guy was at cross purposes with me. I was out in town on Saturday when my parking brake failed. Around thirty minutes after it happened, to test something out (as I was still unsure what had gone wrong, all I knew was I couldn't rachet the brake on) I parked on a slope in a local retail centre car park, put the car in neutral, and it started to roll back. I applied the parking brake pedal - it stopped - released the pedal - car rolled - pedal applied - car stopped - pedal released - car rolled.
So all the logic I can apply to the situation tells me the cable to the back wheels is fine and does not need replacing or lubricating.
What simutaneously happened to my car is that the rachet ceased to be and the release handle to the right of the steering wheel became loose and floppy. That does not sound like a £600 job to me, right?
I've decided this job can wait until the weather improves and I can take more time about taking bits off to get a better view of what is underneath the steering wheel. I'm not 17 any more and the days of masochistic car maintenance in freezing weather conditions are behind me.
Mick
But here's the thing. I was all set to get my 14 year old car booked in at the main dealer, so I could get a courtesy car and still go to work. I phoned up and when I said I'd lost my rachet on the foot pedal and was talking about leaving the car with them for 24 hours, the guy at the other end said he could do the job in 15 minutes and it would cost me no more than £50. He then went on to tell me that there was a little spring on a pawl that could come off, and I said that I'd seen this on a forum, had tried to take the shroud off under the steering wheel yesterday, but had only got it partially off and couldn't see what I was looking at. It was also 2.5C when I was trying to do this in the street, it was trying to snow on me, and I'd got family on their way to visit. I gave up and went inside to get warm.
So then I said to the nice gentleman on the telephone, "My release handle has gone all floppy, as if it is not connected to anything, is this the same thing?" (Which was also the basis of my unanswered question two days ago).
And he said "No, that is something different. It sounds like your cables are seizing up. If they need replacing it will cost £600".
To which I replied
"OMG!" (Just like Janice out of Friends - no you don't know what I'm talking about, do you?) "That is more than the car is worth!"
So, credit where credit is due, my favoured M-B main dealer has always had technicians willing to give free advice over the phone (do they all do that?) and he told me to take out the back seat, expose the parking brake cable adjuster underneath and soak it with easing oil to see if it makes a difference, and then if I needed to, to book the car in after that.
But here is the thing. I think the guy was at cross purposes with me. I was out in town on Saturday when my parking brake failed. Around thirty minutes after it happened, to test something out (as I was still unsure what had gone wrong, all I knew was I couldn't rachet the brake on) I parked on a slope in a local retail centre car park, put the car in neutral, and it started to roll back. I applied the parking brake pedal - it stopped - released the pedal - car rolled - pedal applied - car stopped - pedal released - car rolled.
So all the logic I can apply to the situation tells me the cable to the back wheels is fine and does not need replacing or lubricating.
What simutaneously happened to my car is that the rachet ceased to be and the release handle to the right of the steering wheel became loose and floppy. That does not sound like a £600 job to me, right?
I've decided this job can wait until the weather improves and I can take more time about taking bits off to get a better view of what is underneath the steering wheel. I'm not 17 any more and the days of masochistic car maintenance in freezing weather conditions are behind me.
Mick
