OT Daily Drive E-Brake

My Emergency brake on my Daily Driver 95 Escort Wagon was not holding the car and needed some adjustment. Car is a 5 Speed, so I need it to warm the car up because my driveway has a very minimal incline. I take the car to Meineke Muffler & Brake Shop to have the adjustment made. The car has over 100K on it, so they said that the cables needed to be replaced. For some reason they said this car uses Three cables. I go to get it fixed, and they said that I need back brake pads or the e brake probably won't work because they are pretty worn. It had been a long time since I replace the back brakes, so I went ahead and got that done too.

Got the car back and it worked for a couple of weeks, and it started to roll back in the driveway again with the e-brake fully on. I took it back to Meineke, and they said that you are not suppoed to use the e-brake to hold a car on a hill. They tried to claim that my driveway was practically a 90 degree angle even though one of the techs drove by my house to look at it and saw that it was not much of a hill. They said that Ford says that you are supposed to use reverse as your e brake, and not use the actual emergency brake to hold the car. They said that by using it to hold the car in the driveway that I am at fault and must have stretched the new cables and ruined, so tough luck. I told them I wanted at least a partial refund because I came to them and paid hard earned money to get a problem fixed and I still have the same problem. They said a big NO on that. They told me that I should take it to Ford (and pay myself) and have them look at it and see if anything was done improperly. They also said that this problem must be a defect on this particular car, and it is not their fault. I e mailed Meineke Corporate, and got a response back that was expected which was NONE. It is not a big enough amount of money to incur the expense of suing over and I can't really take off work to go to small claims court, but the arrogance of this organization aggravating. I won't be going back there again. I guess I should go to the Ford dealer next time I need work done instead of trusting these non customer friendly places to fix my car properly.

Reply to
Bill Berckman
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That's true, Bill. That's why they call it an emergency brake.

Reply to
jjs

its WRONG John....read *any* owners manual it has been called a "PARKING" brake for the past couple decades at least....Bill got HOSED by a chain that is notorious for hosing people....if your brakes will hold the car your parking brake should also...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

About the same symptoms occurred on my 82 Honda Civic. It too has three cables. One from the brake handle and one each to the rear wheels. The handle operates a pivot mechanism at the rear axle. On my car, the pivot mechanism was partially rusted so only one rear brake would operate. The pivot mechanism came of with the removal of a cotter pin. I cleaned the rust off and greased everything and now it works fine.

I don't particularly like working on cars but too often I had run into the dog and pony show that Meineke gave you. That is why I own simple cars so I can avoid the "professionals."

Reply to
Bob

Reply to
Ben Boyle

So what. You aren't supposed to use the PARKING break for parking. (And he called it the E-Brake, right?)

Reply to
jjs

What the fark do you use it for, then? By the way, you misspelled "brake."

Reply to
Shag

Bullshit.

Reply to
Shag

............I replaced the three part cable assembly on my Nissan 4x4 truck last year. One of them was frozen up inside the sheath and because of its age I decided to replace everything. The Nissan dealer nailed me for over $200 for the parts. I really needed that 'parking' brake on the ramp when launching or hauling out my 16' boat from its trailer. One thing that threw me for a loop is that I had to readjust the tightness of the cables in the two spots where the slack can be removed at about a month after the installation. I think that there must be a little stretch that new cables have after their installed. It's been perfectly OK now since last fall and I no longer have to worry about it rolling into the water when I'm winching my boat out of the water on to its trailer.

Reply to
Tim Rogers

yeah and the "park" position on an automatic trans is for going backwards too...

yes he did...and from what i gather that is what he was told it was for, not for parking...hence my post...it wasn't exactly directed to you as much as to bill....they are hosing him and he and everyone here sees that....

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

No, it's just for emergencies. :) Real men move forward.

It ain't for parking, except briefly. Tim showed one example.

Well, yeah, we all know that.

(My man, you don't sound so good. Are you sick today?)

