Vectra brakes

The Handbrake on the current shape Vectra isn't very effective and is known to slacken when parked allowing the car to roll away...

Tim..

Tim.. ( snipped-for-privacy@spam.btinternet.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Perennial problem with handbrakes on disks.

Remember the Xantia recall about '93/4?

yeah but does the vectra have pneumatic/hydraulic suspension?

adder1969 ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It was nothing to do with the suspension.

As the disks cooled, if the handbrake had been insufficiently applied, it eased off and the car went for a wander.

The Saab does it, too - except it's held in check by the fact you have to lock it in reverse to remove the key instead of a steering lock. Get in on a hill, take it out of reverse, and watch the world start to go by.

It'll happen on damn near everything with a handbrake clamping the disk - some rear disks have small drums built in for the handbrake precisely because of it.

Adrian ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I should add - apart from the fact that hydraulic Cits have the handbrake on the front, as the wheelbase changes as the car settles. If t'were on the rear, and the car left in gear, stress would be put on the 'box.

My Saab's a '90, so the handbrake's on the back.

Do you do many miles in it? I'm quite tempted to go and drop my £3k new car budget on a C900 T16...

Doki ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Daily driver. I sold the XM. '90/H c900 T16 3dr, black, dk grey leather, air, cruise.

Mmm. That would have bought six... Of course, for that money, the roof's optional, p'raps?

That's the sort of thing I'd want. How many miles do you cover? I can be doing upwards of a thousand a week, so I need it to be reliable...

They've come back down have they? Last time I was looking, £500 got you a very ratty one. I'd want it to be nigh on immaculate bodywise, as I've discovered that I hate doing bodywork, and pretty good inside. There's a nice one on my street that I keep trying to buy...

The older Saabs (pre-GM) are much better built and don't rot much - I had '90/G a couple of years ago which was spotless. Should have kept it.

The new ones are just Vectras.

So why did they take the backwards step of removing it? The R reg veccy I had had the handbrake drum. Then again, since seeing the Citroen (too close to Lemon in it's home tongue for me) on Watchdog, I always park in gear anyway.

Bob

Having had several BMWs with handbrake drums built into the rear discs it's not an ideal solution. The brake is only used for parking so can loose efficiency without you really noticing. Until it fails to hold. They also start out from a pretty poor base efficiency wise so haven't got much to spare.

Then surely Vauxhall ought to be sending out a recall, rather than a letter telling you how to park??

Does anyone know if the hand brake does have to hold the car by law? If so why/how can they say it must be left in gearat all times when parked? I thought that if you have a handbrake so unreliable that it had to be left in gear it would fail an MOT!

When I first got my veccy, I had to stop using the handbrake to do the last bit of stopping at junctions because it locked the back wheels! I thought it must be a locking pin going in rather than a drum/shoe mechanism.

Bob

..because it's how you're supposed to park a car and how you should have been taught. Many don't do it, hence the reminder.

No the handbrake will work perfectly well in an MOT test. As has been explained previously, hot brakes cool down, different metals contract at different rates hence there's a *chance* the brakes will release when cold even if originally firmly applied when hot.

In any case, a handbrake is an inefficient single point of failure device (e.g. cable snapping) and it would take a brave soul to trust his vehicle security entirely to it. Leave it in gear then if the handbrake should become ineffective for any reason, you're covered - simple..no?

Doki ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I can be, too - but fortunately not that often. Just done about 600+ miles over the weekend, though.

I think I was fairly lucky in getting this 'un for that money. There's a couple of little bits that could do with attention, but nothing much bodily

- the rear corners of the bonnet seem to be the worst.

There's a few mechanical niggles I've got to iron out with mine, but I do like 'em to be *right* - f'rexample, I've got a complete rear suspension bush set to put in. There's a few engine bay vac leaks where the pipes are aging. Central locking and cruise seem awol at the mo. That kinda silly stuff.

I use gears on hills but this is to be done at all times. Does it state in the highway code gears should be used at all times?

By the way i have driven most types of vehicles for over a million miles and never had a cable fail.

No.

It would be more likely to fail whilst being applied, rather than afterwards.

In 43 years of driving, I've never had one fail either.

Chris

I have.

First time I ever drove (with Dad advising...) - I drove out of our garage and up our steep drive, then stalled it. He grabbed the handbrake (since I didn't have the reflexes to hit the brake pedal) and yanked it.

Snap.

Luckily there were lots of cheaply replaced impact absorbing materials at the back of the garage...