Final Resolution on my parking brake 'issues'

[Matt89]

You may recall my recent drama trying to adjust the parking brakes on my 2006 CR-V. Well, I had them working great for awhile when we noticed that the left parking brake shoes were binding in the drum...basically they were failing to release when the handle was released. Bad smell and smoking hot after my wife drove it a few blocks. A key clue to the mystery was that they never bound up when the car was in the garage, only when parked out in the cold.

Turns out that the cause was water intrusion into the cable runs...in this frigid weather, the water would freeze and prevent the cable from operating properly. Honda replaced both cables free under warrantee.

 

[JHZR2]

glad you got it all figured out and got a good solution...

...but I thought Honda did everything right and their vehicles never had to have warrantee repairs?!?

JMH

 

[benjamming]

Did they give you much fuss about the repair or were they pretty decent about it?

 

[brianl703]

I read in a manual--it was probably a military manual--that suggested not using the parking brake and blocking the wheels instead if freezing weather is expected.

Leads me to the conclusion that this isn't an uncommon problem. My experience is that I've only ever had my parking brake freeze up on me once, and it turned out there was a TSB for revised parking brake cables to fix the problem, so I got it fixed under warranty.

 

[andyd]

Heh heh, in days of yore, IIRC I saw grease fittings on E-brake cable housings. The manufactures did away with them prolly in the 50s and substituted the warning not to set E-brake in freezing temps instead.

 

[Kestas]

Wow, I never knew they once had grease fittings! Nearly every car I've owned had problems with e-brakes corroding and seizing in our climate. It'd be nice to bring this design feature back.

The only exception I can think of is the Escort/Tracer design, where just about the entire e-brake unit is sealed from the elements, and is problem-free for a long time in our climate.

 

[Matt89]

I have to say that the dealership in this case (Van's Honda Green Bay, WI) was OUTSTANDING. They didn't get the repair right the first time (cleaned and adjusted the brakes first time we brought it in, which of course didn't fix it), but the second time they rented me a car, overnighted the parts and got it right. They even called back a couple of days later to see how it was working for my wife etc. Thankfully none of that "please give us a good score on the survey" kind of baloney.

This dealership also took care of 2 TSB issues (power steering and drive belt vibration) on my Civic with a smile. Even topped off my coolant when I popped in unannounced one time. When I told the service advisor I used Mobil 1, he said that they offer that oil but if I wanted them to do an oil change I'd be much better off bringing in my own stuff because they buy M1 in small quantities and charge a lot for it. I had to look around for the candid camera, it was like I was in the twilight zone. I do most of my own work, but this particular dealership has my business for anything I can't do.

As for the Honda infallibility, I can't help but wonder if I may have contributed to the issue with my militant anti-rust body flushing program