New shoes for hand brake or just needs adjustment?

Volvo The End · Post by **Volvo The End** » 31 Jan 2012, 20:16

Hello all! I went to get my state inspection today and failed because my emergency brake (hand brake, parking brake) doesn't engage well on my 1998 Volvo S70. It cranks up almost vertical before it engages and still the car rolls forward a bit before it seems to catch. The mechanic said I needed new emergency brake shoes for $350. I do not need to pass inspection right away so I decided to wait and shop around. I live in NYC, not many hills, don't use my parking brake much and can't see how my shoes have worn out and I feel like the cable just need adjustment or something.....That said, I know jack diddlee about cars. I am not a handy person so I don't need to know how to do it myself, I just want to know if something is rotten in Denmark. Does anyone have any insight? Thanks for reading my post!

Post by **cn90** » 31 Jan 2012, 21:21

Adjust Parking Brake first.

However, in my experience owning many cars, the parking brake shoes are usually bad at around 10-12 yr/100-120K time.
Not to mention sometimes the shoe friction material simply falls off (search forum for pics!).
Parking Brake Shoes are cheap, I bought TEXTAR (rmeuropean.com) about $30.

I wrote a detailed DIY here, scroll down to see the Parking Brake Shoes procedure:

DIY: 98 V70 Brake Hydraulic Overhaul (Hoses, Seals, Parking)
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... hp?t=37721

Volvo The End · Post by **Volvo The End** » 31 Jan 2012, 21:32

Thanks, CN90!
Looking at those pictures, I think it should cost about $89,000 to do the job! Holy cow! Very complicated looking..... My car is quite old and has about 98,000 miles on it so it is possible they are just worn out in some way. Can I ask the mechanic to try adjusting the brake and see if that fixes it first or is the job too fidgety?

Post by **cn90** » 31 Jan 2012, 22:03

Actually, that DIY above has 2 parts:

1. Hydraulic Hoses/Seals Overhaul.

2. Parking Brake Shoes, this part is not difficult at all. If you have fixed cars before, this is easy.

Post by **holler1** » 01 Feb 2012, 07:24

Volvo The End wrote:The mechanic said I needed new emergency brake shoes for $350. I

If you do need new ebrake shoes, they should not cost anything close to that. The shoes themselves should cost $50 or less. You can price them by going to one of the parts websites at the top of the forum. The labor to replace them might cost another $100, unless your cables are also shot. If the cables are bad or rusted, it gets more expensive. The cables can run over $100 each.

My first step would be to check the shoes by taking off the rear wheels and rotors/drums, and if they are OK, do an adjustment. That might be all there is to it. If the shoes are bad, it's an easy job to replace them.

Post by **fazool** » 01 Feb 2012, 11:07

Your parking brakes only engage when you pull the brake. If you never use your parking brake, these should (theoretically) never wear. That said, if the handle needs a big pull up, they are probably fairly light on shoe material. You could try adjusting the handle (very simply cable adjustment - one nut to turn from inside the car. If its still not enough, then replace the shoes.

Older cars get rusty and some internal parts get stubborn, but its really an easy job for anyone that's repaired a car once or twice.

If you could find a corner mechanic, they could do the job complete in under an hour, so it should cost you :

$25 shoes
$15 new hardware kit to replace rusty parts
$80 one hour labor

$120 + tax

Post by **JRL** » 01 Feb 2012, 14:08

Try to adjust first but the odds of it needing new shoes AND new cables are very high
ALL the rust belt cars' E brake cables are about history by now, all rusted out