DIY: Parking Brake Adjustment ('05 6mt sedan)
#1
08-26-2007, 10:29 PM
DIY: Parking Brake Adjustment ('05 6mt sedan)
I’ve never done a DIY before so please bear with me…oh and sorry my camera sucks.
I got my ’05 6mt sedan 6 weeks ago and absolutely love it; however I almost immediately noticed that the parking brake does not seem to engage properly. 6 clicks does practically nothing and you have to literally double fist the thing to get any kind of hill holding ability. Well seeing as how you can find anything on this forum, I did a search and discovered that parking brake maladjustment seems to be a common problem with our cars. Additionally it seems that a few owners have actually had their cars roll away from them due to a weak parking brake. Determined to never let this happen to me I used a slow day at work to get my hands dirty and took a few pictures in the process. I hope this helps a few people out as it’s not a difficult procedure at all.
I used the service manual available on g35 frenzy as a reference: (http://www.g35frenzy.com/downloads/2...nual/F/pb.pdf), however I believe this is for an ’03-’04 coupe which is different from 05/06 sedans. Also, the manual is difficult to understand at times (I think it’s an English translation of the original Japanese service manual).
Here’s some real quick theory before I start. There are basically 3 steps to adjusting our parking brake. First, we need to release tension on the parking brake cable. Now, Infiniti uses a drum brake in each rear rotor for its p-brake. So each wheel is pulled, one at a time, and using the adjuster inside the rotor, the pad is fully applied and then released a few clicks. In other words, you are basically “resetting” the pad’s position on both wheels. Once the pads are properly set, the cable is retightened and that’s it.
Yes I know I talk a lot, we’re getting there.
Time: about one hour
Tools Needed: Floor jack, chock, breaker bar with 21mm socket (or whatever you use to pull a wheel), Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, 10mm wrench (box or socket) and a flashlight (penlight would be perfect). Due to D-Wolf’s recent financial success with his “clutch kit” I was thinking about marketing the “KevinHeld parking brake adjustment kit” which consists of two screwdrivers, a wrench and a penlight (all for the mere price of $50), but then I realized that instead of making a buck off of my fellow G owners, maybe I should give back to the community that has helped me so much in the past few months. Anyhoo, on to the DIY.
The first step is to find the self-locking nut that adjusts cable tension. As seen in the service manual, this nut is easily accessed in the coupe, but not so much in the sedan (and I think later coupes). This nut is attached to the p-brake handle and accessible only by removing the top of the center console. First, open the arm rest and remove the plastic that covers the hinges (easy, two clips). Then unscrew just the center screw
Next, put the car in 4th gear and remove the aluminum trim around the gearshift by curling your fingers under the trim and pulling straight up. The clips are metal so don’t worry about breaking anything. It might take a little bit of force.
Undo the two harnesses attached to the aluminum trim and do your best to get it out of the way (no picture). Now, the top of the center console should just pop off. If you have trouble, try lifting on the arm rest. Once the console comes off, there are two wire harnesses. One is easy to undo, the other (goes to the seat heater switches) is not. You can't undo the harness here, instead you have to unclip it from the console (picture sucks i know).
Now, just follow the wires to the heater switches and undo them there. You are now free to remove the console by guiding it over the p-brake handle. You’ll see a self-locking nut on a stud that attached directly to the p-brake cable. Loosen this nut so that there is plenty of play in the cable. Put the handle in the down position.
Put the car in neutral, and CHOCK THE FRONT WHEELS. Jack up and remove one of the rear wheels. I started with the driver’s side but it doesn’t matter. The pictures are a mix between driver and passenger sides so I apologize for any confusion. Remove the rubber stopper and rotate the disc until you see the adjuster (the disc is difficult to turn due to the limited slip diff). If you are looking at the disc, the adjuster will be in the 11:30 position on the drivers side (12:30 on the passenger side) and it looks like a little sprocket (based on the service manual, I think this sprocket is closer to the 6:00 position in the coupe).
For reference, this is what the parking brake assembly looks like underneath the disc (passenger side). You do not have to remove the rotor. I did this just so people can visualize what’s going on underneath
The service manual recommends tightening a lugnut onto the wheel to keep the rotor from separating from the hub. I did it but it’s probably not necessary. Anyway, what you need to do is “tighten” the parking brake until you can no longer rotate the rotor. This is done by using a flathead screwdriver to rotate the sprocket “down” toward the center of the wheel. If you look through the hole and just a little to the left, you can see the adjuster lengthening as you rotate the gear. Once you get to a point where you feel resistance and cannot rotate the disc, stop tightening, and loosen the brake by rotating the adjuster in the opposite direction 6 clicks. Note: in the picture below, the arrows represent the direction you should move the handle of the screwdriver.
