Emergency Brake Help

[NinjaJack247]

My emergency has not worked since I have boughten my P5. I can feel my car slowing down a little when I pull it back as far as it goes but not to where it's going to stop my in a instant. I believe i know it works because when I was replacing my rear brakes it pushed out the cylinders. Am I right by that? How can I tighten it up

 

[NinjaJack247]

Can a mod put this on the forum page please please.

 

[mp5la]

I don't know of any car where the e brake stops you "in an instant". The parking brake just uses the rear brakes to hold/stop the car. It sounds like your brake is operating properly.

If you think about it in terms of physics. When you slow the car, the "weight" of the entire vehicle is shifted forward to the nose. As such, your front brakes do the vast majority of the braking work. Using only the rears, like when you pull up on the parking brake, works but takes a lot longer.

 

[lowlevel]

On some cars instead of the main rear brake pads/shoes, the parking brake activates a dedicated brake pad/shoe that you can easily 'use up' if you try to stop the car with it... either way the hand brake isn't designed for stopping the car so much as keeping it stopped. The way you're describing how your parking brake works sounds normal to me.. (as others have pointed out.) The industry no longer calls this an emergency brake, since it really isn't... and I believe some auto makers got sued over it.