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Parking Brake dragging?

Created December 4, 2007, at 9:18 pm by Mendel Leisk

We've had our '06 civic hybrid in twice now for service "B", which includes inspection of front and back brakes. Each time, our mileage plummets after the service, and I think I know the culprit.

Before the first B service, our parking brake lever pulled up through a moderate number of clicks before hitting serious resistance. This was the way it had been since purchase, new.

After the service, the first thing I noticed was the parking brake could barely be pulled up to the first click. The *next* thing I noticed was our mileage had gone south. The next thing I noticed was driving the usual routes, at points where I used to be able to coast, I had to keep some pressure on the gas pedal.

I talked to the service department, they offered to loosen the parking brake, but suggested it would loosen up, given time. Not really buying this, and wanting to know the spec's. for the parking brake (along with other things such as valve adjustment procedure) motivated me to buy the shop manual.

Reading the manual, I got the hang of prying off the shifter bezel and the top front portion of the center console. This allows access to the parking brake adjuster nut. I followed the procedure per the manual, jacking the rear wheels of the ground, releasing the parking brake lever, back off the adjuster nut, pump the brakes a few times, check there is little or no drag (you might hear a whisper or two, but the wheel should be close to free spinning), then raise the parking brake lever one click, and check if there is now a slight drag.

If not, release the lever, tighten the nut a bit, raise the lever one click and recheck. When you do get slight drag at one click, check: it should be full engaged and difficult to raise further at 8~10 clicks. If you have a steep driveway, it's worth a post-check on the slope, the car should hold position, even with the transmission in neutral.

Anyway, that's what I went through about a year ago. Just had the car in for it's second "B" service, and: same story.

It would be interesting to know just what it is the mechanics are doing that tightens the parking brake so much. I suspect it's just a side effect of their maintenance to the drum brakes themselves, but I'm not sure. One thing the shop manual cautions is that the brakes should be in good repair prior to adjusting the parking brake lever. I think this is the case, having just had the service.

Any thoughts or comments?