Stupid AW11 hand brake WOF issues?

[ke25sr]

Failed a WOF.

Hand brake didnt lock when he pulled it up. I am not supressed as the AW11 hand brakes are crap.

So i installed 2 kits new pads and adjusted cables.

Recheck Fail again. still wont lock wheels.

So i argue.
LTSA states:

Parking brake
12. A parking brake must:
a) stop the vehicle within 18 m from a speed of
km/h (average brake effi ciency of 20%), or
b) hold the vehicle at rest on a slope of 1 in 5.


It holds the car on a slope. no doubt.
But what is a slope of 1 in 5?

[levinguy]

isn't it a gradient? as in a slope with a gradient of 1/5

[Lloyd]

The top of Maitland Street

[Bling]

I think you have a pretty fair argument there, ask to see the part of the requirements which state it must lock up the wheels (however they are doing this test)

Or put some rock hard tyres on it and it should lock up easier as the reduced grip to the road will make it easier for the hand brake to lock.

Option C involves taking the hand brake off and whacking the guy over the head and finding a better wof place

[MR2SIK]

a 5 metre stretch of road, one end is one metre lower than the other

[GDII]

My SW20 won't even lockup on gravel. So I failed my wof.

I park on Rattray street alot and sometimes when I get in the car it moves forward till the engine catches it. Not cool.

Now I have to pull apart the rear calipers and try reset them. Adjusting the handbrake under the car did nothing.

[Adamal]

MR2 handbrakes are crap in general. Not just AW's, but SW handbrakes suck as well!

[Akane]

SW handbrakes never lock, unless you modify them.

[RomanV]

But what is a slope of 1 in 5?

And yeah, SW20 handbrakes, and generally hand brakes that rely on the caliper/disc instead of a drum brake, are just... shit.

I remember there was a recall on some model of vectra (IIRC) because you'd park and pull the hand brake up when the discs were hot, and as they cooled and contracted, it'd be enough to let the hand brake go, a few cars were found down the bottom of hills smashed into things before they figured it out etc etc

[rollaholic]

its always difficult to lock the driving wheels when the car is moving!

gotta love the wof inspectors who dont know the requirements...

[postfach]

its always difficult to lock the driving wheels when the car is moving!

gotta love the wof inspectors who dont know the requirements...

QFT - If he depresses the clutch pedal first and then tries, he'll probably have more success. Unless its auto, then it should still be able to lock up.

[GDII]

My car failed because of this.

Performance
Service brake
31. The service brake cannot be applied in a controlled
and progressive manner.
32. When the service brake is applied and without
assistance from the engine:
a) the vehicle does not stop within 7 m from a speed
of 30 km/h (average brake efficiency of 50%), or
b) the vehicle does not stop within 9 m from a speed
of 30 km/h (average brake efficiency of 40%) for a
vehicle which has a service brake designed to act
on less than four wheels.

My car takes at least 15-20m to stop from 30km/h.

[~SlideWays~]

Don't know if this will work on the AW11 but I was shown a good trick by a mechanic on my AE92 Trueno of which the handbrake was uuuuuseless!

I spent ages trying to get the handbrake to work, like cleaning and greasing the sliders, new main cable, adjusting cable, rough sanding the pads, new pads etc etc etc. The problem with them is that they are supposed to self adjust but they become uneven and can no longer reset themselves.

So the trick is :
- loosen the cable via the handbrake lever nut so the cable is very slack (won't engage at all).
- reverse to get a bit of momentum than brake hard, repeat a couple of times (this forces the calipers to reset themselves).
- tighten up the cable via handbrake nut again till you get a decent amount of lever travel/cable tension.
- hey presto, both rears lock up!

I have to do this every couple of months or after every track day but it only takes a couple of minutes

Hopefully it works on yours but may be completely different.

[ke25sr]

Ill try that. I played with it some more the other day and now it will lock 1 wheel but not the other.

and it is favouring 1 cable more than the other.

But what a stupid set up. AE86 rear end is the same and it doesnt give me this much shit.

[~SlideWays~]

Ill try that. I played with it some more the other day and now it will lock 1 wheel but not the other.

and it is favouring 1 cable more than the other.

But what a stupid set up. AE86 rear end is the same and it doesnt give me this much sh*t.

Before I tried this trick I had the exact same problem, after I'd roughed up the pads etc I'd get one side lock up but pretty much nothing from the other.

[ke25sr]

What i will do is:

put car on the hoist
slacek hand brake writ off.
wind pistons all the way in
re assemble
pump brakes up to reset everything but leave hand brake slack.
pull apart again wind pistons out evenly
adjust hand brake.

If he isnt happy with that. ill get a 2nd opinion.

[tex]

to be honest you will never get them to be perfect. The aw11/sw20 brakes don't self adjust. If you look at the setup you will see it always seems to pull to one side. The problem lies in the fact that the cable stretches over time. Reallistically the only solution is replace all the cables with new ones (or spend ages trying to match a pair which is about even) clean the calipers so they are not binding, and check that the discs are teh same thickness too.

The too dam ass picky these days....

[AE92blktop]

I have not tried the reversing option to reset the hand brake but, I was told by a toyota mechanic who used to work on the likes of ae92s and aw11s and have done it a few times my self to try this.

Loosen hand brake cable off untill the cable at the calipers is just slack. then stand hard on the brake pedal and pull the hand brake all the way up then release the hand brake, do that say 50 times and re adjust the nut on the lever and try it.

Supposed to be something along the lines of allowing the self adjuster enough room to pick up the next tooth on the ratchet.

[Dragger_Dan]

This happens every time I try get an AW11 a warrant. The WOF people seem to have lost all forms of discretion and common sense. Mine could park on a 1/5 slope and stall on the handbrake, but that still wasn't good enough, they bought up the stopping distance thing. Which was interesting becasue I never saw them measure the distance my car stopped in, they just said 'nah that's too far'.

Ok, I get the fact that the handbrake is an emergency brake as well as a parking brake, but FFS my car is manual, and how often do you hear of a total brake failure that wasn't related to sabotage or didn't give the owner some warning?

There is no easy fix, i think it's a matter of fixing your mechanic, not your car.

[Nuty|Mike]

zzw30 has gay handbrake too must be a mr2 thing my aw11 had the same issue .Just go to a different wof place.