A bit of ford focus info needed :)

the same thing has been happening to all sorts of vehicles for the last few years. I see that the newer transit with discs on the back has a strange mechanism with a great big FO spring in the system so that the brake is continually pulled, feels very strange when you pull the handbrake.

Do you mean the brake pedal pulls away from your foot when you put the handbrake on? That happens in my Mondeo Mk 3 too.

Seems to happen in just about every car with a handbrake operating on discs.

Not on my Saab 9000. But it need need a new handbrake caliper to pass MOT.

Yep, option.

Chris

Not any more apparently. All they ask now is the reg No of the vehicle and it comes up on their computer. I've had this at main dealers and the likes of GSF, Euro parts. It even works for an L reg LDV 200 as I found out recently.

I remember the days when you'd want brake shoes and they'd ask "Girling or Lockheed brakes?". Then there would be three or four different types to choose from. Needless to say, the one that would fit your car wouldn't be stocked, 'cause "there's no demand for them"

Steve

It seems that "facelift" cars have newer parts fitted as old ones run out, so it still causes problems even when working from the reg no database.

You've clearly never tried to order parts for French cars! Peugeot in particular seem to pick parts out of the bin at random. Some combinations of brake parts simply can't co-exist according to the dealer's data, even when you have taken them in to show them.

Chris

it is the handbrake feel that is weird, because of the spring it feels like the cable is stretching and the first (only?) click is after about 6 or 8 inches of pull.

I remember reading in a car handbook that you should apply the footbrake before pulling the handbrake in order to avoid the 'cool down, release' effect, but I can't remember which make or model that was.

johannes wrote: [snip]

Yes, I drive in the Alps, Dolomites and Apenines. Disks all round essential with slotted and drilled disks up front. Absolutely irreplaceable if towing.

Bad design

It's easy to design the rear disks to incorporate a drum brake for the handbrake. Best solution IMO. If the car has rear drums only the friction material wears and the drums fill up with dust. A disk/drum rear means the handbrake shoes don't wear and last the life of the car.

Nissan seemed to use about 3 different kinds of caliper on the Primera P10s, too - when I needed pads the only place I could get them from was a main dealer.

This used to happen on my Citroen XMs until I found out what it was. I'd put the handbrake on, then find the car had rolled away when i went back to it later.

quite a few mercs and GM saabs used this method. everybody seems to have moved to disk only rears...

In message , Mrcheerful writes

I find it strange only getting the single click, but I suppose it saves that ratchet sound which makes my teeth grate when I hear someone snatch a handbrake on. The movement on mine (Mk3) is rather less than 6/8 inches, I think.

Yep, it took my dad 3 tries to get a fuel tank to fit his 406HDi estate.

I tried to get an alternator for a Citroen in the 1980s. Almost impossible to do. In the same model year they used four different alternators and at least three different diode blocks and a number of different multipole plugs. They also fitted these combinations apparently at random and didn't make a record of the VIN numbers that the alternators were fitted to.

After a month of the dealer trying, and failing, to find the right part I got the alternator rewound to save time.