More resistant hand brake after repair

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hi all,

Not very knowledgeable about cars in general so I appreciate you bearing with me. I recently had my Subaru Impreza (2011) brought in for repairs to replace the brake pads and rotors. Upon driving home from the repair shop, I noticed that it was a lot harder to pull up on my parking brake than before when I parked.

My question is: is this a sign of something I should go back to the mechanic about? Is there such thing as the parking brakes being on TOO tight? I searched through the forum and the answer seems to be that the tighter the parking brake the better. I just wanted to be sure.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

If you want your old brake pads reinstalled, go on back. Your parking brake is just working better. It is much easier to apply the parking brake with worn out pads. There are different types of parking brakes and some will make no difference unless the separate parking brake shoe / ring is also replaced.

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Is there such thing as the parking brakes being on TOO tight?

This would cause the parking brakes to drag. If you sense no drag (car coasts easily on a slight incline and rear wheels aren’t warmer than the fronts after a drive) you should be good to go.