Parking Brake
 

My 1996 Miata's parking brake does not work. I relpaced the cable running
from the equalizer to the rear caliper on one side, thinking that was the
problem. Then I tightened the cable at the brake lever. It still does not
work. With the car jacked up by the rear differential, I took the wheels
off. I then put the car in 1st gear and let the wheels spin. I can see the
cables pulling the lever on the caliper when I pull up the brake lever in
the car, but the pads still do not engage. I tightened the cable attaching
to the lever on the caliper all the way on both sides, but it still does not
work. I am wondering if my calipers need to be replaced. When calipers are
old, do the levers in the caliper that pull the pads together from the
parking brake sometimes stop working? Do they sometimes need to be
replaced?
Brian

Parking Brake
 

Brian wrote:
> My 1996 Miata's parking brake does not work. I relpaced the cable running
> from the equalizer to the rear caliper on one side, thinking that was the
> problem. Then I tightened the cable at the brake lever. It still does not
> work. With the car jacked up by the rear differential, I took the wheels
> off. I then put the car in 1st gear and let the wheels spin. I can see the
> cables pulling the lever on the caliper when I pull up the brake lever in
> the car, but the pads still do not engage. I tightened the cable attaching
> to the lever on the caliper all the way on both sides, but it still does not
> work. I am wondering if my calipers need to be replaced. When calipers are
> old, do the levers in the caliper that pull the pads together from the
> parking brake sometimes stop working? Do they sometimes need to be
> replaced?
> Brian
>
>

Yes, they will go bad eventually, but there should be some indication
that there is a problem with the calipers.

Any brake caliper that I have had go bad has been leaking brake fluid
past the rubber seals, either from old seals, from corroded/pitted
pistons, and/or both.

Are you certain that the parking brake cable is properly adjusted at the
driver-side brake caliper?

Pat

Parking Brake
 

In article <M4vAf.1601$zh2.1020@trnddc01>,
"Brian" > wrote:

> My 1996 Miata's parking brake does not work.

Have you adjusted the rear brakes recently, or at least after the last
pad change? It doesn' t hurt to check them at each oil change. See the
miata.net Garage for instructions.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Parking Brake
 

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> Have you adjusted the rear brakes recently, or at least after the last
> pad change? It doesn' t hurt to check them at each oil change. See the
> miata.net Garage for instructions.
>

In over 85,000 miles on my two miatas I have adjusted my parking brake
one time, when the rear pads were replaced on the last one.
I also checked it one time just because it seemed like a good thing to
do and everything was fine.

If I had checked the parking brake adjustment at every oil change, that
would have been about 25 to 30 more times that I would have gotten under
there and said, "yes, once again everything is fine".

That seems excessive to me, I thought that the miata was a
low-maintenance, reliable car.
In addition, parking brake problems are not a common miata subject
except when people fail to adjust them properly, almost always after the
pads have been replaced, not from failing to adjust them 4 times a year.

I spend way too much time driving mine and doing other things to verify
4 or 5 times a year that the parking brake that appears to be working
perfectly is in fact properly adjusted.

Pat

Parking Brake
 

"pws" > wrote
> In over 85,000 miles on my two miatas I have adjusted my parking brake
> one time

> Lanny Chambers wrote:
> > Have you adjusted the rear brakes recently, or at least after the last
> > pad change?

Lanny asked about Brian's rear brake adjustment, not his parking brake. If
the adjustment was not done at the last pad change, the parking brake will
not work well as the pads will be too far away from the rotors.
--
Ken Lyons '97 Brilliant Black/'90 Classic Red
Inside the Beltway
[Remove the first two digits to reply]

Parking Brake
 

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> In over 85,000 miles on my two miatas I have adjusted my parking brake
> one time, when the rear pads were replaced on the last one.

I mentioned adjusting the rear brakes, Pat, not the parking brake. The
parking brake cable should probably never need attention, if the rear
caliper adjustments are maintained. Frozen slider pins are another
source of brake problems; mine get cleaned and lubed about every other
oil change.

