I know nothing about handbrakes so if im a bit vague let me know and ill give you as much info as i can.

Was driving along the other day, everything seemed normal, noticed a smell so pulled into a servo, smoke was billowing out of my drivers rear wheel arch so i got under and had a look, my handbrake had stayed stuck even the handle disengaged. So i made sure it had disengaged and drove home.

So we jacked it up and had a look and the handbrake mechanism seems to all be moving as normal but the handbrake wont actually grip and hold the car.

Also the light for the handbrake being on is lit in the car at all times now.

Any ideas?

possibly shoes might be stuck wearing on the inside of the rear disc.
or maybe the springs could of broken that hold the shoes in position.
not sure without taking a look.

hope this might help
cheers
Daniel

The handbrake light is run from a contact switch at the base of the handbrake lever next to the drivers seat. For this light to be on it just means the switch is not turning it off, for whatever reason. You can see the switch at bottom of the handbrake photos here....

As you can see, the handbrake lever pivots on the rivet (where the coiled wire spring is wrapped around) and pushes against this switch mechanism. If the handle is correctly disengaged (ie - is DOWN FULLY) then the light should not glow.

The rear handbrake of these cars can stick on sometimes. Although when moving the car after this has happened you should usually get a "clunk" and it releases itself.

If you have worn the handbrake pads out then it will not hold the car. The handbrake mechanism is inside the brake. You will need to remove the wheel, the external disk brake calliper and the brake disk itself to get at the handbrake and "have a look". The handbrake is the two U shaped shoes that deploy by being pushed apart and therefore pushing against the inside of the disk brake rotor (hub brakes we'd have called them, I guess...!)

It is possible for these to move inside their housing and come a cropper. Esp' when worn. When you pull on the cable now you are either not able to pull it far enough for it to engage (being worn) or it has come off it's mounts and you are pulling cable against thin air inside the mechanism.

You can adjust the handbrake lever by using a long reach 10mm socket and twisting the nut at the end of the cable where it comes up beside your drivers seat. There is no cable present in the pictures, above, but the cable runs through the slightly U shaped track visable at bottom of handbrake lever (most notacible in the polished metal version). If you pull the brake lever up fully and wind this nut down it will start to take any slack out the cable and possibly (hopefully) give you some handbrake use back.

PLEASE check the rear brake properly by taking off the wheel, the brake calliper and the brake rotor. You do not need to remove the brake calliper completely - leave the brake lines there and leave the calliper swinging in space for easy fitment. If you undo this entirely, you will need to bleed the hydraulic brake fluid when re-installing.



That doesn't answer the light staying on thing. Possibly something has got caught in the switch. Just pull the handbrake cover off (it is only velcro'd to the carpet) and have a looksee....

Is it the EF/EL handbrake (as assumed in your sig), or EB/ED ???

sound like the handbrake has he pads binded up.

If it is *NOT* EF or EL then I subtract my message and withdraw your hunour.

We won't know til he pulls his finger out and replies . . . .

Well, I wanna know what happened here.

I wanna know what the problem was and how / if it was fixed.

I even want to know if it was EF / EL or not!!!?!!!

Well the OP was last on Wed night - maybe it fixed itself . . . . .

All good handbrakes fix themselves huh..?

Just did one on an ED too, so can now even help out with that if it turns out he's talking ED style.

Yeah, smartcars . . . .

Yeah, done both - the EB/ED/XH ones are prone for the primary cable to birdcage around that pulley near the firewall, can jam, and also break as well . . . .

Damn right there... Jammed (due to cable starting to unwind and split) and then came out of roller and then JAMMED some more... All the whilst the hand brake was applied to rear disks.

Someone not used to driving I6 just carried on driving without really noticing the burning smell... Coz he smokes a pack of Camels a day (which is why car interior makes me dry retch every time I get in it on a hot day....)

Answer - Replace everything between rear rotors and the human left hand.

Real answer was slightly easier, didn't have to replace all the bits. But they did get a real close look over and some nice lube thrown at them.