Skoda Octavia .. Handbrake issues .

[B4T]

I have a 16 reg Octavia , I parked it in my driveway and two hours later my neighbour came and told me it had just run down the drive and hit the pier . No joy with dealership, they done some tests and say it's not defective ... any help or advice welcome . R of Ireland .

[pist0nbr0ke]

This might help:

 

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/309041-handbrake-failure/?tab=comments#comment-3695053

[SC03OTT]

My advice would be to leave the car in gear and if possible wheels towards a kerb or other item that'll stop the vehicle rolling away. 

[Sec8200]

Always leave on gear and opposite to the ground level (slope and direction) - 1st or reverse.

 

Second as said, wheels to a certain angle, optionally pointing the kerbs.

 

Bad to hear that, I've read the reference thread, useful info.

Edited 11 August, 2017 by TTodorov

[AllanDJ]

As above, leaving car in gear makes a lot of sense when on any sort of sloping ground. When I had my mk 3 Octavia I found the handbrake to be substandard compared to basically every other car that I have ever owned before then and that is around 8 cars! Mine creaked and groaned all of the time when applied on any sort of slope and on a few occasions actually began rolling back a bit even with the handbrake tightly applied whilst waiting in traffic on a very steep hill in my local area. I yanked it as hard as I could to stop it slipping even more and ended up stretching the handbrake cable leaving me with the handbrake full up until it was hitting off of the arm rest. Garage always said that it was fine and would adjust the cable which would then stretch again very quickly, leaving the handbrake always sitting full up but have to say the handbrake is much better in my Yeti compared to the Octavia, i.e. it actually works properly!

[glosrich]

Always park in gear. You never know when a handbrake can fail on any car.

[Mintyfresh]

Good morning all.

When you are driving and you apply the brakes (service brakes/foot brake) the system uses the front and rear discs to slow the car. The friction between the pads and discs causes the metal discs to expand during use, which is normal.

When you stop and apply the handbrake it is set on the rear disc brakes via the handbrake lever. When you set the hand brake, the rear pads clamp together on the disc and hold the vehicle stationary -  it will be set while the discs are warm and expanded. As the car sits stationary, the brake discs cool and therefore contract to their normal size (thickness) and the 'clamp' holding the car stationary can loosen off. This is how the car can move off even though the driver set the parking brake. 

I learned this with my mk1 Furby vRS when - after a brisk drive - I parked it up outside my then girlfriend's parents house (which is on a hill). I went out later to find the car half way down the hill, in a neighbours front garden! The house owner had called the police as well as she didn't recognise the car from the street. 

Since then, I've parked all cars in gear and on a particularly steep hill, I turn the wheels in towards the kerb as others (and the highway code) suggest. 

All the best. 

[CCTaylor]

If the same pads are used for foot brake and hand brake, I find it helps if you press the brake pedal as you pull up the handbrake lever. (Mind you not much help when I drove a Discovery, the transmission brake on a Disco is not connected to foot brake).

 

[nidza]

Pull the lever with 2 hands on steep ground, plus wheels towards kerb, plus left in first gear.

 

When the road is horribly steep, put even a stone under a wheel, or simply don't park in such a steep grounds.

[Black_Sheep]

Whilst the advice about heat expansion/contraction of metal parts is true to some extent, I had the same issue as the OP after a 2 minute drive to local shops in virtually a straight line - so insuffient time for brakes to heat up. Fortunately it was late at night, so a couple of paintless dent removal repairs and paint detailing were all that was required. 

 

I took the car to be be assessed by Skoda - no fault found on Roller Brake Test.

 

However, as a mechanical engineer I stripped the rear brake calliper down to find that the pads had siezed in the runners - when brake pedal was applied piston had enough force for brakes to work, but insufficient force could be applied by handbrake mechanism in isolation.  This fault is quite common on VW Audi group rear brakes - strip out rear pads, clean with wire brush and regrease using a non-metallic brake grease such as Pagid one from euro car parts.  Avoid using copper slip, as once the grease washes away, galvanic corrosion will occur and the brake pads will seize again. 

Edited 17 August, 2017 by Black_Sheep

[themanwithnoaim]

On 8/12/2017 at 09:36, glosrich said:

Always park in gear. You never know when a handbrake can fail on any car.

I always park in "P" gear

 

Never had a problem

[SWBoy]

2 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

I always park in "P" gear

 

Never had a problem

Or 1st or R if you have a manual instead of DSG.

[CCTaylor]

8 hours ago, Black_Sheep said:

Whilst the advice about heat expansion/contraction of metal parts is true to some extent, I had the same issue as the OP after a 2 minute drive to local shops in virtually a straight line - so insuffient time for brakes to heat up. Fortunately it was late at night, so a couple of paintless dent removal repairs and paint detailing were all that was required. 

 

I took the car to be be assessed by Skoda - no fault found on Roller Brake Test.

 

However, as a mechanical engineer I stripped the rear brake calliper down to find that the pads had siezed in the runners - when brake pedal was applied piston had enough force for brakes to work, but insufficient force could be applied by handbrake mechanism in isolation.  This fault is quite common on VW Audi group rear brakes - strip out rear pads, clean with wire brush and regrease using a non-metallic brake grease such as Pagid one from euro car parts.  Avoid using copper slip, as once the grease washes away, galvanic corrosion will occur and the brake pads will seize again. 

 

I find it helps to try pushing the brake pedal through the floor every so often. I do this when sitting in traffic or at lights. This helps prevent sticking rear brakes. It's a trick I learned when drove LR Discoverys. Land Rover rear discs are notorious for sticking rear pads with only one pad moving leading to scored rusty discs. Of course in this case there was no effect on the hand brake as it's a drum on the prop shaft.

