Handbrake Issues...Anyone else?
 

Has anyone ever parked on a hill? with the front end of the car going downhill??

I live an an apartment on a hill..
When i first brought home my xB i lifted the hadbrake with a normal tension i used for all other cars i parked there..
When i released the footbrake... my xB started to drift slowly downhill..i freaked out..
TO get it to stop, i had to REALLY pull up hard to the last notch on the handbrake..and its a _____ to release it..
From now on, i always pull it up ALL THE WAY for fear of finding my xB on the bottom of the hill..

Anyone else??
i was thinking about adjusting the tension of the brake under the center console...Anyone have any pointers or have done this to their xB??

thanks

I haven't, but I'd bring it to the dealer. they should be able to adjust that so you won't have to pull it up all the way.

If you put your car in gear it shouldn't roll. I hated doing that with my other car, but I'd ALWAYS do it if I was parked on a hill.

I never put it in gear.. I hate it too.. I always forget for some reason....It may have been because on my civic i had remote start and it had to be in neutral.. I may install remote start in my xB next year..

thanks MRSmiley i will take it to the dealer..

I'd be willing to bet the dealer will tell you to leave it in gear too.

Actually, my driveway have an incline. I have parked my XB on the driveway without the hand break on and on 1-st gear. The Xb rolled back a little bit without the hand-break on. It freaked me out and had pull the hand break back up. So if anyone is thinking of parking XB or any auto on an incline. Don't forget to put the hand or foot break "ON".

rolling
 

No probs here. I heard someone else tell me about the rolling issue and to always have the Scion in gear. So far, my brakes seem to be fine (other than the annoying squeak that started up when braking in reverse). I'm at about 5k miles now and it's kinda irritating.

Some things to take into consideration....

1) it is quite possible that the brake cable does need to be adjusted, if this is the only thing that is ever wrong with the car, count yourself as lucky.

Even by Toyotas standards, with thousands of the xBs being made, little things can get skipped. Like when i bought my NEON brandy new, one of the first off the line, and they forgot to install a rubber gromet for the rear seat, and the back of my NEON looked like a fish bowl after going through the car wash!

2) when parking on a hill, you should always turn your wheel towards the curb. if you are parking up hill ( curb on the passenger side ) turn your wheel all the way to the left. If you are parking down a hill, turn your wheel all the way to the right. By doing this, and if for some reason the brake does fail, and the car does start to roll, it will only roll a couple of inches, till the front wheel is stopped by the curb.

** if you park in the opposite direction of traffic, then you would need to turn the wheel in the opposite direction as posted above.

3) if you do leave the car in gear, it shouldnt start unless you have the clutch in. Not like the cars/trucks of way back when. You would forget the car was in gear, and start it only to have it buck like a mechanical bull.

My hand brake is the opposite. I barely tug on the hand brake and my car comes to a grinding hault. I'd prefer this to my wife's olds alero where you gotta pull the hand brake straight up to get some reaction out of it.

I occasionally drive a 2003 Camry SE V6, I noticed the same thing---you really have to tug on the park brake to get to hold the car, even on a slight incline. next time i take it in, ill get it readjusted.

Parking Brake effectiveness
 

I've not noticed any problem with my parking brake not holding, but I have noticed that everything on the car is continues to improve in performance as the miles accumulate (almost 8K now, since Sept!). Perhaps with more break-in your's will improve, as well. Best wishes!

Re: Handbrake Issues...Anyone else?
 

Sounds like your emergency brake might need adjusting. That's a dealer visit.

One thing that will make releasing the brake easier is to pull up on the lever before pushing the button. This takes the pressure off of the locking ratchet.

Of course, you always turn your wheels to the curb when pointed downhill, and away from the curb while pointed uphill. Don't rely on emergency brakes to hold the car. Cables break.

George

Re: Parking Brake effectiveness
 

Maybe it will, thanks.
I been too lazy to go to the dealer and wait all day for it.. I will wait if anything else goes bad, or i will do it myself.

Re: Handbrake Issues...Anyone else?
 

Yeah i always turn my wheels. But i also want to fix it before i get my 18" wheels. OOOOPS SCRATCH!! :?

hmmmmm
 

Ya u just need to adjust your brakes. But before you adjust the E-brake adjust the drums in the back. Im not sure if you can but usually drum brakes have an adjuster screw on there somewhere. Or it might be self adjusting ionno. I remember there are some cars where u have to drive in reverse for like 200 feet to have the brakes self adjust lol.

Re: hmmmmm
 

thanks for the info...

hmmm...maybe 200 feet sounds like too much fun also :lol:

Another thing worth mentioning is that some drum brakes are activated by a twisting force from the wheel spinning forward, so if you park on an incline this twisting force isn't there and the only friction that you have is the shoes contacting the drum.

this is why on some vehicles you leave the parking brake on and drive in reverse outta your driveway just fine, but once you try to go forward you then realize that the parking brake is on. I'm not sure if Scion drums are this type of system since I dont own one... yet 8)

.....but that sounds like a possible problem

This is called "servo action" and is caused by the geometry of the shoes, shoe anchors, and drum. Essentially, the rotation (or attempted rotation at a standstill) of the drum serves to pull the shoe into greater contact with the drum, reducing the pedal or lever force required to get the desired braking force at the tire.

This would be true with a sophisticated drum braking system involving double-leading-shoes, where both shoes experience self-servo action. It would also be true of a parking brake system that uses only one shoe. These are sort of antiquated and I doubt that they are used on our Scions.

George

^
yea what he said :D

I'm not too familar with that system I just heard about it and thought that I would give my imput.

It's all good though

i have the same problem have to lift it all the way up...
i have remote start on my car, so i wont put it in gear :twisted: