Hi everybody

My Fiat Punto Evo's handbrake is very loose. The handbrake is fine to park with when pulled up however when the handbrake is down, it does not stay down.

In this position it is very loose and flimsy. I have posted a youtube video of what happens.



I discovered this after work just before getting on the motorway. When trying to drive around 30mph the car would not go any faster. It was although the car had no power and the handbrake was still applied. A car flashed me, perhaps smoke/ skid marks on the road appeared?

Didnt have time to check in rush hour after pulling over. It took around 5mins for the handbrake to fix itself - pressure on the handbrake to stay down. Drove home after and seemed fine. Now today the handbrake is loose again (shown in the video).

Spoke to the dealer who i brought it from and will check the car over next weekend. Ss there anything i can do before hand? Really can't afford to loose days off work after starting a new job

Looks to me like you might have a problem with your handbrake cables, they have a habit of splitting causing water to get into them, eventually causing the cables to seize up, looks like that has happened causing the handbrake not to release properly. We do loads of those across all the fiat range (I'm a technician at a fiat dealership) and I would always recommend doing them as a pair! Hope this is of some help

JohnE76 said:

Looks to me like you might have a problem with your handbrake cables, they have a habit of splitting causing water to get into them, eventually causing the cables to seize up, looks like that has happened causing the handbrake not to release properly. We do loads of those across all the fiat range (I'm a technician at a fiat dealership) and I would always recommend doing them as a pair! Hope this is of some help

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but at 2 years old..??

Yes it's not uncommon!! In fact 500's are worse than that, I've changed many a split handbrake cable under warranty. Good news is they are really easy to replace and if you have a ramp to do it on, you don't even need to remove the rear drums, just the big plastic grommets on the back plates

JohnE76 said:

Looks to me like you might have a problem with your handbrake cables, they have a habit of splitting causing water to get into them, eventually causing the cables to seize up, looks like that has happened causing the handbrake not to release properly. We do loads of those across all the fiat range (I'm a technician at a fiat dealership) and I would always recommend doing them as a pair! Hope this is of some help

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information!

Got under the car yesterday to spray WD40 over the cables.

Hopefully the Seat dealer where i bought it from identifies the problem and will mention the above.

By the way is my car safe to drive when there is pressure in the handbrake? For example I don't want to be driving fast, for then the pressure in the handbrake to disappear causing the car the skid.

If it is the cables then it may be causing the rear brakes to bind! Depending on how much the brakes are binding you may get some problems like the rear brakes overheating etc, would advise getting it checked sooner rather than later with the trouble you're experiencing