Hand-brake failure - car just out of warranty - advice??

[Deleted User]

I have a 3 year old Freelander (3 months out of warranty period!), and the hand-brake has "failed" three times in the past week, in so much as I park the car, put the hand brake on, leave it in gear and turn the engine off and the car rolls backwards – we live on a hill.


I took it straight to a garage who did a free brake test, they could see nothing wrong and the hand brake worked fine when with them, all the other brakes were deemed fine.


I have now had the original dealership collect the car and they have called me to say that

1. they can not find anything wrong with the hand-brake, it works fine;
   
2. it is impossible for a car to "roll" when left in gear;
   
3. the rear brakes are worn, they recommend to replace them and at the same time they will adjust the "park shoes/pads" and hand-brake;

However, they will give me no guarantee that this is what is causing the problem.


I have agreed for them to replace the brake pads and tighten everything up (for the princely sum of £483), because I feel that if, god forbid, it happens again, then at least my car has only ever been serviced/maintained by the dealership. I would normally take it to my independent garage as it would be cheaper.


Is there anything I can do as it is now out of warranty period?

I am terrified that the car is going to roll and seriously hurt someone (including me, as I have to get the dog out of the back of the car).

FYI – I had a Freelander before, and the same thing happened, it rolled back down the hill and crushed our neighbours car – the hand-brake was on and the car was in gear – no fault was ever found.

Has anyone else had anything similar – any advice (apart from not parking on a hill!).


Many thanks

verityboo

Is it manual or automatic?

If a manual is left in gear, or an automatic is left in park, it should not be possible for the car to move.

Perhaps it was not fully in gear? The hand brake is not really designed to hold the car for long periods. They become less effective after parking and the brakes have cooled down. The disks contract away from the pads - if the car was not properly in gear it could then have rolled

[Deleted User]

verityboo wrote: »

Is it manual or automatic?

If a manual is left in gear, or an automatic is left in park, it should not be possible for the car to move.

Perhaps it was not fully in gear? The hand brake is not really designed to hold the car for long periods. They become less effective after parking and the brakes have cooled down. The disks contract away from the pads - if the car was not properly in gear it could then have rolled

It's a manual.

I have a question - should you put the car in gear and then switch the engine off or switch the engine off and then put in gear? Does it make any difference?

It happened when my husband and a friend parked the car as well, I thought it might just be because I hadn't put it in gear properly as well. Also, it happened immediately when I parked up, ie, not an hour later once the brakes had time to cool down.

thescouselander

My old BMW was a complete nightmare when it came to the hand brake. Basically it had disk brakes at the back but there was a drum style brake built into the disk that was used for the handbrake. The inside of the drum tended to rust up because this part of the brake was not used under normal braking and this caused the handbrake to deteriorate over time.

One way to fix this was to apply the handbrake while moving for about 200 yards to clean up the inside of the drum but if the surface was too far gone a new set of disks were required.

To be honest I dont think changing the pads will help and in any case £483 is an insane amount to pay for this sort of work.

I would suggest trying my trick above and then adjust the handbrake mechanism to tighten everything up - this shouldn't be more than half an hours work.


Also, I always park in gear in any car I drive - it doesn't matter if you do this when the engine is off but it may be easier to engage gear when the engine is running - 1st gear is best.

LandyAndy

I thought you should leave it in 1st if you are pointing up the hill and reverse if you are pointing down.

[Deleted User]

LandyAndy wrote: »

I thought you should leave it in 1st if you are pointing up the hill and reverse if you are pointing down.

I've read lots of conflicting advice on this, I wish I knew for sure as well, however, either way the car shouldn't "roll" should it?

johnnyroper

LandyAndy wrote: »

I thought you should leave it in 1st if you are pointing up the hill and reverse if you are pointing down.

in the handbook for my old laguna with leccy handbrake it said leave in first if pointing up and reverse if pointing down same thing in handbook for my scooby.

as for the inboard shoes they are notouriously crap and as another poster said rust up inside,part of the service schedule on peugeot and vaux with this type of handbrake was to adjust them up through hole on disk adjust cable and then drive 400m with handbrake partially applied.it was either that way or calipers and disks off to clean and adjust then rebuild but this way involved a couple of hours labour.

Strider590

goochie wrote: »

FYI – I had a Freelander before, and the same thing happened, it rolled back down the hill and crushed our neighbours car – the hand-brake was on and the car was in gear – no fault was ever found.

Has anyone else had anything similar – any advice (apart from not parking on a hill!).


Many thanks

Unless you found the hand brake had released itself, the reason it's doing this is heat expansion. When hot the brake discs/pads/shoes expand, then as they cool down they return to normal size and suddenly the handbrake is 2 or 3 notches too loose and the car rolls off.

For now you need to park in gear and turn the road wheels toward or away from the kurb so that if it tries to roll, it has to overcome the kerb first. Most cars can be parked without handbrake or gears simply by doing this on all but the steepest of hills.

But..... you shouldn't have to do this, something must be wrong.

One thing I pick up from the following links is that its possible for a fault to apply more force to one brake that to the other.

Freelander handbrake wont work
how to adjust the handbrake on a gaylander

LeeSouthEast

Just ram the handbrake on much tighter than you normally do, if it's suffering from contraction issues? By the time you come to take it off again it'll be easier !

Strider590

Oh and you do know to hold on the foot brake whilst applying the handbrake, yes? (sounds obvious I know)

Gloomendoom

Strider590 wrote: »

Unless you found the hand brake had released itself, the reason it's doing this is heat expansion. When hot the brake discs/pads/shoes expand, then as they cool down they return to normal size and suddenly the handbrake is 2 or 3 notches too loose and the car rolls off.

That is only true for disc brakes. When brake drums cool down they get smaller so actually get tighter.