…but only on minor stuff like blown bulbs and headlight adjustment! My rebuilt engine is working great with very low emissions levels which is a massive relief, passed at fractions of the emissions limits even with the decat pipe on.
However, the one complicated item is that the handbrake is only operating at 20% efficiency, and is required to work at 25%.
The normal braking system is working fine and passed OK.
So, is this a common Eunos problem and how do I recitify it?
thanks
James
First check it is adjusted correctly, there is a guide in the Technical Downloads section.
Ah, seems I’m not allowed to download from that section - is there a webpage version anywhere?
Well covered on Miata.net :-
http://www.miata.net/garage/ebrake/index.html
http://www.miata.net/garage/brakepad.html - more relevant for handbrake/caliper adjustment.
Why would you put your car in for MOT knowing that some bulbs are blown. Or didn’t you bother to look?
Good point, especially as probably half your driving is with lights on. At least mine is.
See if you can read this.
No need for the sarcasm - the bulb in question required a sharp tap to the glass and it started working again, so there’s a loose connection there that’s working some of the time.
Thanks for the reply pollyana, that’s a pretty comprehensive guide!
Further to my last post, I’ve fitted new rear pads, greased the slipers (clean and tidy) and set the manual adjustment screws on both sides so the pads are just scraping the discs - I’ve balanced them so both disc surfaces get equally warm/hot when driving, and the wheels stay pretty cold.
I’ve also adjusted the handbrake lever so it takes 6 clicks before it’s impossible to pull any more - any tighter and the left rear wheel start to get very hot, although the right rear stays a bit cooler.
However the handbrake still feels a bit poor, hopefully 5% better so it will pass, but nowhere near to being able to lock the rear wheels when moving - should it be capable of that? For example at 30mph should I be able to lock the rears? The car seems to have a working LSD, don’t know if that makes any difference to the force the handbrake can apply?
I noticed that when using the handbrake to slow the car down the right rear became much hotter than the left rear, the opposite of what happens when I over-adjust the handbrake lever screw in the cockpit (whereupon the left rear gets red hot) - any ideas what that would mean???
I’ve no idea what else I can do here - the callipers and pistons must be working as the normal braking system passed the MOT just fine, and I’m reluctant to buy 2 new recon callipers and new cables just to find out that it makes no difference and Eunos handbrakes are normally quite poor anyway.
Did you lube up the cables?
Also, try applying the handbrake several dozen times to make sure the auto adjust has operated.
Are both sides releasing ok?
Yeah, they seem to be releasing OK - I can apply and reapply the brakes and then drive it and the wheels don’t heat up, so I’m pretty sure they’re not binding.The handbrake has now beem worked about 50 times and it still feels the same.
I didn’t lube the cables - how do you do that without completely removing them?
Oops technical problem.
You can’t.
To work properly and smoothly the brakes wires must be well lubricated as per the instructions, you must also make sure that you adjust the brake cables and wires to have the Parking brake compensator mechanism at right angles to the cables.
The hand brake is for parking your car safely, not for stopping your car at 30 MPH.
If you are prepared to follow all the instructions I am confident that you well end up with an excellent parking brake, assuming that your calipers are ok and not corroded on the slides etc.
Well it certainly holds the car stationary even on a hill. I was under the impression that the parking brake was in fact an emergency brake and must be capable of stopping the car if the normal brakes fail? Certainly my kit car was tested in this manner at the SVA - just holding the vehicle still was not good enough, the mechanism had to be able to exert enough force to stop the wheels on fast moving rollers.
I don’t think that it needs to be capable of stopping the car - it is not an emergency brake, but is a parking brake - couldn’t say for certain though.
Are you pressing the foot brake when you apply the handbrake, as per the handbook?
This makes a huge difference (in my car at least), and could easily have been the problem at the MOT station - it is common for this vital step not to be done.
Many moons ago I was an MOT tester and the regs may have changed , but the test is still the same.
The test is a calculation made using the weight of the car against the rolling resistance of the handbrake, therefore I don’t think applying the foot brake at the same time would be allowed.
So the test is to test wheather the brake is capable of holding the car and used to be classed as an emergency brake as well .I am not sure if it still is.
I don’t think that an M.O.T. garage would be to impressed if you told them to put their foot on the foot-brake when they tested the handbrake!
A handbrake is a parking brake but obviously must also be able to slow a moving car. 25% efficiency sounds about right. I think the figure on a rolling road for the foot brakes is around 75 - 80 %
Maybe I wasn’t clear - I (obviously?!?) never meant that you should sit with the footbrake on at the same time, since that is obviously not a test of the handbrake, but rather before you apply the handbrake, you should have the footbrake depressed.
ie;
Stop using footbrake,
Apply handbrake,
Release footbrake
There is a definite improvement doing this, I think it is because the pads are applied using the hydraulic pressure, and kept on with the cable, rather than applied and kept with the cable, but I’m not a mechanic so that could be utter ■■■■.
It does however work a lot better - I’ve stopped on hills in traffic, where I’ve applied the handbrake as I’ve stopped (due to gravity wanting to take the car backwards, or with a bit of clutch control in slow moving traffic), and it has not quite held it (slowly creeping backwards), re-applying with the footbrake and it holds no problem at all.
I don’t think it can be (any more), since many cars now have electronic handbrakes, which cannot be applied unless stationary.
Yes, using the footbrake as well sort of negates the point of testing the handbrake, seeing as they operate the same piston!
The handbrake is now adjusted up so I get about 6 or 7 clicks before it’s rock solid, and with new pads on the rears I can’t do much more short of buying new calipers and / or cables. It has a retest on Saturday so I’ll see if the new pads have given me that extra 5%.