[rcflyers]

My wife has a 2004 1.1 Picanto with disc brakes all round.
In the last few days the handbrake has become ineffective.
I removed both rear wheels, cleaned the pads and calipers, the handbrake operates both mechanisms ok but the drivers side wheel will not lock up when the handbrake is applied, even on wet grass.
The brakes work ok on the pedal, both sides will lock up briefly before the ABS kicks in.

When I look at the adjuster behind the handbrake lever and the drivers side cable appears longer than the other side.
The compensator arm in not square and only seems to pull the passenger side cable on.
Is it possible for the drivers side cable to stretch that much?
Thanks for any help.

 

[scorpio24v]

Hello there, Happy new year.


I had the same problem with my daughters picanto. cure was to work the handbrake actuating lever (where the cable meets the caliper) back and forth, squrting some plus gas or other penetrating liquid, where the lever joins the caliper. You may need to use a lever. My guess is its siezed up a bit, hence the compensator not pulling squarely.

let us know.



Cheers.

 

[rcflyers]

Thanks, The lever on the caliper is moving ok, it just seems that one cable is longer than the other.

 

[Jukia]

We had a similar problem on our 04 1.0 with ineffective handbrake on one side which I at first thought was a problem with the handbrake actuating arm on the caliper itself - you could see the arm was pulled further fwd on that side and the cable was further fwd at the compensator too. However it turned out to be the handbrake cable (passenger side in our case) had partially seized and the actuating arm was trying to compensate. I got a new cable from Kia (£37.30) and replaced it myself quite easily. I put the car up on small ramps just on that side so I could get underneath and apart from hooking the cable in at both ends there's just 3 or 4 obvious bolts clamping the cable to the chassis. Note - don't be tempted to get a cable from a motor factors. I did thinking I'd save £10 but after having 3 incorrect ones supplied (some have a 'hook' end and some a 'barrel end' (ours) at the caliper and no matter what info I gave them they always got the wrong one) I gave up and went to Kia !

 

[rcflyers]

Ok, thanks, I will check and attempt to lube the cables at the weekend.


Edited by: rcflyers