Mazda 6 Forums UK
Technical Section => Steering/Suspension/Brakes => Topic started by: markiboy44 on June 17, 2014, 03:20:39 pm
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hi guys. I have a repair manual and it says the way to adjust the mazda 6's handbrake is to pull the ashtray out from behind the center console and there is an alans bit that you turn to adjust. I just dont have an ashtray on the back of it! Does anyone else know how to do this?
thanks mark
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I have done this today myself, I see you have the second gen model like me? the adjustment screw isn't behind the rear ashtray, it's actually attached to the hand brake lever itself, you have to remove the trim around the hand brake lever including the push lid, very easy to do, then you will see the adjustment bolt, I gave mine a couple of turns and it worked great, much better now, just don't over do it so the brakes are on with the lever down, plenty of videos on youtube about it,
Andy
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Agree with above. Easy job.
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Hey,
I've adjusted my handbrake about 8 weeks ago and now it seems loose again, does anyone has any suggestions before taking it to the garage?
Many thanks in advance
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Take the rear wheels off and check the thickness of the brake pads ... look at both inner and outer pad each side.
Check cables seated correctly at each caliper.
With wheels refitted and rear of car off the ground ... supported safely ..... try adjusting the handbrake cable again. When handbrake off, check wheels rotate freely.
It should hold firm with only a few clicks ..... mustn't lift up to contact extended sliding centre armrest if you have one of these.
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Thanks for your help with this, the brake pads or discs should be no problem at all as I've changed them over at the same time of adjusting the hand brake, I will re-look at the cable at the callipers. Do you know how far can you adjust the cable at the nut before needing to change the cable?
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I find the hand brake on the 6 weak. It was on my 2003 Sport as well. Although it does seriously p*** me off when the missus nearly snaps the lever every time she applies the brake. Lift it until resistance then as SM25T says, two clicks.
I used to own a mark iv Golf and the handbrake on that think was superb.
It might be something you have to live with.
Farnsy
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The handbrake system on the 6 is 100% preferable to the Electronic Hand brakes on some cars.
Those thing can be mega big problems when they stick on.! You a'nt going no place fast.!
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I find the 6 handbrake works fine.
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So the question is where am I going wrong then? Mmmm maybe the garage it is then
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Keep us posted.
Could the self-adjuster be seized one side ?
Have you got a brake wind-back tool ?
After refitting the pads and backing off the adjuster inside the piston - - with the handbrake still OFF - you should press hard on the brake pedal a few times to allow the self-adjuster to do just that.
Then adjust the handbrake.
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Any developments ?
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Tbh with you in haven't looked at the handbrake since the last post which I must do very soon, I will keep you posted!!
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I thought I would resurrect this post rather than starting a new one.
I've been having a gradual worsening of the effectiveness of my handbrake for the last couple of years.
The handbrake mechanism consists of a short front cable that connects to a bracket holding two individual cables that run the rear offside and near side calipers respectively.
I initially addressed it by tightening the front cable from the handbrake adjustment screw, which sufficed for a few months.
But now, when I'm on an incline of more than say 1in10, the handbrake will no longer hold the car.
To investigate I checked and bled the brakes for good measure and proved that the rear brakes were working effectively by jacking the car up and having someone press the brake pedal. In normal driving, the car doesn't pull to the left of the right when braking, so I don't think it's a case of a faulty caliper.
So with the car jacked up, I tested the effectiveness of the handbrake and found that whilst the near side does activate when the handbrake is pulled, it looks as if the cable is stretched to the point it cannot fully pull on the caliper side mech. When I look at the cable lengths entering the car, the left/near side cable appears 3 inches longer as the joining bracket sits askew.
I've read a lot of posts on this and other forums suggesting the calipers have a self adjusting mechanism or even a manually adjustable mechanism, however upon visual inspection and a review of the workshop manual there is no evidence to suggest either exist. If anyone has evidence to suggest otherwise, it would be useful to know.
I recently changed the rear pads and inspected the discs and calipers at that time and found nothing too concerning, as I did suspect a corrosion on the caliper piston - which could be expected for a vehicle that's covered 150,000miles.
I can only assume that the problem I'm experiencing is down to cable stretch. My car has been parked mostly on slopes since I've owned it at work and home. Anyhow, I'm off to order a new set of rear cables so I'll find out in the next week or so what the root cause is. There is a slim chance it could still be an issue with the near side caliper but changing the rear cables for £35 is less messy and slightly cheaper than a new caliper at £53. I could buy a caliper piston refurb kit for £20, but two hours saved is worth £33 to me.
BTW. I wasn't impressed with the quality of the Pagid replacement front cable. The metalwork should be certified as dangerous. I was able to unhook the two rear cables without attached to the original unit without looking, once the centre cup holder was out and the handbrake slackened. However, I had to give up fitting the new one after a few minutes as my hands looked as if they'd just arm-wrestled Edward Scissorhands. I resorted to removing the six screws to disassemble the central console and armrest unit.
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The calipers can also seize open/half-open, so in that case it will brake less effectively.
My handbrake ended up with no resistance while pulling it. No clicks as well. The car was not holding on hill until the handbrake was fully engaged but I thought it had to do with the calipers. The garage replaced the whole cable and yes removed the central console. They messed up with the airbag cables and got a flashing air bag light which then I managed to fix at home by reattached the wedge bulb.