FWIW, I expect my 136k-mile car to work perfectly, all the time. I'm
happy to pay my mechanic $30 to change the oil, do all the little stuff,
and give the car a general inspection every 3k miles. I'm not poor, and
I haven't enjoyed doing my own maintenance for decades.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Parking Brake
 

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> I mentioned adjusting the rear brakes, Pat, not the parking brake. The
> parking brake cable should probably never need attention, if the rear
> caliper adjustments are maintained. Frozen slider pins are another
> source of brake problems; mine get cleaned and lubed about every other
> oil change.

Ok, I was wrong to mention parking brake, but I am definitely confused here.
Are you saying that the rear brakes require adjustment at frequent
intervals? Why are they different from the front brakes which
self-adjust as the pads wear down? I never adjusted the rear ones except
after pad installation and never had a problem. Did I just get lucky?

I do check and lube the slider pins about once a year.

>
> FWIW, I expect my 136k-mile car to work perfectly, all the time. I'm
> happy to pay my mechanic $30 to change the oil, do all the little stuff,
> and give the car a general inspection every 3k miles. I'm not poor, and
> I haven't enjoyed doing my own maintenance for decades.
>

Well, I am poor, and young enough that doing my own maintenance is no
big deal. Hopefully, I will be old and wealthy one day and will have a
trustworthy mechanic at the time. ;-)

I wouldn't expect any car to function perfectly all of the time,
especially at 136K miles.
The miata is great, it is not magic. Even well-serviced cars break down.

Pat

Parking Brake
 

Ken Lyons wrote:

> Lanny asked about Brian's rear brake adjustment, not his parking brake. If
> the adjustment was not done at the last pad change, the parking brake will
> not work well as the pads will be too far away from the rotors.

Gotcha, but once the adjustment is done, don't the brakes work
identically to the fronts?

The reason that I assumed "parking brake", is because as fas as I can
tell, the adjustment only needs to be made to make sure that the pads
are close enough to the rotors to allow the parking brake to work when
the lever is engaged but far enough away to let the wheels spin freely
when it is released.

Once this is done properly, what need is there to adjust the rear brakes
unless the parking brake is not holding or is not releasing?

Pat

Parking Brake
 

Hi; I originally started this thread. Yes, the parking brake stopped
working when I changed the rear pads myself. I remember the time before
that the rear brakes were changed a very skilled mechanic had trouble with
my parking brake. It's hard to explain, but I'll try. The parking brake
cable starts at the lever in the car. it then travels to an equalizer that
splits the cable to two directions; left and right rear calipers. Each of
those cables connects to a lever on the left and right rear calipers. It
would seem to me that if the cables pull that lever (when the parking brake
is applied), the parking brake should engage. My cables pull that lever
just fine, but the parking brake still does not work. Also, the rear brakes
themselves work just fine when I press the brake pedal. So, I think I
adjusted and seated the brake pads in the caliper fine when I changed the
brakes. But still, the parking brake does not work, even though the lever
on the caliper gets pulled when the parking brake is applied. I figured
maybe it was a problem with the calipers themselves (the mechanism that
allows that lever on the caliper to squeeze the pads on the disk). However,
I am suspicious that *both* calipers have a problem. That's why maybe there
is some adjustment on the calipers for the parking brake I don't know about,
or maybe I did something wrong when I changed the pads. I'm baffled. Any
ideas?
Brian

Parking Brake
 

In article <3gCAf.1686$zh2.1480@trnddc01>,
"Brian" > wrote:

> However,
> I am suspicious that *both* calipers have a problem. That's why maybe there
> is some adjustment on the calipers for the parking brake I don't know about,
> or maybe I did something wrong when I changed the pads.

I think so, too. Visit miata.net, go to the Garage section, and read
about brake pad installation. The rear adjustment procedure, which
involves an Allen wrench, is explained in detail.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html