Car failed MOT on handbrake - can you adjust?

[stephenmercedes]

2001 W203 C240 - car just failed MOT as handbrake efficiency reached only 12% efficiency rather than target of 16%. Have booked car in with my garage next week to get fixed, but was just curious, can the cable be adjusted, or is it likely I'll need new shoes etc?

 

[thebiglad]

I'll be interested in what peeps have to say on this one...........................................

 

[clk320x]

2001 W203 C240 - car just failed MOT as handbrake efficiency reached only 12% efficiency rather than target of 16%. Have booked car in with my garage next week to get fixed, but was just curious, can the cable be adjusted, or is it likely I'll need new shoes etc?

Mine had the same, took my mech about 2 mins to adjust it and it flew through the retest no worries.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

2001 W203 C240 - car just failed MOT as handbrake efficiency reached only 12% efficiency rather than target of 16%. Have booked car in with my garage next week to get fixed, but was just curious, can the cable be adjusted, or is it likely I'll need new shoes etc?

The shoes will need adjusting inside the rear drum . tighten until the wheel locks up with handbrake off . then back off until wheel turns freely . 1 or 2 turns is normally req.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
It will be very unlikely the shoes will be worn out, it will most likely be just slack cables.
From memory on a 203 the cable adjustment is under the backseat.

 

[clk320x]

The shoes will need adjusting inside the rear drum . tighten until the wheel locks up with handbrake off . then back off until wheel turns freely . 1 or 2 turns is normally req.

This sounds similar to what my indie did IIRC.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

This sounds similar to what my indie did IIRC.

Its better to adjust the shoes before the cable.

 

[Salal]

There’s two adjustments. The proper and official way to do it would be to release the tension on the tension quadrant under the rear seat bench which is right in the middle under a panel that is held by 3 bolts.

Then go the both rear wheels and remove one wheel bolt (or the whole wheels to make it easier and you will need to adjust an adjustment wheel with a flat blade screwdriver until you can’t spin the brake by hand anymore and back it off by 2-3 seration on the adjustment wheel until both brake spin freely. And then adjust the quadrant again until you can achieve 7-9 clicks on the footbrake. If the pads won’t jam against the disc during adjustment it means they are worn and need changing but they are very cheap.

It is wrong to just adjust the quadrant under the rear seats but depending on how it is rigged at the wheels it might just be sufficient but they may not be equal and can still fail the MOT test again due to uneven application or insufficient braking at just one wheel if it’s really badly adjusted.

A good practice as well is two apply the handbrake/footbrake lightly while driving at 20mph or so just to resurface them every once in a while to remove any surface corrosion.

That’s just a overview of it, there’s plenty of DIYs with pictures, videos and guides if you search online if your interested to see more of how it works.

 

[stephenmercedes]

Well, the 1st thing the mechanic did was pull out the rear seat, so thanks to the above explanation, I knew they were on the right track! Things seemed to be moving quickly, then there was some sharp intakes of breath, and he was joined by a colleague for about 10 minutes. Anyway, it transpires that the rear backplate on the drivers side had corrosion which was preventing the spring mechanisms from working properly. After a bit of joint fettling, they competed the job. My car had it's MOT retest today, and the 12% fail efficiency had leapt up to a 22% pass. Who doesn't like a happy ending...

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Nice job.

 

[mercmancdi]

There’s two adjustments. The proper and official way to do it would be to release the tension on the tension quadrant under the rear seat bench which is right in the middle under a panel that is held by 3 bolts.

Then go the both rear wheels and remove one wheel bolt (or the whole wheels to make it easier and you will need to adjust an adjustment wheel with a flat blade screwdriver until you can’t spin the brake by hand anymore and back it off by 2-3 seration on the adjustment wheel until both brake spin freely. And then adjust the quadrant again until you can achieve 7-9 clicks on the footbrake. If the pads won’t jam against the disc during adjustment it means they are worn and need changing but they are very cheap.

It is wrong to just adjust the quadrant under the rear seats but depending on how it is rigged at the wheels it might just be sufficient but they may not be equal and can still fail the MOT test again due to uneven application or insufficient braking at just one wheel if it’s really badly adjusted.

A good practice as well is two apply the handbrake/footbrake lightly while driving at 20mph or so just to resurface them every once in a while to remove any surface corrosion.

That’s just a overview of it, there’s plenty of DIYs with pictures, videos and guides if you search online if your interested to see more of how it works.

There’s two adjustments. The proper and official way to do it would be to release the tension on the tension quadrant under the rear seat bench which is right in the middle under a panel that is held by 3 bolts.

Then go the both rear wheels and remove one wheel bolt (or the whole wheels to make it easier and you will need to adjust an adjustment wheel with a flat blade screwdriver until you can’t spin the brake by hand anymore and back it off by 2-3 seration on the adjustment wheel until both brake spin freely. And then adjust the quadrant again until you can achieve 7-9 clicks on the footbrake. If the pads won’t jam against the disc during adjustment it means they are worn and need changing but they are very cheap.

It is wrong to just adjust the quadrant under the rear seats but depending on how it is rigged at the wheels it might just be sufficient but they may not be equal and can still fail the MOT test again due to uneven application or insufficient braking at just one wheel if it’s really badly adjusted.

A good practice as well is two apply the handbrake/footbrake lightly while driving at 20mph or so just to resurface them every once in a while to remove any surface corrosion.

That’s just a overview of it, there’s plenty of DIYs with pictures, videos and guides if you search online if your interested to see more of how it works.

Does same set up apply to w211 E320 cdi. Do you know.

 

[OneForTheRoad]

Does same set up apply to w211 E320 cdi. Do you know.

I looked when I owned a w211 , nothing under my seats,I was told it was external under some plastic cover towards the rear of the car.

 

[Benzowner]

Brings back memories of adjusting all the drum brakes on my old Mini

 

[mercmancdi]

I looked when I owned a w211 , nothing under my seats,I was told it was external under some plastic cover towards the rear of the car.

Thanks ,I think my shoes are ok but maybe
bit of cable adjustment might help.