56 plate fabia VRS

Folks, thought I would save a few bob and swap out the rear pads and disc's myself. Used Bosch discs and dealer pads, everything was put back together and I finished by resetting the handbrake adjustment so its nice and snug without binding. Took it for a spin, no rattles or knocking, parked up, put the handbrake on and the car started to roll slowly down the hill!!!

Thought to myself wtf! took the handbrake off and gave it a real good pull back on - I mean it was a two hander....... And the car still moves

What have I done wrong?

handbrake cable maybe streched or broken

Had this with my last car.

I tightened the nuts behind the handbrake lever after changing the discs like you have and as you said it kept rolling.

So I loosened the nuts pretty much all the way to the top and the handbrake worked fine, just a couple of turns to get it spot on.

It seems that if new discs and pads are fitted the nuts need to be wound back up to the top then finely adjusted.

Try it, don't understand how or why it works like that, but it worked.

Cheers funky fab, ill give that one a go in the morning!

It's also a known fact that to apply the handbrake properly, first you press the brake pedal down and hold down, then apply the handbrake, especially if parking on a hill.

DB.

What he said ! You have to have pressure built up in the brake system and reaching the rear brakes before you can be confident that the handbrake will also work.

If you are tensioning it the handbrake properly on each rear wheel you should have got resistance with the handbrake to the point of it biting anyway before you had finished it

yea i just got my fabia on thursday n im havin a nightmare atm but one of the things i said to mechanic this mornin was about the handbrake, he pushed up a small leaver on the back of the caliper then pressed the footbrake n now the handbrake works fine??

good job