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#1
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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 |
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#2
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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 |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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 |
#5
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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] |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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 |
#8
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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 |
#9
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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 |
#10
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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 |
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