Do I need new handbrake shoes?

[Gad-Westy]

My handbrake needs plenty of clicks and effort to hold it on any kind of incline. I'm not sure it would hold at all on very steep ground. I had a go at adjusting it at the weekend. Following a couple of guide videos, I adjusted each side in turn so that it basically locked the disc with the handbrake off and then backed off two clicks on each adjuster. That didn't work at all and possibly was worse than when I started. So I took another approach which was to adjust them with the handbrake off so that you could still move the disc by hand but one click on the handbrake lever itself would introduce some resistance. This seems much better but still not quite right. If I give the handbrake four clicks, it will not hold on a medium ish incline and needs a fair bit of effort still to stop it rolling. But if I go even one notch tighter on the adjuster, they're catching noticeably with the handbrake off.

I did wonder about cable tension but the lever feels right with the right kind of movement and resistance.

I'm starting to think that I maybe need to replace the shoes and I'd just do discs and pads at the same time. Anything else I should try first?

[d_a_n1979]

Maybe

Could also be that the inner surface of the rear discs are a mess and need replacing

Or it could be that the cable has stretched and needs replacing also...

[Gad-Westy]

d_a_n1979 said:

Maybe

Could also be that the inner surface of the rear discs are a mess and need replacing

Or it could be that the cable has stretched and needs replacing also...

I did wonder about the cable. I think if it has stretched it's only stretched on one side. How bad a job is replacing it?

[d_a_n1979]

Gad-Westy said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Maybe

Could also be that the inner surface of the rear discs are a mess and need replacing

Or it could be that the cable has stretched and needs replacing also...

I did wonder about the cable. I think if it has stretched it's only stretched on one side. How bad a job is replacing it?

That I've no idea sorry; on the E39s its a PITA

A garage job really as ramps help, a LOT

[Gad-Westy]

I just took a quick look a this. Doesn't seem too bad but whole centre console needs to come out which is a bit of a pain. I think I'll do some more digging to see what could be going on with mine first. I realised that one side cannot be slack and the other not as it's a shared cable with a balance bracket. So it actually seems unlikely to be a cable issue to me as the cable tension feels good. Discs and shoes I think for this one.

[Pica-Pica]

Gad-Westy said:

I just took a quick look a this. Doesn't seem too bad but whole centre console needs to come out which is a bit of a pain. I think I'll do some more digging to see what could be going on with mine first. I realised that one side cannot be slack and the other not as it's a shared cable with a balance bracket. So it actually seems unlikely to be a cable issue to me as the cable tension feels good. Discs and shoes I think for this one.

I have not had shoes replaced for a long time. Never in 150k on a BMW with ‘drum-in-hat’ parking brake shoes, and the parking brake lever is self-adjusting, surely? It was on my E36. Our Fabia, with just rear drums has never had rear shoes replaced yet at 80k miles. Front discs have been changed. The lever adjustment on the Fabia is accessed via the access cover shown.

[Gad-Westy]

Pica-Pica said:

Gad-Westy said:

I just took a quick look a this. Doesn't seem too bad but whole centre console needs to come out which is a bit of a pain. I think I'll do some more digging to see what could be going on with mine first. I realised that one side cannot be slack and the other not as it's a shared cable with a balance bracket. So it actually seems unlikely to be a cable issue to me as the cable tension feels good. Discs and shoes I think for this one.

I have not had shoes replaced for a long time. Never in 150k on a BMW with ‘drum-in-hat’ parking brake shoes, and the parking brake lever is self-adjusting, surely? It was on my E36. Our Fabia, with just rear drums has never had rear shoes replaced yet at 80k miles. Front discs have been changed. The lever adjustment on the Fabia is accessed via the access cover shown.

Cheers. But something is amiss. It's an E91 335i BTW. Not sure I put that in the OP.

The way I see it is there are four things it could be:

Shoe adjustment (but I seem to have tried most things with that)
Shoe friction face (it's done 186k miles but I agree they shouldn't really see much wear unless they've been badly adjusted in the past)
Disc inner face
Handbrake cable adjustment

I don't think it can be the latter because of the way the mechanism works. I think it would be obvious if it were stretched. And I've tried everything I can think of for first item. So that really only leaves shoes or discs.