Hand Brake Issue

[Preston Prince]

Hi there
I have a Polo 1.2 TDI 2010 model, Sounds like a tank, handles like a tank but its economical.
I have an issue with the hand brake, I was on a steep hill and had to do a hand brake hill start. Pulled the hand brake but the brakes kept slipping. Its OK on easy slopes but i'm a little worried on steeper inclines. Could this just be the brake lines need tightening from the little nut under the arm rest?
Thanks
Preston

[alexperkins]

How many miles have you done?

[Preston Prince]

58,000 On the clock. Could the drum discs be knackered?

[gaza1994]

how high are you pulling the handbreak up?

I've had a similar incident where i proper sh*t myself when the car was rolling down a very steep hill, turns out i just wasn't pulling it up high enough

[RUM4MO]

When did you last service the brakes, ie wheels off and brakes taken apart?

[alexperkins]

58,000 On the clock. Could the drum discs be knackered?

Drums would last way longer than that, shoes should last longer than too. They might just need resetting to allow the handbrake mechanism to auto-adjust properly

new shoes wouldnt go a miss though.

[Preston Prince]

Auto Brake works fine then releases fine its just putting the hand brake which goes all the way up up through the clicks, it feels as though it should have less clicks.

[alexperkins]

How many clicks has it got?

[RUM4MO]

Can you say, as I don't know, does that car have rear discs or rear drum brakes, I'm guessing that it has rear drum brakes but I don't want to assume anything.

If it is rear drum brakes, then it could be that the auto adjust has stopped working, my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza had that problem and I seem to have solved it by taking the drums off, cleaning out everything inside and forcing the auto adjust to back off completely and then after making sure that it, ie the wedge, was free to move, refitted everything and pressed the brake pedal hard a few times and moved the car back and forward to help centralise the shoes within the drum, then and only then apply the handbrake firmly a few times. During doing some of that you should hear the auto adjusters (wedges) moving back down to optimise the brake/drum clearance.

If you are doing this yourself, I'd only buy a built up set of shoes as it sounds like you are not really conversant with using spanners, if you had been you would probably not have this issue and not know what to do, one final thing, never adjust the cable to improve the hand brake until you have sorted out everything else out.

Edit:- by the way Alex was referring to "auto adjusting" on the rear brakes, not "auto brakes" which I'm guessing means that your car has "hill hold" - hill hold operates on all the wheels and it just traps the "pressurised by your foot being on the brake pedal" brake fluid in the brake lines, so it is the proper brakes which is why it is still working okay.

[Preston Prince]

Thanks for your responses here, very helpful. The hand brake goes through all the clicks until there is none and then holds at a good 45 degree angle.

[alexperkins]

Pretty sure this is rear drums. Seem to recall my 6R 1.2 TDI having drums on the back.

It definately needs adjusting somewhat. Should be 4 clicks max really.

[gaza1994]

It definately needs adjusting somewhat. Should be 4 clicks max really.

thats good to know, mines is like 8+ clicks to keep me on a hill

[RUM4MO]

It definately needs adjusting somewhat. Should be 4 clicks max really.

thats good to know, mines is like 8+ clicks to keep me on a hill

Oooh get in there and sort it out before the weather gets much colder.

Edit:- and do it the right way, sort the problem and not just try to get it to last for another month or so by adjusting the cable!

[gaza1994]

It definately needs adjusting somewhat. Should be 4 clicks max really.

thats good to know, mines is like 8+ clicks to keep me on a hill

Oooh get in there and sort it out before the weather gets much colder.

Edit:- and do it the right way, sort the problem and not just try to get it to last for another month or so by adjusting the cable!

so its not the cable thats the issue? its something else ?

[RUM4MO]

I have to say, it makes a lot of sense to blame the cable, as it might have stretched, but in owning VW Group cars since 2000, I have yet to come across a handbrake cable that has stretched, that sort of thing probably stopped by the time BMC/BL went down the pan!

So, that means that there is normally a perfectly good reason why these handbrakes start to fail to work, and that is normally the auto adjust mechanism seizing or just stopping adjusting so the running clearances become too much to allow the handbrake lever travel to get the shoes out far enough. There is also plenty scope for corrosion to stop anything else working well inside the drums.