How do I tighten up my handbrake?

[Legend83]

Friend of mine very kindly pointed out that my handbrake currently looks like his piece when watching a Salma Hayek movie - very upright.

How do I tighten it up manually - I thought it was something to do with the metal at the base of the handbrake that has grooves?

[MX-5 Lazza]

Take the plastic cover off the handbrake. There is an adjuster on the end of the cable. Take a look, it's obvious what to do with it.

[Firefox1]

Before you adjust the cable check the rear pads, if they are near the end of their life the hand brake lever will also be high.

[Legend83]

Cheers!

[franv8]

Unfortunately it usually means the self adjusters in the calipers have stopped doing their job, I repalced my pads recently with a reasonable bit of life in them. Saying that you can use the cable adjuster to take up a lot of the problem, my guess is though if you ahve the same problem as I did then you find the handbrake is very weak, even with fair pull on the handbrake, it is still possible to nudge the car along with pressure on the bumpers.