Focus handbrake

Feb 07, 2009 2 Replies
D

With an MOT due next week a mate suggested trying the handbrake on my little used 48k miles 2001 3 door 2.0 ESP Focus as they tend to seize at the age my car is at. Sure enough taking it down the road for a quick spin the handbrake does three fifths of FA other than eventually lock up just the offside tyre eventually. I sure as hell wouldn't want to have to stop the car in an emergency with it so I'm quite pleased to know about the problem. I'm not sure the nearside is working at all based on the retardation. The footbrake is fine. There's plenty of pad and disk left on the back so I'm assuming it's just a linkage issue. I don't actually yet know how the handbrake actuates the calipers on this until I get it all apart so any pointers for the job?



Any other likely fail points on this model at said age/mileage? Suspension bushes etc? It feels tight as a drum driving it so I doubt if much else is wrong.


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C

If it's rear calipers, it could actually be a seized handbrake mechanism inside the caliper which usually means a recon caliper.

At 48k miles, there's not much to look out for other than the usual you would on any car.

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H

Not sure this applies, so see if it fits....

Ford use a rear caliper which uses an arm to actuate the hand brake on to the pads. If you remove a wheel and get someone to apply and release the handbrake you will see an arm move. The arm is on top of the caliper forward of the axial and has the handbrake cable hooked onto it and a rather strong hair spring.

The spindle where it enters the caliper gets water in it and can seize up, holding the hand brake on a little as well as reducing the hand brakes efficiency.

Applying some lubricant and moving the arm back and forth with some grips, usually frees it off. Sometimes tapping the top of the pivot, where is is fixed in the arm with an hammer also helps. Once free apply some waterproof grease around the spindle.

Take care not to get any oil or grease near the pads.

The job takes ten minutes per side and I used to do it annually on my Ford.

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