W205 C63S Electronic Parking (Hand)Brake Adjustment?

[356speedster]

Does anyone on here know if the Electronic Parking Handbrake on a C63 W205 is adjustable?

My car is 4yrs old, only done 10K miles and on it's MOT last mth, the tester (local garage, not an MB dealer) advised the handbrake was marginal. He suggested it needed adjustment and that on Mercs, it should be part of the annual service. As the car was going to an MB dealer for it's service later, I raised it with them and they said they'd look at it, but weren't sure it was a service item.....

Anyway, the car came back from MB yesterday with the feedback: the electronic handbrake (which operated on the calliper) is non-adjustable and even though the rear brakes aren't even half worn, new discs & pads (£1,000) would be needed to rectify the handbrake. This seems ludicrous! Surely an electronic handbrake ought to have some adjustment capability?

Does anyone on here have any experience of the same or is able to offer any feedback on adjusting the handbrake? Thanks as always!

 

[colinallcars]

Does anyone on here know if the Electronic Parking Handbrake on a C63 W205 is adjustable?

My car is 4yrs old, only done 10K miles and on it's MOT last mth, the tester (local garage, not an MB dealer) advised the handbrake was marginal. He suggested it needed adjustment and that on Mercs, it should be part of the annual service. As the car was going to an MB dealer for it's service later, I raised it with them and they said they'd look at it, but weren't sure it was a service item.....

Anyway, the car came back from MB yesterday with the feedback: the electronic handbrake (which operated on the calliper) is non-adjustable and even though the rear brakes aren't even half worn, new discs & pads (£1,000) would be needed to rectify the handbrake. This seems ludicrous! Surely an electronic handbrake ought to have some adjustment capability?

Does anyone on here have any experience of the same or is able to offer any feedback on adjusting the handbrake? Thanks as always!

Pretty certain it’s self adjusting. You could check that the pads haven’t seized in the carrier, that would impact efficiency. MB’s answer to this could well be to replace the lot.

 

[356speedster]

Thanks for the reply. The car drives / brakes fine, so the pads haven't seized, but it may be worth a disassemble & clean just incase, that wouldn't hurt. It just seems odd to me that an electrical part doesn't have any adjustment, automatic or otherwise.

 

[colinallcars]

Thanks for the reply. The car drives / brakes fine, so the pads haven't seized, but it may be worth a disassemble & clean just incase, that wouldn't hurt. It just seems odd to me that an electrical part doesn't have any adjustment, automatic or otherwise.

It is automatic adjustment, that’s what I meant by self adjusting. You could force it to move to its extremes by putting the brakes into ’pad replacement mode’ in the service menu and repeating the exercise a few times, you’ll hear the motors ’whirr’. I’ve done this in the past to resolve a parking brake error message on the dash.

 

[356speedster]

It is automatic adjustment, that’s what I meant by self adjusting. You could force it to move to its extremes by putting the brakes into ’pad replacement mode’ in the service menu and repeating the exercise a few times, you’ll hear the motors ’whirr’. I’ve done this in the past to resolve a parking brake error message on the dash.

Thanks for the suggestion.... I found a video to help getting into Workshop mode, so have done that. I put the car into Pad Replacement Mode and then cycled the options for it to complete the process and go back to normal. Hopefully this has sorted the inefficient handbrake, I'll pop to my MOT centre and get them to stick it on the rollers to confirm. Fingers crossed, thanks!

 

[BlackC55]

There is no adjustment. Some brake rollers flag up inefficient parking brakes very easily.

 

[356speedster]

RESOLVED! Posting the closing update as it may well help other owners with Electronic Handbrakes.....

It seems there is a safety feature which does not allow the handbrake to be applied with full power when the engine is running, even in Neutral. With the engine switched off, the handbrake operates with it's full power and easily passed the MOT requirement. It seems even my local MB garage didn't know this and advised I needed £1K of new rear brakes......

Hopefully this helps other owners, in the event they're given an MOT warning / failure / big bill for handbrake efficiency.

 

[BlackC55]

RESOLVED! Posting the closing update as it may well help other owners with Electronic Handbrakes.....

It seems there is a safety feature which does not allow the handbrake to be applied with full power when the engine is running, even in Neutral. With the engine switched off, the handbrake operates with it's full power and easily passed the MOT requirement. It seems even my local MB garage didn't know this and advised I needed £1K of new rear brakes......

Hopefully this helps other owners, in the event they're given an MOT warning / failure / big bill for handbrake efficiency.

I am not sure about this. How was it tested?

