Parking brake behaving weird...

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Ulf - 20 Mar 2005 19:36 GMT

The parking brake on my '86 BMW 323 seems to have life of its own.
Sometimes when driving it will engage very briefly by itself. This
usually happens when rolling slowly, like towards a traffic light or
whatever... Also, when I pull the parking brake the car rolls forward a
couple of inches before it stops, and it only works on my right tire.
I'll have a look at it when switching to summer tires, but I'm curious
if anyone have had the same thing happening to them.

Thanks,

Ulf

Signature

ulf.cc

Reply to this Message

Somebody - 20 Mar 2005 23:42 GMT

> The parking brake on my '86 BMW 323 seems to have life of its own.
> Sometimes when driving it will engage very briefly by itself. This
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> I'll have a look at it when switching to summer tires, but I'm curious
> if anyone have had the same thing happening to them.

When you say it engages, do you mean literally applies braking? Or just the
light coming on?

One side vs the other -- one side is out of adjustement. Drum rear or disc
rear main brake on that one?

-Russ.

Reply to this Message

Ulf - 21 Mar 2005 00:23 GMT

>>The parking brake on my '86 BMW 323 seems to have life of its own.
>>Sometimes when driving it will engage very briefly by itself. This
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> When you say it engages, do you mean literally applies braking? Or just the
> light coming on?

No, it actually brakes. The first couple of times it happened I thought
I ran over something, but it didn't make sense since it was only the
rear wheel. The light never comes on.

> One side vs the other -- one side is out of adjustement. Drum rear or disc
> rear main brake on that one?

Discs front and rear.

> -Russ.

Ulf

Signature

ulf.cc

Reply to this Message

Somebody - 21 Mar 2005 02:39 GMT

> >>The parking brake on my '86 BMW 323 seems to have life of its own.
> >>Sometimes when driving it will engage very briefly by itself. This
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Discs front and rear.

Ok, you need to take the disc off and have a look in there, likely a broken
spring or the anti-rattle pin is loose and jamming it sometimes. You can
purchase the guts as a kit, may as well just do both sides while you have it
off. You can just unhook and hang the caliper on something solid so you
don't have to bleed anything.

-Russ.

Reply to this Message

Jeff Strickland - 21 Mar 2005 18:03 GMT

<snip>

> > No, it actually brakes. The first couple of times it happened I thought
> > I ran over something, but it didn't make sense since it was only the
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> -Russ.

I agree. There is something in the linkage that is broken - at worst - or
out of adjustment. The clue will be inside the brakes themselves, or in the
cabling that links them to the brake handle inside the car.

Reply to this Message

Ulf - 21 Mar 2005 18:15 GMT

>>>>The parking brake on my '86 BMW 323 seems to have life of its own.
>>>>Sometimes when driving it will engage very briefly by itself. This
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> off. You can just unhook and hang the caliper on something solid so you
> don't have to bleed anything.

Thanks, I appreciate your help. I'll take a look at it when it gets
warmer. With inspection only a month away I'll see if I can get the
parking brake to work on both wheels too, not that that gave me any
problems last year...

> -Russ.

Ulf

Signature

ulf.cc

Reply to this Message