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I was at a friends house tonite (hour away from mine) and I was about to leave. His driveway goes up a hill so I always have to put the parking brake on. Anyway, my GF and I get in the car, turn the key, everything seems normal. Then I let off the parking brake, which felt a little too "loose" for me. Then something weird happened, cr in reverse, foot off brake, going DOWN hill, and it's not moving. Classic case of froze parking brake cable. I let the car sit a while with the brake off, and after a couple strange creaking noises, it came lose and we went home. Looks like I have to get that fixed this week. Question, is this under a recall or anything? I seem to remember reading that it was, but I'm not sure. Thanks.

Ford has a kit for this but it's not on recall - it should be. A friend of mine bought a Mystique that came from Ohio and it had this problem because the road salt chewed up the parts faster. Salt and water get into the cables due to a bad seal and the return spring is not strong enough. Hardest part is dropping the resonator to get at the underside of the emergency brake arm to attach the new cables.

And about how much would this cost...?

I had this. I popped off the rear wheels and shot some lube in under the rubber boot that goes over the parking brake cable. then I worked the hand brake a couple of times. Hasn't seized again and it has been 2 years now. I also repeat this every time I rotate the tire now.

We old timers learned a long time ago that when it gets to freezing weather you should forget about using the hand brake, it's too easy for things to freeze up.

should be able to get a set of new revised cables for about $30 - 40 from the dealer. Also get the external springs which help with the release. The new cables have closes boots on the end so water cannot get into the cable since the end is almost pointing straight up. It is really easy to do yourself, just have to watch you keep the equalized bar on the parking brake even when switching the cables, just do one at a time.

If you use the parking brake, the new spring will make your brake shoes last longer. The lever that activates the piston doesn't return to the full off position so the shoes drag a wee bit. Some owners in the past lost shoes in a few months when it hung up in combination with the sticky cables. I'm no longer in the GWN so I just use TriFlow on my cable ends. It is so flat here I almost never use the parking brake; the ATX Park cog keeps the car still.