Ok folks you will love this one.. Blasted away fromt he lights with the hand brake on. Now my brakes squeek at slow speeds. Have I destroyed them.. Also the hand brake dosnt seem to well....work

Cheap to fix heres hoping

 

Good news: hand brake is an inner drum on the rear wheels, so pads/rotors are just fine.

Bad news: hand brake is an inner drum on the rear wheels. Now you have to work on old style drum brakes to look inside to fix the squeaking!

Have a good one,
Mike

 

Thats excellent news mate - the car is still under full warrnty so i will make the Dealer fix that at the 20k Service

 

dont expect warranty to fix her up here. very common problem and very obviously done by neglecting to release the E brake. the rotors are the same part as the drum also. meaning that if the drum is bad, so is the rotor. you really should tear into this and try and replace the pads if needed and they probably do. because if they have came apart they could be ruining the rotor so much that replacement is the only fix.

 

Try adjusting the e-brake... drive in reverse at < 5mph and pull up briskly on the handle... you'll hear a loud "CLICK" as the star auto-adjuster moves.

 

1. UAE didn't drive for miles with the E-brake on. Did it get some heat into the system? Yes. Could that pathetic excuse for an E-brake system generate enough heat to damage the rotor? I seriously doubt it.

2. If the brake shoes are worn, the worst thing that could happen would be some grooving of the drum surface.

3. There is no automatic star adjuster in the parking brake system (trust me, I know). You can pull up on the ebrake handle to apply some limited adjustment to the cables, but nothing for the shoes. The only way to adjust the shoes for proper clearance is to remove the rotor, manually turn the adjuster, put the rotor back on, check for dragging, repeat as desired.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

 

^ Not true... read the service manual... it tells you how to adjust and it does work.

 

1. it only takes a few blocks to destroy these itty bitty pads on any of the GM's or others that use this type system. and its the drum in the rotor that would be damaged with continued use

2. grooving will create a huge problem also. try getting the inside drum turned. not an option and will ruin quickly the new set of pads.

3. many, many, many people advise these are adjustable by doing the back up and pull the ebrake 3 times. i have never tried personally.

and finally

4. if he had that thing on very tight, took of quickly, he very well could have ripped the assembly loose. ie springs, pads, keepers. any of them will ruin the drums in the rotors and cause the squeeling/ squeeking he is describing. not to mention, A FUALTY E -BRAKE IS A SAFETY ISSUE NEEDING ATTENTION !! it could be a roll hazzard big time with a manual or auto and an oops i cant stop issue if for some reason the main brakes fail. either of them would be a reason to not wait to give them the attention they need.

just my .02 on this issue

 

Only for the cable, NOT for the adjuster for the brake shoes themselves. I had to take mine apart (rotor replacement), and there is *no* ratchet adjuster for the star adjuster. Maybe GM added that capability in some MY past '00, but I've never heard of it.

And, as far as a safety issue is concerned, the E-brake in perfect working order doesn't cut it. I've got mine adjusted as best as I can (2 clicks on the handle, cable isn't stretched), and it won't hold a parked car on anything other than a slight incline. Trying to stop a moving car would be better served by downshifting and driving off into the grass.

The E-brake on the C5 is by far the wimpiest braking system I've ever seen.

Have a good one,
Mike

 

Mike,
it should be able to hold that car in place with no issues. i could stop mine if needed from speed also.( it would burn the pads up more than likely but could if needed) i know these are a weak point in the brakes like you also have mentioned. ALL the GM's with rear disk's use this set up, and they all go bad FAST. you should not have it adjusted to only be able to get " two clicks on the handle" it may not be allowing enough force to be put on the brakes. the handle will increase pressure as it rotates further. if you cant LOCK those rear wheels with the e-brake, something aint right.

rgt

 

So maybe reversing a 5mph and pulling up the hand break will fix it and maybe it will bring down the death star lol. I will do the reversing thing but wont do anything but mention it at service.

the Squeeking is like this to explain.... traffic lights ahead break to slow approching car in front slow to stop it is on the slow to stop that you get the whine while you apply the pressure.

The hand break was always guff i noticed that from day one, you can pull it up to your chest with no obvious signs of tension. Its Auto so the car holds itself while in gear... no hills to speak of here to test it :P

 

You have a car with an UN-KNOWN E-brake past. I would disassemble the drums, check/adjust the shoe/s and make sure everything is in good working order. I doubt that the dealer will fix it under warranty but i have seen stranger things! I would mention it and state that if is not a warranty repair, to let you know before they undertake the repairs!

You can and should re-adjust the shoes. If there in good shape, (never know,they very well might be!) that may be all it takes. Ive re-adjusted mine and it made a BIG difference. It holds fairly well but nothing to write home about!

VetteDrmr is 100% correct! There is NOT,NO NADA star or any other automatic adjusters on the E-brake shoes. It adjust by the good Ole e-manual method! The cable has an adjuster inside the E-brake handle assembly and when you cycle the handle up and down, there is a cam pawl in there that keeps slack out of the cable. There are a few post that discuss examining that lever/pawl and making sure it is free to move. The OEM grease turns to sludge and will NOT allow the lever to move free; thus, no automatic cable slack adjustment will be provided. I recommend removing the E-brake lever/handle assembly and lubricating it.

Remember this quote?? If your going to drive your car in a foreign remote location, ORDER THE SERVICE MANUALS!. Brother,,your going to need them! There are a few places that have service manuals on CD.

Bill Curlee

 

There are threads on the forum for doing the adjustment. If you don't have time to back up a thousand times pulling on the e-brake handle then you can tear into the back rotor and adjust out the shoe manually.

 

Now, been out in the motor and did the reversing thing. Four things to note:

1, I felt really stupid doing it - next door think i am that mental white guy
2, The hand break struggles to stop the car in reverse at 7mph. Unlike my golf GTI that would remove my eye ***** and re align my spine if i apply the hand brake
3, The whine on slow to stop breaking dosnt start until things are a little warmer (5 mins into drive). The hand break thing appears to make no change to anything at all
4, Driving down the road clock the HUD, think god i am plodding along so push up to 120clicks.. think hmm that was sluggish what have i done. Turns out i forgot to turn the HUD back to Kph and was doing 120 mph


I dont know anything about the bits that make it work so you might as well be talking about the fluxcapacitor

I really was hoping someone would say.. It will be fine, blow the dust off the tyres and it will be good as new Thanks

 

1. should be able, I totally agree with. Able to hold the car on any decent incline? I haven't found a C5 that can do that.
2. Sorry, but my '94 Z-28 doesn't have rear parking drums; that system actually clamps the rear pads, and it will lock 'em up.
3. My parking brake reacts as you describe it should, they're just not very effective.

Have a good one,
MIke

 

If the car is under warranty and you want them to fix it I would bitch until they do.

Personally, I haven't found a dealership yet that I trust to stand next to my car, let alone work on it.

The design of the e-brake is pathetic. I took mine apart and adjusted it. It worked for about a month (holding the car on the drive way) but that was it.

My '01 grand prix with 120k miles on it will lock up the rear tires at 50 if I engage the brake. I can not believe GM let this design pass on a 50K car that is sold 50% with manual transmissions.