When I left work today the ebrake was holding just fine. 30 minute drive home, pull into my drive way, turn her off, pull the ebrake...nothing! I didn't wrench on it too hard, didn't hear any noise when I disengaged it at work... But I bet the ratchet mechanism is broke because it pulls the brake just fine, just doesn't lock. Now I've got it propped up with a pair of safety glasses I found in the back seat About two months ago another fellow ss.net member I met at a meet had the same problem...wtf. Thank god it's still under warranty. Has anyone else had this problem? E-brake fail!

 

Mine only goes up 3 clicks right now.....extra rear brake bias FTW on track day

 

Yes. The same thing happened to my new 08 a few months ago. No ratchet. The handbrake assembly was replaced under warranty.

 

the clip that holds my cables under the plastic covers kept coming off on one side or the other so I took some pliers and just closed them up around my cables a bit tighter. Haven't had much trouble outta this area otherwise.

 

yeah, that happened to me 2 weeks ago. I took in apart and part of the ratchet assembly fell out. I havent been able to take a look at it yet due to work and school and travel but hopefully i will get to it tomorrow. If i am able to fix it ill be sure to post how i did it.

 

^That would be sweet...i'm sure we're not the only ones with this fail

 

ya same problem thank god for warrenties took it to them and first they replaced my left rear caliper because it was sticking and wasnt disengaging then after that replaced the rachet inside and replaced the cable

 

Okay so i fixed my E-brake today. What had happened is that the locking piece which contains the teeth is locked into another piece of softer steel just by pressure. This makes it possible for the hardened piece to loosen over time and fall out because it is not fastened in any other way then this.

To fix my problem i took the entire parking brake lever assembly out of the car and used a hammer and a rod to force the geared piece back into the position it is made to go in. Then i reinstalled the entire assembly and bolted it back into the car. Now it works. I will try and post a easier to read and more detailed explanation of how it can be done. Also if your car is under warranty i would probably take it back to the dealer and have them fix it. I am not sure how long my fix will last.

 

haha, i was rippin on my e-brake last night leaving the ski/snowboarding place by me

the alternate path is a dirt road covered in snow, the cobalt held its own pretty well haha

 

I wish mine worked... My car would roll on a 20* incline if I don't park it in gear

 

My e-brake sucks dick...

 

Step 1: Remove 3 plastic covers from the center console (one with the rear cupholders, one right under the brake lever, and the one on the brake handle itself) they should all snap off with little effort.

Step 2: loosen the brake cable tensioner. (its the long bolt on the right side of the brake handle with the cable attached to the end. I believe it is a 10 mm nut. You do not have to take the nut off, you just have to loosen it so that you can separate the 2 brake cable from the one cable coming off the brake handle.

Step 3: Unplug the brake switch (its a little to the right of the brake handle and it got one wire coming out of it.

Step 4: Take off the 4 nuts (13mm) that hold the brake assembly to the chassis and remove the 2 brake cable from the rear of the assembly (this may be a little tricky to do, you have to hold in the two pins on the sides of the plastic housing and push it through the hole while pulling out the brake assembly) kinda hard to explain here but the goal is to remove the whole assembly from the car.

This picture might help clarify



Step 5: Place the toothed piece back into the position it fell out from (on the bottom left side of the brake lever). Then using a small metal rod and a hammer tap the piece back in its place through the holes in the metal on the right side of the handle. You should do this until the two surfaces are flush.

in this picture you can see where the toothed piece goes (bottom of the handle, to the right of the blue wire)



Step 6: Reassemble everything the way it came out. And be sure to properly tension your brake cable with the tensioner bolt (your brake wont work without this tight ).

If you have any questions on this ill be happy to respond to any pms or posts regarding this, i know its hard to follow but i have a hard time writing these kinds of things down . Also i am not positive this is what happened to you, its just what happened to me.

Yeah i had to put blocks under my wheels when i warmed my car up in the morning because my driveway is on a hill. Im so glad its fixed now, however i keep in in a heated garage now so no need to warm it up in the morning anymore.

 

^ Yeah sorry I haven't gotten back to you man...that's a great post how-to. But I brought my car in this morning to the dealer. They gave me a call later in the afternoon and told me that the vacuum assembly/unit was bad. Ummm, yeah, I didn't know I had a vacuum controlled e-brake!! So they said they had to order a part and it'd be in tomorrow. By the time I got back from work, the service dept. was closed. I was ready to ******* kill someone. I'm sure they were driving my car and fucked something else on it...now they have to fix that instead...I donno...seems kinda sketch...but it's under warranty so...

 

Sorry to hear about your crappy experience with the service dept.. I try and do all my own work because i just don't trust other people with my car (even the people who mount and balance tires).

 

Yeah I probably should have followed the how-to...

 

Probably, i do not know why a vacuum assembly would affect the ratchet but i am by no means a qualifyed mechanic. It could be BS by the dealer or they are telling you the truth, all i know is that i dont know why the brake would work but not the ratchet without a similar situation to mine. Well good luck with your car and i hope you get it back soon!

Maybe if one of the more experianced people on this fourm could give their opinion on if this is bs or not that would be good.

 

I have a 2007 lt auto and hardly use the E brake but one day my brake light started to stay on all the time... It took a while to figure out what was wrong. Turns out that the same thing happened to me, the rivit that holds the gear part of the ratchet broke and the part just fell down in the assembely.

 

I dont belive there is a rivit

 

Sorry to revive a 3 month old post, but post #12 is some good stuff!! couldn't find it anything about fixing or adjusting your e-brake in the how to section. My e-brake failed earlier today (no ratcheting)

after reading post 12, i hopped outside, had the entire e-brake assembly on my kitchen table in a few short minutes, popped the piece back in, put it back in the car, adjusted it to my liking (it was always a little loose!) and bam! all done.

Thanks a million, you saved me time that'd be wasted in the dealer waiting area!!

 

1. Thank you post number 12.
2. I hate dealers.
3. I hate cheap parts, and it is stupid things like this that gives domestic cars a bad rap.

I am going to try to get to this tomorrow.

Cheers!

 

haha i hate dealers too! No dealer will put the time and effort into your car like you will. Thats why i always like to do my own repairs when i can.

 

Just for clarification, how exactly do I access the adjusting nut for the e-brake? I would like to adjust the e-brake as per the Haynes's instructions: loosen until cable is slack, tighten until the clip is off the caliper stop, back off until it is back on the stop, loosen 1 full turn. It should hold the car between 3-5 clicks. Does that sound right?

When I did the rear brakes I noticed that with my e-brake fully released, the clips were NOT touching the caliper stops. It was definitely applying some brake pressure.

 

sub'd

 

Our brakes suck so much ******** it's not even funny

 

Can anyone tell me where the teeth go back I'm exactly I'm having a hard time figuring it out