 

[356speedster]

I am not sure about this. How was it tested?

Exactly as I said, with the engine off. When the engine is on, it won't give full power to the handbrake - with the engine off, full power is achieved and it passed the test on the MOT rig. I presume it's a safety feature to prevent a catastrophe by activating it while driving.

 

[ernie]

I am not sure about this. How was it tested?

Does seem a bit odd....I could lock the rear wheels with the hand-brake on both my 205s and both cars passed their MOTs when the pads were worn to the point when they got a mention as 'advisories'. Before anybody comments, the pads were replaced at that point! In fact, isn't the electronic handbrake the recommended way of stopping if there is a complete failure of the hydraulic system?

Ernie

Edit...Just thinking a little further about this, I wonder if somebody has tried to replace the pads in the OP's car in the past without using the engineering menu and forced the calliper apart to obtain a fit?

 

[356speedster]

Does seem a bit odd....I could lock the rear wheels with the hand-brake on both my 205s and both cars passed their MOTs when the pads were worn to the point when they got a mention as 'advisories'. Before anybody comments, the pads were replaced at that point! In fact, isn't the electronic handbrake the recommended way of stopping if there is a complete failure of the hydraulic system?

Ernie

Edit...Just thinking a little further about this, I wonder if somebody has tried to replace the pads in the OP's car in the past without using the engineering menu and forced the calliper apart to obtain a fit?

Hi Ernie..... I can tell you that no, the pads haven't been replaced (or attempted), my car is super low mileage, brakes are original and no where near the point of needing changing.

Further to add..... I ran the engineering menu brake pad process and there was no change. This is 100% built into the software of the car (a later facelift car, so maybe with different software to your car). I'm fortunate to have a close friend who owns an MOT centre and we put the car on his rollers, with me operating it. With the engine running, the park brake button only delivers a lot amount of force and you can hear the calliper motors only going so far. In an emergency, it'd slow the car, but it wouldn't lock the wheels. We then switched the engine off and repeated the test - this time the calliper motors are audibly doing more work and the result was 4x more braking force measured by the MOT rig.

My tester friend confirmed that this is normal on a lot of modern cars with electronic parking brakes, it's not limited to MB. However, as not all testers know this, some cars can be failed unnecessarily and in my case, my MB dealership tried to charge me £1K for new rear discs & pads, as they simply said the brakes were worn and that's why the handbrake wasn't effective!

I hope this post saves other members from unnecessary 4-figure bills. My wife's C300 will be due it's MOT in the summer, it'll be interesting to see if that's any different.....

 

[ernie]

Hi Ernie..... I can tell you that no, the pads haven't been replaced (or attempted), my car is super low mileage, brakes are original and no where near the point of needing changing.

Further to add..... I ran the engineering menu brake pad process and there was no change. This is 100% built into the software of the car (a later facelift car, so maybe with different software to your car). I'm fortunate to have a close friend who owns an MOT centre and we put the car on his rollers, with me operating it. With the engine running, the park brake button only delivers a lot amount of force and you can hear the calliper motors only going so far. In an emergency, it'd slow the car, but it wouldn't lock the wheels. We then switched the engine off and repeated the test - this time the calliper motors are audibly doing more work and the result was 4x more braking force measured by the MOT rig.

My tester friend confirmed that this is normal on a lot of modern cars with electronic parking brakes, it's not limited to MB. However, as not all testers know this, some cars can be failed unnecessarily and in my case, my MB dealership tried to charge me £1K for new rear discs & pads, as they simply said the brakes were worn and that's why the handbrake wasn't effective!

I hope this post saves other members from unnecessary 4-figure bills. My wife's C300 will be due it's MOT in the summer, it'll be interesting to see if that's any different.....

Thanks for that update; what you say makes sense to me now because on both my cars, 2014 and 2018, just before the update, an application of the handbrake in an emergency could have been dangerous. appreciate your warning to others.

Ernie

 

[ALFAitalia]

RESOLVED! Posting the closing update as it may well help other owners with Electronic Handbrakes.....

It seems there is a safety feature which does not allow the handbrake to be applied with full power when the engine is running, even in Neutral. With the engine switched off, the handbrake operates with it's full power and easily passed the MOT requirement. It seems even my local MB garage didn't know this and advised I needed £1K of new rear brakes......

Hopefully this helps other owners, in the event they're given an MOT warning / failure / big bill for handbrake efficiency.

Good news.....but it does make me wonder how many others would have just agreed with the Merc dealer and blown a bag of sand sorting a non existing problem. Makes me glad I do all my own work!