as some of you may know not so long ago my handbreak was useless, wouldnt hold on the littlest of hills, just of late it has again begun to become a bit useless. it has shiney new handbreak cables that have i feel been streched. is there any easy way, bearing in mind i dont have a pit and its bloody freezing out there, for me to tighten the handbrake. i did read in the haynes about removing heat shields etc, then i got confused. i dont really want to take it back to a kwik fit like place to get it done. if its easy to do.... any suggestions welcomed, cheers, matt

i dont know how this is done but sounds like its defeatly time to get the jack and axel stands out:speechless-smiley-6 been there myself today so your not on your own

If you have drums on the back take them off and check the self adjuster mine was all rusted up. If it has discs then i would check the operation of calipers as you will have to pull more on the cable and just end up streching it again. Hope this helps, at least there is no need to get under the car.

"just of late it has again begun to become a bit useless. it has shiney new handbreak cables that have i feel been streched. is there any easy way, bearing in mind i dont have a pit and its bloody freezing out there, for me to tighten the handbrake. i did read in the haynes about removing heat shields etc, then i got confused." any suggestions welcomed, Matt, did you put in the "new shiny" cables yourself? Do you have rear discs with calipers or drums with shoes? Regards Malky

no, they were fitted by a garage. i have discs with calipers.

Had the same problem a while back with my 440 Si and adjusting the calipers themselves helped. On the back of each calpier there is an adjuster, but you need to use an allen key to remove the cover and a different key to make the adjustment. When I did this the outer cover was rather stubborn to remove with a standard allen key and I had to resort to a bit and small ratchet to get some leverage. I did this by jacking one side at a time although the correct way I think is to have both wheels jacked up. Only a small adjustment is needed by firstly tightening the adjuster then slackening off until the wheel just moves. Hope this might be of some use. Regards Leighton