Well, my parking brake had worked perfectly fine up until a few weeks ago when I was at a friend of mine’s grad party. It started to hail and I ran to my car and was in such a hurry that I started driving with the parking brake still on, for about 100 feet. I then realized my mistake and disengaged the brake.
However, since then the parking brake seems to have no effect. I can put the car in neutral, engage the brake, and the car will still roll. I tried adjusting the brake using the adjuster nut within the center console but it has no effect. I also jacked up the rear of the car and spun the tire and pressed the regular brake pedal and the tire stopped instantly so I know the rear brakes themselves are working.
The car is a 1989 Honda Accord SE-i with an automatic transmission. I should also note that what I have referred to as the parking brake above is actually the handbrake or e-brake activated by the lever in the center column.
I forgot to mention it before, but the brakes on all four wheels are disc brakes.
I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MY CIVIC , BUT MINE STOPED WORKING AFTER THE REAR BRAKES WERE REPLACED.HOPE SOME ONE CAN HELP.
The e-brake (parking brake) system is pretty simple, so it should not be hard to find the problem. The lever actuates a cable. The cable splits underneath the car to two cables. There is an adjustment nut at this split. The two cables go to each brake, and actuate the e-brakes at the rear axles. This is where it gets really model specific. The rear disk system is either a single piston w/ e-brake combo, where the cable moves a worm gear that pushes in the piston in the caliper to engage the brake. The other popular method is a small drum brake inside the rotor that is the e-brake, and the hydraulic brake system (the pedal) operates the disk brake, separating the two systems. Either way, if the cables have tension, the problem is at the rear axle.
ok, well, both cables have tension, so i’m 100% sure the problem is at the rear axle. However, my shop manual and Haynes manual don’t seem to really have any specific diagnostics for the parking brake in the rear. Are there any specific things I can look for?