Handbrakes and MOT's

[TW]Fox;17703524 said:
I cant see anywhere in the testers manual it defines travel as a fail point?
Click to expand...

My Focus also has a laughable handbrake. A couple of years ago I got an advisory for "excessive parking brake travel" but it didn't fail. It was only a matter of tightening a nut on the handbrake lever to rectify it though.
 
If the handbrake gets as "light" as it does in my E46 then you should be alright, always needs an extra tug when on an incline, or decline or any sort of cline for that matter. It passed it's MOT... but that was at BMW... and I think they tightened it... sorry, this post doesn't help much.
 
When I had my BMWs MOTd I would simply adjust the handbrake so that 3 clicks was a GARGANTUAN effort. By the time I had got it to the test centre, it was normal amounts of pull to get it to 3 clicks so it sailed through. By the time I got it home it might as well not have been there.

I have no idea why BMW handbrakes are so crap but there we go. Adjust it to the max!
 
Will all the people who dont actually have an mot license for once shut up. Read what people who know are telling you.
 
It was a guess lol like i said in earlier post it depends on the tester on that day. Its more of a feel than counting the clicks, i just set travel to approx 6 clicks.
 
Iceman said:
It was a guess lol like i said in earlier post it depends on the tester on that day. Its more of a feel than counting the clicks, i just set travel to approx 6 clicks.
Click to expand...

So it's not six clicks at all, like you originally said?
 
Mine was the same. 9 clicks and he-man needed to hold the car on a 2 degree incline. Passed anyway.

My mates and I always refer to the handbrake on E39 and E32s as the "Bing bar" as the only effect it has is to make the OBC go "bing! Handbreak On"
 
remove the drum
tighten the self ajuster untill you can just fit the drum back on
then tighten the hand brake cable between 4 and 7 clicks
 
My car failed its last MOT for it's handbrake being useless, can't remember what it was that actually caused it but they charged me 30 quid to fix it, can't have been anything major. Though, Vauxhall handbrakes are made of chocolate, constantly stick on if it's been sitting for more than 12 hours since the day I bought it and I have to rock the car a couple of times. Apparently it's almost a feature on older Vauxhalls.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom