Parking brake test @ MOT station

FeFiDoh · 29 Sep 2007 at 21:24

I have an E reg renault 5 GT and according to my haynes manual it says to adjust the brake til its 11-12 clicks fully applied. Which I have now sorted as it failed an MOT about 3 weeks ago with 11% efficency.

How does a garage test this? Some one said about locking the wheels up at about 5 clicks :confused:

No way will a handbrake at 12 clicks lock the wheels at 5

ste_bla · 29 Sep 2007 at 22:19

They put it on a special bracking machine not sure how it works though

You only need 18% eff. if iirc also the braking eff. wouldnt be high would it as you dont need it to slow down on hold you while park

the clicking comes under a different bit in the mot;

"Parking brake for reserve travel so that it does not reach it's end stop. "

FeFiDoh · 29 Sep 2007 at 22:48

So with 11% it wasnt that far off anyway so with adjusting the handbrake (I cant physically push the car any where at all) It should get me that 7%. Fingers crossed car hasnt had an MOT in 2yrs or more

dalin80 · 30 Sep 2007 at 00:08

adjust it too high and the rear brakes will cook.

the test doesn't care about the travel just how much the brakes are pulling, if the adjustment is off in the shoes you can adjust the cable travel all day long and it wont help in the slightest.

Alibaba99 · 30 Sep 2007 at 11:05

dalin80 said:
adjust it too high and the rear brakes will cook.

the test doesn't care about the travel just how much the brakes are pulling, if the adjustment is off in the shoes you can adjust the cable travel all day long and it wont help in the slightest.

The MOT does test the travel of the handbrake and you can fail for excessive travel of the lever.

Ste_bla said:
They put it on a special bracking machine not sure how it works though

You only need 18% eff. if iirc also the braking eff. wouldnt be high would it as you dont need it to slow down on hold you while park

the clicking comes under a different bit in the mot;

"Parking brake for reserve travel so that it does not reach it's end stop. "

You do need a certain amount of handbrake efficiency as it does act as the emergency brake in the event of a failure of the main system.