After cleaning the calipers, the garage said it is fine but the left caliper is still not cleaning up the whole disc and the other may brakes too much. No trust at all from now on to the garage. Previously another garage managed to fit reconditioned calipers without being able to resolve the overheating problem. I have no idea why these people are called professionals.
Is your £53 caliper new or reconditioned? There is a company on ebay which sells rear calipers for something less than £120. I have no idea about their quality, but even the ones the garage fitted, they failed in less than a year. There are no similar sets for the front.
Now I have the front right heating up! I do not know what else to do. Unless I return back to the old trusty garage before I changed cities, I cannot find another way of fixing it.
Even the cable they fitted, it starts giving way. My total cost was £370 for rear calipers, discs and pads, and then £220 for the cable and unseizing the supposed reconditioned calipers. I think that is enough, even i fI have to drive the 200+ miles back to the old garage and having it done properly like it deserves.
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The calipers I've seen on ebay are new or at least professionally re-furbished, and they are sold by highly rated suppliers.
In fact this morning, I found a supplier in Germany who offers a new caliper for £47 including postage and I don't need to pay a deposit or return my old cores to them. That's my back up plan if the new rear cables don't to the job.
Luckily a caliper swap is quite easy. I was tempted to buy a new pair for the rears on account they are so cheap. I have plenty of Millers Oils racing brake fluid and I've contemplated a set of stainless braided hoses too.
I don't trust garages anymore. A lot of the young mechanics I've come across in London are trained to swap parts and not diagnose faults. I've seen mechanics apply the wrong type of grease to caliper slider pins and brake pads. When installing brakes, people seldom clean the key caliper contact surfaces and instead they try to whack in a pad that sticks solid and wont slide back and forth as pressure is applied and removed. I'm lazy so I use a Dremel type tool with a mini grinding disc or wire brush attachment to free up the hardened debris. I also use this thing called brake cleaner that escapes some people :D
I've seen a front RH and LH brake calipers for a GH model on ebay for about £140, and Autodoc sell them from about £55 each + postage
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I did not know about this autodoc! It looks amazing.
I bet that my calipers were not good and the monkey was shouting that they were find and did not want to replace them in warranty.
I have no idea how he messed up and the new calipers did not work.
The other garage found one of them being 10% lazy. He says it is the handbrake but it does not even look that is braking right.
Can you sell the old caliper or do you keep them as suvenir?
I wish I had the space to play it with it. Even if I had to be there many times, at least I would know that it was done properly.
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Autodoc are a good source of parts. I've used them for years. The only downside is that the delivery timescales can vary by as much as 5 working days. But I'm a patient guy and I remember the days of mail order which took 28 - 60days for something to arrive.
I'm still waiting for my eBay sourced £37 set of rear handbrake cables to arrive before deciding on whether the caliper needs to be addressed.
If I did replace the caliper, I would probably spend the money on a caliper refurb kit, fix it and stick it alongside the 15years of Saab parts in my shed. You never know when you need a spare!
There was a time when I would do small work on my car that was parked on the road. It's illegal, or so I hear but I still see it going on around London.
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All done.
I fitted the new rear handbrake cable set today and everything is back to normal. There are no issues with the caliper, as per my initial diagnosis.
Incidentally, the aftermarket set of cables were well made with the exception of one thing. The pair of cylindrical lugs at the end of the cable were the wrong size and shape and didn't fit into my front handbrake cable's holder.
I had to grind off the excess metal in order for them to fit.
For future reference, in the event you need to change your handbrake cable on a GH model, you need to remove the near side under-tray that is located between the wheelbase of the car, but you only need to remove the bolts from the rear half of the off-side under-tray to get sufficient access.
If you have access to the Workshop manual it is easy, and my helpful tips for re-assembly are:
1. Unhook the release/rebound spring and re-attach this only after the cables are installed, the front and rear handbrake cables have been mated, hooked up and the adjustment nut is re-attached to the threaded screw.
2. Undo and remove the adjuster nut from the front handbrake assembly, and proceed to push the threaded bolt halfway down (1 inch) into the ratchet mechanism using a small screw driver. This will give you more cable to play with and simplifies the reinstatement process, where you need to connect the front cable to the rears beneath your arm-rest.
3. Once the handbrake cable lug is hooked into place behind the caliper, remove the screwdriver that was gently holding that threaded adjustment screw down, then wiggle the handbrake up and down and pull the cable back towards the handbrake lever. This encourages the threaded screw to resurface so you can attach the adjustment nut to the end,
4. My new adjustment nut sweet spot position is now 1cm from the top of the threaded screw - instead of at the bottom some 4cm away.
5. Don't forget to clean the grime off all of the handbrake cable contact surfaces behind each caliper with Plusgas or something similar.
6. Remember to re-locate the release/rebound spring before refitting your wheel
I performed tests when adjusting the handbrake adjustment nut to make sure that the 6th click of the ratchet would fully lock the rear wheels. Once the new cable is bedded in (one week should do), I'll adjust it again to make that the 5th click.
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If your hand brake doesn't click, it means that the pawl and rack are worn, this because (and you hear it all the time) people pull the handbrake on without pressing the button on the end, which eventually wears the rack out as the pawl is perhaps hardened. It is just laziness and poor teaching during the driving lessons.