hunterhicks

EBrake mechanism not catching, but still braking when pulled?
Does your ebrake button stick out just a bit further than it used to from the handle?
You may have bent part of the 'control rod'. Here's how I fixed it.

Take out the passenger's seat. (it's easy and gives a lot of space)
Take out the 'openable' part of the console.
Loosen the 'gear shift/radio' part of the console- might have to unscrew the two screws in the ashtray area.
Move that part of the console over a bit so you can remove the two bolts that hold the boot down- 10mm.

I'm not positive that you can do this on the car, I took mine completely off. I bet you can keep it on the car- just unbolt the three large Torx bolts and flip the mechanism over.

Take off the handle/boot- there's one screw at the top of the boot (under the boot). Take out the 'button bar'. It just pulls out- if yours is bent, it'll take some wiggling.

Bend it to the shape of the bottom bar in the first picture. Fixed. No spring holding the inner pawl, just the curved 'button bar'.

I wonder how it got so jacked up?? No idea.
My observation was a sign of the problem- the button was sticking out a little further than normal- so keep an eye out for that if your parking brake acts up.

As you can guess, the bottom one (of this first picture) is the correct shape, a nice circle.

SYCLONE2910

I can't wait till you get it figured out I have the exact same problem. It gets old pulling the handle up and using my other hand to push the little lever against the teeth to get it to hold every time I park it

hunterhicks

Also, anyone know if there are differences in the years of C5 ebrake mechanisms?

edit-
A: not really- at least between a 98 and an 01. The spring is beefier on the 01, but they act just the same.

hunterhicks

yanked- double post

Gideon's_Test

Nice work!

Copied the info to my repair library...

SYCLONE2910

I just fixed mine. Was just like your pictures

Thanks
Will

hunterhicks

A question pm'd to me was wondering why it didn't work for him-
Make sure that the circle end of the 'bar' that your re-bent wraps around the top of the inner pawl. You can flip the inner pawl back and forth with your finger from the bottom of the mechanism to see it.

check out this picture- you should see the very top of the pawl inside the circle end of the rod when you move the button back and forth.

Twospeed

The rod gets bent out of shape when the driver constantly plays with the E-Brake button, by pressing it down when the e-brake is disengaged. Depending on the force used. ( I guess)
Sort of like pressing the "fire" button on a joy stick in a fighter plane or helicopter.
I inherrited this problem from the original owner of my car. The plastic button was/is also chipped when I got the car. I guess he was a nervous sort.
I bought a used e-brake set up, but could not install it because I could not release tension on the cable and was too lazy to jack the car up take the rear wheels off and go through all that. I will do this when I get home today. Thanks hunterhicks

ddecart

Just dug into mine over the weekend and figured out that it's the wire not properly engaging the pawl. Now to see if it's just un-bent, or if the end is snapped off.

I wonder how long re-bending it will last before it does snap off.

K RIPPER

WOW just in time,was gonna rip into it today ,blind I might add,but I get a how to w/pics to boot,only thing it bent in the first place its gonna bend again ,BUT I have a plan gonna re-enforce the end and I think I have the perfect piece to repair gonna weld apiece of spring steel round. home depot or any home improvement store sells boxes of round spring steel that is used when doing construction and putting fiberglass insulation in ceiling these go between the studs to hold the insulation in place they're a little longer than opening so they are slighily longer and bow in just hope they're enough room. gonna try to knock it out today. I'll post back today to let all know how it worked out,,,,,, well release rod ok seems teeth and pawl have seen better days some teeth broken off took apart mechanism to see if I could flip over the teeth was hoping it was spot welded in place but it was not to be and piece could not be flipped. What to do? i then took the teeth and ran a bead of weld i used a stainless steel rod f/strength,and as teeth were broken off a slight design change was in order what i did was double the size of the teeth in addition as pawl was worn as well I dressed he pawl and effectively doubled its gripping area,you no longer have that fine adjustmentwhen pulling up E brake but it is not noticeable. Although it worked out f/me I recommend anybody with similar wear to buy newunless you are exceptionally talented its difficult to disassemble and more so to modify and assemble do it over.... not me i'll buy new next time.................PS after examining and seeing how it works it appears bent rods are a result of not pullingg the E brake handle far enough to totallly clear the teeth the tip of the teeth hang up and the release button is forced.....when you pull uup handle to release brake pull up till release botton goes n w/very little effort

hunterhicks

People have theories on how it got bent- it's not because you're playing 'jet fighter missile launch'- that is some seriously strong steel. (plus, the inner pawl that it connects to is free floating in the released position)

I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure we just got unlucky, and the very end tip of the bar gets bound on the center top of the inner pawl, and gets bent when you pull up on the ebrake.

ddecart

Any tips/tricks to getting this sucker back in place? It's like trying to push on a rope to get it into the right spot in there.

hunterhicks

Having problems getting the rod back in place? Mine was pretty easy, I removed the mechanism from the transmission tunnel (the 3 big bolts). Just took a bit of jiggling- and don't forget you can move the inner pawl around with your finger from the bottom- mine had no problems- hope your's pops into place.

Bluefire

How did you know?

K RIPPER

AFTER TAKING mine apart and repairing my observation is as this is a stamped steel production item and as such not entirely precise, as would a machined piece.On mine i found some teeth missing,and I noticed it was a result of the pawl and teeth were not hitting center and as a result of 1/2 the contact area the teeth sheared off.I can certainly see how the pawl could get jammed between the teeth and the housing.AND as you try to release the brake pressing the center release and it does not release,you do what everybody does and can only do continuelypress the release button while pulling up on the lever till the brake eventually releases do that over a period of time and that would certainly bend the rod..... My advice for the truly concerned,remove mechanism from car examine to make sure teeth hit center if not, modify for pawl to hit center on teeth,either bend/hammer housing or do whatever necessary to take up excessive room that allows the pawl to move laterally and get stuck

ddecart

I managed to get it in. I had to tweak the bend in the rod by only a couple millimeters and it slid in place.

The first time I engaged the brake, dis-engaged it, and pushed it forward, the rod RE-BENT!

Apparently if it's not bent perfectly, the rod can back away from the locking pawl and that sloppiness is bad. I fixed it by putting a bigger curve in the main part of the rod so it pre-loads against the pawl. Everything seems fine so far!

ellisem

Just when I thought I found the right thread for my problem .... no pictures! Saw the video, but the pictures are gone! Unless I'm not looking in the right place? Can you re-post?

Thanks

BAMbrick

ttt same request

Evil-Twin

This thread is a year old... Its against the rules to revise a thread older than 45 days... for just these reasons... many people remove the photos from their webhost.. you ask questions to people who may no longer be here or who may be dead... some of us are so old that a thread posted yesterday could fall on deaf ears today... Anyway the best way to get a question asked in an old thread is to PM the person that you are asking..
Bill aka ET

CCMS21

Thank you for the pictures in this post. I had it all pulled apart and need to know how the bends were supposed to look. Your pics solved my problem.