Reply to
jjs

One thing that threw > me for a loop is that I had to readjust the tightness of the cables in the two spots where the slack can be removed at about a month after the

EXACTLY! New cables stretch. Some stretch a lot. Doesn't matter if it's the brake cable on your bicycle or the clutch cable on your VW or the brake cables on your Escort, it's gonna stretch and need re-adjustment after it settles in. My gauge to when the rear brakes on my bus need adjusting is how far out the parking brake lever comes. They go together. I suggest that the new brake shoes have also worn in. I assumed that the Escort has 4 wheel discs??? I don't know the mechanism that they use for parking brake, but if it has three cables, it leads to the assumption that it has rear drums. If this is the case (rear drums) then you might well solve the problem by backing the car and slamming the (regular) brakes a few times to get that slack out. I also expect that the parking brake holds the car from rolling forward much better than from rolling backward, but most reverse gears are so weak, backing up the hill is not a viable option.

There's slack that occurs as new parts seat in. It needs to be compensated for. I wouldn't be surpised if there is no way to compensate in a late model inexpesive car (even though I cannot afford one!) Maybe go to a frame alignment shop and have them stretch the thing a few mm's! -BaH

Reply to
Busahaulic

don't take my word for it...check any owners manual and let us know what they suggest....*ALWAYS* apply the parking brake when exiting the vehicle...and they even go on to say that in an automatic you should shift to neutral to set the parking brake to keep the stress caused by the wieght of the vehicle off the trans...

i'm fine, thanks for your concern...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

Wow, Chris. You and this other guy must be idiots. This other guy says:

Fairfax, Va.: Should we use parking brake all the time? Or putting car into parking shift is enough?

Pat Goss: Park is never enough. Always use the parking brake. The proper procedure is apply the parking brake then put the gear selector into park. This will place all the load on the brakes rather than the transmission.

"Pat Goss has worked on cars for more than 40 years. He owns a car repair company that bears his name, has authored numerous books on auto maintenance, and makes weekly appearances on Motorweek, a PBS television program."

Source:

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Ol' JJ has been working on cars for a living for at least 50-60 years now and he says you should not use the parking brake for parking so Chris, you and this other guy are obviously IDIOTS. Right, JJ? You have been working on cars for a living and have written books on the subject and appear regularly on television giving car advice, right? JJ is obviously NOT an IDIOT running off at the mouth. Chris and Pat Goss are OBVIOUSLY just stupid and completely off-base here. Right, JJ? Right? Is that what you're saying? Huh? Right?

Reply to
Shag

The think that I am finding out about shops like Meineke as Ben said, they compete on price, and the person that suffers is the customer. I guess VW parts are similar. A guy like John Connolly that offers tech advise, service and guarantees after the sale, has to compete with some guy with a Yahoo store selling the lowest quality parts ever to come out of Brazil. Which would you rather have?

Reply to
Bill Berckman

might be...i just try to help out sometimes...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

I think I may know (but possibly not) where the term parking brake originated. I remember when I was 9 or 10 (1970-71) and we were at a family gathering at my great uncles house. It was mostly old people so my brother and I went outside to play and wound up in his Two car garage. He had a fairly new 1966 Bel Air, and also kept his old 1953 Pontiac which was still in good shape since it had been in the garage. The 53 was an early automatic. The funny thing about this automatis was that then there was no Park gear as in modern cars. You simply used your parking brake to hold the car. This is why I am guessing it was called a parking brake. The gear selection was also not in the typical R,N,D,2,1 fashion. My parents bought a new Chevrolet Biscayne in 1959 and by this time it did have a Park gear in the same pattern that is still used today. Back when the Automatics were new in the 50's the automakers all had some fancy name for them. Chevrolet called theirs Powerglide, and Oldsmobile called theirs Dynaflow and American Motors called theirs Torqueflite and you got a Fordomatic on a Ford vehicle. For some reason the early automatics did not do as well in the snow as their manual counterparts, so there was a saying about the Chevrolet product that said "Slip and Slide with Powerglide. These auto transmissions were also nicknamed slushboxes due to their less than stellar acceleration.

Reply to
Bill Berckman

Maybe you could show me some citations along with the YELLING.

I guess Ford thinks differently. "!(warning symbol)... Make sure that the gearshift is securely latched in Park (P)."

Reply to
jjs

Yep. Never found a new cable that was stressed that didn't stretch, for example "parking" brakes. (What did VW call that brake in Bug? Anybody got an original manual?).

Reply to
jjs

Reply to
Ben Boyle

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