Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting evil e-brake

bought my 99 se/duratec/mtx last june, awesome car. over the course of the winter i noticed my e-brake beginning to stick when i backed out of the driveway. i usually attributed it to cold weather, thinking it would wear off when the car warmed up. usually wore off a little bit, but never fully. most recently, it's gotten alot worse. i read the FAQ/common problems info and it said road salt, etc. could cause this to happen. that made sense, since i live in central/northern ohio. it's been getting so bad though, that i am now noticing a shaking when braking which i am giving credit to mildly warped rotors. i'm pretty sure the pads will wear prematurely, i work at a car dealership and a while back a tech told me i was down to 30% on the rears, and i do all highway driving so they shouldn't be worn down much more since then (he told me this about 2 months ago). the point im really getting at amidst all my rambling is that tonite i pulled it into the shop and disconnected the e-brake cables to release all the pressure from the lines. it worked, but now i have no e-brake. i dont think its a huge problem, seeing as how i can leave it in gear when i park, but i think this should only be a temporary fix. can leaving it in gear all the time wear on the clutch/driveshaft? also, is the only way to fix the problem to replace the entire e-brake cable, as described in the FAQ section???

thanks for any help.

-bobby

leaving a car in gear when parked so it does not roll will not do any harm.. matter of fact in my state the traffice laws call for a car left along to thave the engine off, the car in gear and the emergency brake on.... i got a 96 contour and since new it had problems with backing up and making a moosing noise(not from under the hood, but the rear brakes).. i brought it to the dealer and they changed out both rear calipers(4 wheel disc.).. but the problem did not go away.. i think it was the cables on the emergency brakes holding the rear brake pads ON and when the E brake was released it did not fully let go so the rear pads were on slightly when backing??? so far no wear on the rear pads... i think when i do change the rear pads( i already changed the front pads and rotors), i will check the cables where they meet the rear wheels and make sure they got some good high temp. brake grease on the cable and see if that helps...

It's the springs that get fubar'd. The tsb kit is only $50 or so to correct this issue.

the two 99 se sports we have had this problem along with my father 95 se

for some reason the parking brake cables freeze up, yes do not use the brake or you will wear your brakes and tires and possible the clutch from having the rear brakes drag

the parking brake kit is about $40 from the dealer, you get two cables and two assist springs, you don't need the springs they are for 95s only.

the cables are not had to change, you need to drop the last bit of heat sheild to get up to where the cables mount, hardest park is getting the new cables on the equilizer bar, best to do this when warm.

you should see any where from leaving the car parked with out the parking brake, if concerned used a wheel block to hold the car, this is what my father did when he wanted to warm his car up but couldn't use the parking brake

i have the ebrake cables disconnected, but my ebrake is still hanging up...any ideas? it seems to be mostly in reverse, however last nite it felt like it was at all times. i ran a few hard cycles on the brake pedal, that seemed to warm it up, but i dont understand how the ebrake can still be clamped against the rotor if i've disconnected the cables??? im thinking about removing the whole ebrake clamping assembly in the shop tomorrow nite.

Where did you disconnect them at? If it's at the caliper's, and you still are having problems, it's the calipers themselves. The only thing that I can think of about it happening mainly when it's in reverse, is that when slowing/stopping from reverse, the rear discs are doing more work than they do when moving forward. Same idea of the front brakes doing 70% of the work during regular forward motion, only it's not 70% on the rears in reverse.

well one of the tech's at the dealership i work at said it was most likely the brake pads getting hung up (they were old, and the pad seemed to be disconnected from the bracket or something. anyway, i replaced the pads with satisfied's "PrOEM" pads from tire rack (i get wholesale )and that seems to have fixed the problem, but i havnt re-connected the ebrake lines yet so we'll see what happens after that. now the only problem is my stupid ass took a combination of cold and pain killer pills before doing the pads and i put one of them on backwards!!!! ...I'll fix that today...

i had that problem for a month or two before i fixed it. while gettin an alignment i had the guys take a look. they said sure enough e-brake cable was stretched. he disconnected it and i have no used the ebrake in 3 months now. only down fall to that is when its cold out and you wanna warm your car up but go back inside, you have to make sure it won't roll down a hill or something. ha. anyways, maybe ill order a new e-brake set up pretty quick here.

do you have the TSB number so i can look it up??? thanks for any info on this issue...

98-5A-17