[gixerman]

i have a 2015 vrs estate , no problems with it till this year ,cars now done 36,000 miles serviced every 10,000 mot tested 3 times a year because of my job , never had a problem with my hand brake till now ,parked on my drive 45 minutes rolls through my garage door ,£2000 for new door never mind the damage to the car , every body said I forgot to put the handbrake on  mmmm! . in petrol station almighty bang whilst I was filling up looks about the car starts to move away  ,stopped on a hill put handbrake on bang stars rolling backwards  ,  I use vrs as taxis  pulled up on rank sat their 10 minutes taxi in front wanted me ,I whent to see him he asked for a phone number I took a step towards my car  bang it was off down the road (a hill by the way ) had to run after it managed to catch and jump in and stop it.

took the car to local skoda dealership they did a mot brake test couldn't fin a fault with brakes  I then got in touch with skoda uk had a few words and got another mot brake test report  .

skoda say nobody has this problem , the dealership even told a man with a 2016 Octavia estate who took his car in a week after me they haven't had anybody else in with this problem .

I think its time skoda held their hands up and say their is a problem and we will get it sorted for you all 

                                                                                           thanks every body

[Stuart-h]

Ive always left cars in gear regardless of weather ive parked on a hill or not.

[gixerman]

alright stuart

ive had several vrs octavias  this is the only one that has this problem  ,  but we have to remember we don't by cars this day and age that we have to leave in gear whenever we park up  its not the 1920s   thanks

[Ootohere]

?

Which year or decade did that change happen at then?

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

So yep - 2014 Octy VRS petrol / manual owner here. Car now has 25k on the clock.

 

When I bought her, I had exactly the same thing happen twice to me. Once when parked on the road, and again a few weeks later when parking on my sloping driveway. Handbrake on, then BANG a few seconds later - lever hits the floor 

 

Having been taught, like others, to push the button in and never deploy the brake against the ratchet - but it seems to be an issue when doing so on these cars. Never had it before in any other car, Mk. 1 Octy included.

It does seem, anecdotally, that the handbrake assembly is not made from parts with the greatest of integrity - and the ratchet and pawl mechanism is quite sensitive. 

 

I sat and did some experiments after this. I found that, time and again, deploying the handbrake in the taught manner - e.g. pushing the button in, lifting the lever, then releasing the button, resulted on about 1 out of 10 occasions with the lever self-releasing. Worse still though, if I gave the lever a hit from the side or top with my hand, this would increase to about 3 out of 10 occasions!!

 

However, by pulling the lever without depressing the button and listening to the ratchet make that horrible noise resulted in no occasions of the lever self-releasing. In my car, anyway. 

 

My opinion? Design fault. Either the ratchet teeth are not deep enough, the pawl is not sharp enough or does not have a strong enough spring behind it - or a combination of all three. I think that if you press the button and then let go, the pawl does not engage properly against a tooth and when it slips past - it is not strong enough to re-engage further down and it lets the lever hit the floor.

 

I have not had any problems since employing my new method however and I think it is safe enough if everyone observes this method. Even if it does go against your advanced driving OCD!!

 

[POWYSWALES]

My drive use to slope inwards towards my property, so on my previous manual cars I always put it in first gear, never taking any chances as my children and dogs could have been playing around the car. I especially learnt to do this as on a Hyundai I had in the past, you would apply the handbrake firmly but sometimes within a second or 2 it would drop down a notch were it must not have quite made it into that higher ratchet setting.

[jcsphoto69]

On the last few cars I've owned it has said in the handbook that you should not press the button in when applying the handbrake, I haven't got my Octavia yet so can't check the handbook.

[jimmyp2]

I got taught a few years back on an advanced driving course that you should not press the button in for correct handbrake operation.

I had problems as described but no issues if button not pressed.

[BigEjit]

And on my IAM course, i got told to press the button for the comfort of myself and passengers not having to listen to the ratchet noise.

Besides that I have always pressed the button in when putting the h-brake on and never had a fly-off fail yet.

[Ruje]

Exact same thing as the OP happened to me.  Brand new Skoda Octavia parked in front drive which has a slight gradient.  Handbrake released (the handle seems to have released itself) and it rolled down the drive across the road, took out the neighbours wall and bounced back onto the street.  It was about 10pm and there was no passing traffic so we are really lucky nobody got hurt. 

Of course, Skoda reviewed the car and said there was nothing wrong so we need to pay for repair of the car plus the neighbours wall.  We took legal advice but there is not really a case because the manual says in the small print that you should park it in gear and no fault was found with the handbrake.  It was also very difficult to replicate the scenario.

Personally I have no doubt that the handbrake on the car we got was faulty.  Moral of the story is always park your Skoda in gear on a hill as the handbrake can fail at any moment.   I would have thought that in the year 2018 the handbrake on a new car should work correctly, but not with a Skoda apparently...

 

 

[Gabbo]

This has been a common problem since the alunch of the O3.

Seems like the handbrake force reduced as the car & brake components cool down which can result in the car moving.

I'm sure the garage knows about this as there have been several reports on this forum of the same thing.

 

However, i dont think anything was done in terms of a correction except for the advice to park in gear which doesnt help the people who suffered from this problem.

The old threads have some good information about the dealer feedback with other users who had the same problem.

 

[gixerman]

hi b4t

        sorry to hear your having the problem a lot of us have had with our skoda,s    cant remember if I put on about what happened after the second time my car was back at skoda 

and got told nothing wrong with your brakes  , I phoned skoda uk again and the lady I dealt with told me this time we stripped all the callipers ,  cleaned them , and put them back together , brakes are ok . 

  guess what ?  it has never done it since  ,   so does this mean they sorted the problem and are saying nothing ! car has now done 62000 miles and still love my VRS  .

Hope this gives you some help  .