This may also solve some other people's problems hopefully.
Ok, some back pedalling to tell the tale correctly - I will have owned my Cinq for 3 years next April and before buying I had read of poor handbrakes. The one I bought had a poor handbrake but I was a cheapskate and just left it in gear all the time but come MOT time this didn't suffice.
Anyway, 1st time the handbrake was fixed it passed the MOT, worked for a month then was crap again (partly due to me forgetting I had one and driving away with it on!) so back to the old in gear method!
2nd MOT last year, same thing worked for a month and then nothing, speaking with my grease monkey he said the cable required a lot of adjustment to get very little braking. Also he was adamant that Fiat handbrakes were crap so nothing else could be done.
Monday there was the 3rd MOT and guess what failure due to handbrake! Repairs booked, expected the same thing, went to collect today to be told that Cinq Sporting handbrake cables have 2 adjusters on them and this is the one flagged by computers at the dealers and also the motor factor places but my grease monkey asked to see a 899cc handbrake cable which has 1 adjuster and the cable is shorter in length so the other cable which needed adjustment to take up slack wa the wrong one, the 899 cable was put on and now if I wanted I could do a 360 quite easily!
Only took a while but I know have a very good handbrake and hopefully next year the word handbrake won't be written by the MOT testers pen.
Cheers
Liam
Ok, some back pedalling to tell the tale correctly - I will have owned my Cinq for 3 years next April and before buying I had read of poor handbrakes. The one I bought had a poor handbrake but I was a cheapskate and just left it in gear all the time but come MOT time this didn't suffice.
Anyway, 1st time the handbrake was fixed it passed the MOT, worked for a month then was crap again (partly due to me forgetting I had one and driving away with it on!) so back to the old in gear method!
2nd MOT last year, same thing worked for a month and then nothing, speaking with my grease monkey he said the cable required a lot of adjustment to get very little braking. Also he was adamant that Fiat handbrakes were crap so nothing else could be done.
Monday there was the 3rd MOT and guess what failure due to handbrake! Repairs booked, expected the same thing, went to collect today to be told that Cinq Sporting handbrake cables have 2 adjusters on them and this is the one flagged by computers at the dealers and also the motor factor places but my grease monkey asked to see a 899cc handbrake cable which has 1 adjuster and the cable is shorter in length so the other cable which needed adjustment to take up slack wa the wrong one, the 899 cable was put on and now if I wanted I could do a 360 quite easily!
Only took a while but I know have a very good handbrake and hopefully next year the word handbrake won't be written by the MOT testers pen.
Cheers
Liam