Handbrake query...

SilverTongue · 16 Aug 2007 at 22:08

OK so i've got a MK1 Mondeo Hatch, for a couple of weeks now i've been having a little bit of agro with my handbrake, every so often when i pull it up it slips off and i have to put it on again. I'm thinking it might be the ratchet going on it but i've been told it could be that the cable is too tight, however i would have thought that if it was the cable being too tight it would have been happening since i got the car (i haven't had it tightened since i got it). Anybody else got any ideas, and how much i'd be looking at to get it sorted...

Thanks in advance guys

saitrix · 16 Aug 2007 at 22:10

Could be the ratchet. Main thing is to make sure you park your car in gear everytime you leave the car.

SilverTongue · 16 Aug 2007 at 22:11

yer that what i've been doing....kinda embaressing when you forget it's gear and start it tho lol

SilverTongue · 16 Aug 2007 at 22:38

any idea how much it's goin to be??

DRZ · 17 Aug 2007 at 00:34

There isnt any adjustment in the Mondeo handbrake cable that you can carry out by hand that I saw when I had it all apart, its a self-adjusting system. So either your rear shoes are exceedingly worn, your cable has been stretched or the ratchet has lost a tooth or similar.

The handbrake cable is a 3-piece affair, lever to a distribution plate and then two cables, one to each side. This distro plate is behind a heatshield above the exhaust pipe which is trickyish to get to but can be done without removing the pipe itself. From there you can unclip the cable to change it. An hour's work at the most and about a tenner for the cable.

The rest of the options, hmm, I dunno. My handbrake was doing much the same as yours when I got mine and it turned out to be nothing other than the very, very worn shoes on the back