I have a 2001 5-speed cavalier and everytime i get out of the car i have to shut it off and put it in gear because my ebrake will not hold the car. If anyone knows how to adjust the ebrake please enlighten me. It has become a hassle seeing that i park on a hill in my driveway and it's cold out side and i can not let the car warm up in the mornings.
It is supposed to sort of self adjust by pulling it up and releasing it a few times.... it doesn´t work on mine! I had to take out the drums and adjust the brake shoes and it got better but to really fix it had to change the e brake cable, jus the onef from center to each of the back wheels. Now it is a decent e brake although every 4 monthsor so I have the shoes adjusted.
the self adjustment of the shoes inside the drum can be your issue, yes, it's something to check out. you can tighten the cable up too. on the rear axle where the cable from the lever meets the 2 cables that go to each wheel there is a thing like a stamped piece of steel on one cable and a kind of all-thread on the other cable going into the thing. you can tighten the nut on it an take up slack in the cables.
Get in the car and have room to back up a good distance. Go backwards at a decent speed and pul up the ebrake fast and hard. Do this a time or two. This will adjust the ebrake.
FU Tuning
Thanks guys, i will try all of the above mentioned. Really didn't want to take off the rear drums but i had a feeling i might have to. I'm gonna try the other options first and hope that they work tho!
John Higgins wrote:Get in the car and have room to back up a good distance. Go backwards at a decent speed and pul up the ebrake fast and hard. Do this a time or two. This will adjust the ebrake.
Define "decent speed". I consider decent speed to be 20 MPH.
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We all drive in a yellow Cavalier...
yes whats decent speed?? cuz my e brake could use some adjustment.....
Impreza WRX wrote:John Higgins wrote:Get in the car and have room to back up a good distance. Go backwards at a decent speed and pul up the ebrake fast and hard. Do this a time or two. This will adjust the ebrake.
Define "decent speed". I consider decent speed to be 20 MPH.
about 100mph if you want it to work. j-bodies tend to have non-working self-adjusters, or sometimes, even better, the one on one side works, but the other doesnt.
yes, our self adjusters dont work very well at all....take your car to your local pep boys....they clean and adjust rear brakes for free (I know, I used to work there). The most they would do is charge you $10 for a brake inspection.
Adjusting the rear shoes always brought the e-brake back up to snuff in my car, and improved pedal feel.
Yes adjusting the rear shoes will give a better ebrake. The method I mentione before is for the ebrake cable (from what I have been told). I usually get to 15-20mph when I do it. This has always worked, and is much easier to do.
FU Tuning
4bangerdeathsquad wrote:Impreza WRX wrote:John Higgins wrote:Get in the car and have room to back up a good distance. Go backwards at a decent speed and pul up the ebrake fast and hard. Do this a time or two. This will adjust the ebrake.
Define "decent speed". I consider decent speed to be 20 MPH.
about 100mph if you want it to work. j-bodies tend to have non-working self-adjusters, or sometimes, even better, the one on one side works, but the other doesnt.
I wouldn't mind going 100 MPH backwards, but I don't think the Reverse gear is high enough to allow that kind of negative speed!
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We all drive in a yellow Cavalier...
Impreza WRX wrote:4bangerdeathsquad wrote:Impreza WRX wrote:John Higgins wrote:Get in the car and have room to back up a good distance. Go backwards at a decent speed and pul up the ebrake fast and hard. Do this a time or two. This will adjust the ebrake.
Define "decent speed". I consider decent speed to be 20 MPH.
about 100mph if you want it to work. j-bodies tend to have non-working self-adjusters, or sometimes, even better, the one on one side works, but the other doesnt.
I wouldn't mind going 100 MPH backwards, but I don't think the Reverse gear is high enough to allow that kind of negative speed!
yeah, actually mine seems to have a cutoff in reverse, at about 5000 rpm, the ignition shuts off. and since reverse is even lower than first, I doubt it could hit 50, let alone 100
There is a speed limiter in reverse. I think 40MPH.
FU Tuning
alot of false info in here. the cable will not adjust it self no matter how many times you pull it up and down. going in reverse and pulling the ebrake will not adjust it either. in order to tighten it like others have said is to remove the drums. at the bottom of the drum there is a little spindel. that needs to be turned to tighten the cable or simply replace the cable.
I have never had a car that the method of reversing adjusted the parking break cable. Maybe its just me but i could never get it to work out for myself.
On that note some people have said that on your break leaver there could be some possible adjustment there..some nut or something? Anyone know if this is possible. I have adjusted my rear drums but the parking brake is still not where i would like it to be. John Higgins stated about the adjustment on the rear axle but in newer models this adjustment wasn't removed. There has to be somewhere you can do some adjustment instead of replacing the cable every time it slackens up a bit.
