When I first got my car my, the hand brake was nice and tight, but as time passed by it started to get looser, and I would have to give it more clicks to hold the car on inclines. Eventually it got to the point where I would have pull it up 13 clicks to hold the car on steep inclines.

The cause was probably the cable stretching out. So I decided to adjust the parking brake. I took off the rear wheels and caliper. Then I turned the rotor, and when I did it seemed like the inner drum would make contact with the shoes at a specific point. I tried to turn the little pin wheel inside until the noise stopped, but this would cause my hand brake to loosen up even more. I would then tighten the little screw next to the hand brake lever, but this caused the noise to come back. Finally I had to compromise and adjusted my hand brake slightly tighter than it used to be, but the problem is still there with the drum and shoes.

Anyone else have this problem? Is it normal, if not what can I do solve it? Maybe the hub is out of alignment, so it wobbles slightly when it turns. BTW the noise is not loud, you pretty much have to be next to rotor to hear it, and my car still rolls on low inclines. I'm just concerned about possible future problems.

 

I bought a TC 07 in December 06 and am feeling similar problem. Now I feel that I have to pull hand brake to the highest point to keep my vehicle from sliding. My TC is manual transmission, so hand brake is really critical.

Do I need to take it back to the dealer ??

 

Firstly, yes you should take it back to the dealer because you obviously don't know how to fix it yourself, and it'd be better for you to pay someone who knows what they're doing than try and fix it yourself.

To the original poster, there is absolutely no reason to remove the calipers when you're adjusting the e-brake shoes, and I have no idea what noise you are talking about. The only thing you need to do is remove the rubber stopper from the outside of the caliper hub and rotate the wheel inside to tighten the shoes down, eventually they'll be so tight that you can't free-spin the hub, if it didn't tighten, you turned it the wrong way. Once it's tight, loosen it until you can free-spin the hub, and repeat it on the other side. Then put the wheels back on and get on a hill and pull the e-brake, if it's not to your liking, THEN adjust it at the handle, the handle-screw should be a last step.

 

It was late last night when I posted this, so let me try to explain the problem a bit more. You do need to remove the calipers because you need to see, or hear actually, if the shoes are dragging againts the drum when the hand brake is down. That's the noise I'm hearing, but is not a constant dragging noise. It only drags at a specific point when you rotate the rotor, then stops, and then drags again when you reach that same point again.