Parking Brake Adjustment

[VESH]

Has anyone adjusted their parking brake to make it grip tighter?

In neutral on a slight decline/incline the parking brake does not prevent my car from rolling. Would roll away if I didn’t apply brakes or put in park.

Unsure if it came like this or had gotten worse over 50k miles, but I’m just noticing it now.

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[FunInTheSun]

I've not done it, but it's a simple cable adjustment. It's at the brake handle. Pop the trim panel up and the adjustment nut is right on the handle. It's the purple item in the pic below.

1. Detach the clips and position the trim panel upward to gain access to the cable adjustment nut.
2. Pull the parking lever 2 to 3 times and turn the adjustment nut until the stroke reaches within range.
3. Parking brake lever stroke when pulled at 98 N (10 kgf, 22 lbf ) 2-5 notches.
4. After adjustment, pull the parking brake lever 1 notch and verify that the parking brake warning light illuminates.
5. Verify that the rear brakes do not drag.

 

[Motorpsychology]

Probably gotten worse over 50k mi. How are your rear brake pads? If they are close to replacement, I'd hold off adjusting the P-brake/replacing cables until the new pads are installed.

 

[VESH]

I've not done it, but it's a simple cable adjustment. It's at the brake handle. Pop the trim panel up and the adjustment nut is right on the handle. It's the purple item in the pic below.

1. Detach the clips and position the trim panel upward to gain access to the cable adjustment nut.
2. Pull the parking lever 2 to 3 times and turn the adjustment nut until the stroke reaches within range.
3. Parking brake lever stroke when pulled at 98 N (10 kgf, 22 lbf ) 2-5 notches.
4. After adjustment, pull the parking brake lever 1 notch and verify that the parking brake warning light illuminates.
5. Verify that the rear brakes do not drag.

Thank you

 

[VESH]

Probably gotten worse over 50k mi. How are your rear brake pads? If they are close to replacement, I'd hold off adjusting the P-brake/replacing cables until the new pads are installed.

Brakes were squealing like a virgin on prom night but when changing them this morning they still had over 50% life left.
Was hoping that would be the solution but it made no difference to the parking brake function. Will have a go at adjusting them from the instructions funinthesun posted

 

[VESH]

Ended up being a 5 minute fix.

Instead of taking the entire trim panel off as the instructions mention, you can easily pop the parking brake boot off by hand to access the bolt.

My bolt needed 3 full clockwise revolutions to get it within spec (brakes do not drag, parking brake holds car)

A 10mm deep socket makes the job easy

 

[CO2Ranger]

Ended up being a 5 minute fix.

Instead of taking the entire trim panel off as the instructions mention, you can easily pop the parking brake boot off by hand to access the bolt.

My bolt needed 3 full clockwise revolutions to get it within spec (brakes do not drag, parking brake holds car)

A 10mm deep socket makes the job easy

Check this guy out. Mr. 10mm socket over here...
No one has those...

 

[meistreguy]

I've not done it, but it's a simple cable adjustment. It's at the brake handle. Pop the trim panel up and the adjustment nut is right on the handle. It's the purple item in the pic below.

1. Detach the clips and position the trim panel upward to gain access to the cable adjustment nut.
2. Pull the parking lever 2 to 3 times and turn the adjustment nut until the stroke reaches within range.
3. Parking brake lever stroke when pulled at 98 N (10 kgf, 22 lbf ) 2-5 notches.
4. After adjustment, pull the parking brake lever 1 notch and verify that the parking brake warning light illuminates.
5. Verify that the rear brakes do not drag.

Great write up, thanks!

 

[5thranger]

Brakes were squealing like a virgin on prom night but when changing them this morning they still had over 50% life left.
Was hoping that would be the solution but it made no difference to the parking brake function. Will have a go at adjusting them from the instructions funinthesun posted

After reading your description I ran out and drove my ranger hoping it would make the same noise. It did not, it sounded like my mother-in-law farting.

 

[Carl_Sj]

I just replaced my parking brake boot with the Redline boot (very nice upgrade). I had previously noticed that the brake was a bit loose so during the boot replacement I tightened up the cable a bit.

I was surprised to see that I could tighten the nut by hand. There is no locking feature or jam nut - no wonder it came loose. I added an extra nut on top of the original to work as a jam nut. That should keep it from loosening in the future.

 

[Msfitoy]

Ended up being a 5 minute fix.

Instead of taking the entire trim panel off as the instructions mention, you can easily pop the parking brake boot off by hand to access the bolt.

My bolt needed 3 full clockwise revolutions to get it within spec (brakes do not drag, parking brake holds car)

A 10mm deep socket makes the job easy

You found a 10mm?! How many other sockets were with it?

 

[got3fords]

Ended up being a 5 minute fix.

Instead of taking the entire trim panel off as the instructions mention, you can easily pop the parking brake boot off by hand to access the bolt.

My bolt needed 3 full clockwise revolutions to get it within spec (brakes do not drag, parking brake holds car)

A 10mm deep socket makes the job easy

It will be even easier on my truck, the boot has a hole in it and I have yet to replace it. Oh, and clean out your cup holders...

 

[twk]

On my new '22 Ranger, I had to snug up my parking brake before it had 200 miles on it. I didn't want to hang around the dealer for 90 minutes for a 10 minute job.
Last year, just under 16k miles, I adjusted it again because I took the boot out to check for tears and cracks. I think it took about a 3/4 turn.
Slightly off topic, my boot is okay, but after only 3 years now, I think it should be better.

 

[got3fords]

Went to adjust my parking brake this weekend. I didn't exactly follow the procedure in the manual, just wanted to tighten it up some. I put several turns on it with only slight improvement. I am about to bottom out my 10mm deep socket.

 

[harringtondav]

I started farming out brake work years ago, so I'm not familiar with disc parking brakes. But it's my assumption there is a parking brake adjuster in each rear caliper.
With drum brakes, I waited until the parking brake travel was too long before I changed rear shoes since the proportioning valve made them last longer than the front pads.
Like other responses, if your lever is getting long on travel it may be time to replace the rear pads.

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