Frozen Handbrake Solution

[Nigel]

Ha sussed the little bugger!

Fill a sports water bottle, i.e. one with a nozzle with hot water. Kneel down behind the rear right hand side and spray the cable at the top liberally and let the hot water run down the cable.

Job done after a couple of goes. I know I should drill the damn thing but I havent!

N

 

[Dunce]

squirt

squirt where, are you outside or inside the car?

 

[Jonathan]

HMM

If you make it wet it will only refreeze (only it will probably be worse!) tomorrow night.

Luckily i dont have this problem
or slow windows
or a leaky boot
or idle running

did i buy a good one?

(better not say that out loud in case it hears me!)

Oh my boot light doesnt work tho, very annoying. Anyone know what the problem might likely be? I havent looked at it cos its too cold out there!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: HMM

I worked on the principal that it was wet already - would stay wet and refreeze anyway.

And er, you need to be on the outside - I will try and do some pics later but wifey's gone off in it.

N

 

[scriber]

handbrake

best fix i found (after having to drag it out of the garage)
Whack it in first then into reverse a few times back and forward soon comes free. Probably buggers the car but what they hell it deserves it for having a frozen handbrake!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Re: HMM

my handbrake did not freeze for two years - but then
did it every night for a week last year and last night
as well.
I like Nige use the hot water method as moving it really does f*ck it up !

C

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: HMM

Just an update......
Wifey returned in the car mid afternoon, parked it about 3 foot away from the kerb as usual.....and put the f****** handbrake back on!

I went out at 7pm to go to a poool match and the damn thing was frozen solid again!

my famous last words to her were...."dont put the handbrake on, leave it in 1st"


Still, meant I didnt have to drive I supose!

 

[Me]

Re: Re: HMM

Why will moving the car back and forth f*** it up?

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Re: Re: HMM

You will disintegrate the pads and maybe even damage the caliper on HGT's and dislodge the shoes on other models. Brakes are effective on moving parts as the pressure increments.

If you think of your fingers ona block of ice. If you move across the block and put your fingers down as you move you will slow down but you wont rip the skin off your fingers.

If you now leave your fingers on the ice for a minute or two, then move off, likelyhood is you will leave skin behind! Actually....try it with your tounge!!!!

 

[MartinB]

Alternative solution

I had the same problem last year with mine, a local garage just used an air line to blow the water out of the inside of the cables, then sprayed WD40 into the cables and blew this through with the air line. I never had any more problems with it after that. Cheaper than new cables from fiat which they wanted to charge £100 including fitting. This year I am going to try to get some universal rubber boots that will fit over the original ends of the cable, as suggested by the garage last year.