Parrot of Doom
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2005
- Messages
- 2,167
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Manchester
- Your Mercedes
- Was an E300TD, now a Lexus LS400
For a while my parking brake hasn't been working properly. It started not releasing correctly (pinging off a few yards down the road after I'd released the handle). Eventually it wouldn't even hold the car in gear.
Checked it today. Removed both rear discs, the parking mechanism was fine. On the inside of the discs was a lip, close to the mounting point for the hub. It turns out that this lip has been manufactured a millimeter or two too close to the shoes. So when I press the pedal, the shoes move into the walls of the disc, but instead of lying against the flat surface they hit the lip and sit on a slight angle (hence the reduced ability to hold the car). On releasing the shoes, one of them would occasionally stick on the lip, creating a squealing noise, until the rotation of the wheel would 'ping' the shoe back into position.
5 minutes with a drill to smooth the lip down, and a few turns of the tensioning mechanism, and the brake was back to normal.
I think I'll buy MB discs only from now on
Checked it today. Removed both rear discs, the parking mechanism was fine. On the inside of the discs was a lip, close to the mounting point for the hub. It turns out that this lip has been manufactured a millimeter or two too close to the shoes. So when I press the pedal, the shoes move into the walls of the disc, but instead of lying against the flat surface they hit the lip and sit on a slight angle (hence the reduced ability to hold the car). On releasing the shoes, one of them would occasionally stick on the lip, creating a squealing noise, until the rotation of the wheel would 'ping' the shoe back into position.
5 minutes with a drill to smooth the lip down, and a few turns of the tensioning mechanism, and the brake was back to normal.
I think I'll buy MB discs only from now on
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