Replace the rubber stopper, bolt on the wheel, lower the car and repeat on the other side. Once this is done, again replace the stopper and wheel, and lower the car. I found that with my car the passenger side needed much more tightening than the driver’s side, indicating to me that when the hand brake was pulled, it was probably only engaging the driver’s side drum. Back inside the car, begin to tighten the self-locking nut. The service manual says to replace the nut, but I don’t really see a reason to do that. However, if you don’t want to take the risk, I’m sure you can find one at any hardware store. Once the nut is about halfway tightened, pull the parking brake handle, with full force about 10 times (it says to do this in the manual, I imagine it removes the slack from the cable). Continue to tighten the nut until you are satisfied with the amount of force required to pull the handle up.
You don’t want to over tighten or else the brake will engage even with the handle all the way down. To test the brake, first lower the handle completely and make sure the car rolls freely. Then pull up five or six clicks and make sure you can’t push the car. When you’re satisfied, put the console back together and enjoy the piece of mind that comes with a properly adjusted parking brake.
I hope this helps someone out. I'm sure any dealer would do this, possibly even for free but Id rather just spend the hour doing it myself. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me as I'm lurking pretty much every day.
I got my ’05 6mt sedan 6 weeks ago and absolutely love it; however I almost immediately noticed that the parking brake does not seem to engage properly. 6 clicks does practically nothing and you have to literally double fist the thing to get any kind of hill holding ability. Well seeing as how you can find anything on this forum, I did a search and discovered that parking brake maladjustment seems to be a common problem with our cars. Additionally it seems that a few owners have actually had their cars roll away from them due to a weak parking brake. Determined to never let this happen to me I used a slow day at work to get my hands dirty and took a few pictures in the process. I hope this helps a few people out as it’s not a difficult procedure at all.
I used the service manual available on g35 frenzy as a reference: (http://www.g35frenzy.com/downloads/2...nual/F/pb.pdf), however I believe this is for an ’03-’04 coupe which is different from 05/06 sedans. Also, the manual is difficult to understand at times (I think it’s an English translation of the original Japanese service manual).
Here’s some real quick theory before I start. There are basically 3 steps to adjusting our parking brake. First, we need to release tension on the parking brake cable. Now, Infiniti uses a drum brake in each rear rotor for its p-brake. So each wheel is pulled, one at a time, and using the adjuster inside the rotor, the pad is fully applied and then released a few clicks. In other words, you are basically “resetting” the pad’s position on both wheels. Once the pads are properly set, the cable is retightened and that’s it.
Yes I know I talk a lot, we’re getting there.
Time: about one hour
Tools Needed: Floor jack, chock, breaker bar with 21mm socket (or whatever you use to pull a wheel), Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, 10mm wrench (box or socket) and a flashlight (penlight would be perfect). Due to D-Wolf’s recent financial success with his “clutch kit” I was thinking about marketing the “KevinHeld parking brake adjustment kit” which consists of two screwdrivers, a wrench and a penlight (all for the mere price of $50), but then I realized that instead of making a buck off of my fellow G owners, maybe I should give back to the community that has helped me so much in the past few months. Anyhoo, on to the DIY.
The first step is to find the self-locking nut that adjusts cable tension. As seen in the service manual, this nut is easily accessed in the coupe, but not so much in the sedan (and I think later coupes). This nut is attached to the p-brake handle and accessible only by removing the top of the center console. First, open the arm rest and remove the plastic that covers the hinges (easy, two clips). Then unscrew just the center screw
Next, put the car in 4th gear and remove the aluminum trim around the gearshift by curling your fingers under the trim and pulling straight up. The clips are metal so don’t worry about breaking anything. It might take a little bit of force.
Undo the two harnesses attached to the aluminum trim and do your best to get it out of the way (no picture). Now, the top of the center console should just pop off. If you have trouble, try lifting on the arm rest. Once the console comes off, there are two wire harnesses. One is easy to undo, the other (goes to the seat heater switches) is not. You can't undo the harness here, instead you have to unclip it from the console (picture sucks i know).
Now, just follow the wires to the heater switches and undo them there. You are now free to remove the console by guiding it over the p-brake handle. You’ll see a self-locking nut on a stud that attached directly to the p-brake cable. Loosen this nut so that there is plenty of play in the cable. Put the handle in the down position.
Put the car in neutral, and CHOCK THE FRONT WHEELS. Jack up and remove one of the rear wheels. I started with the driver’s side but it doesn’t matter. The pictures are a mix between driver and passenger sides so I apologize for any confusion. Remove the rubber stopper and rotate the disc until you see the adjuster (the disc is difficult to turn due to the limited slip diff). If you are looking at the disc, the adjuster will be in the 11:30 position on the drivers side (12:30 on the passenger side) and it looks like a little sprocket (based on the service manual, I think this sprocket is closer to the 6:00 position in the coupe).
For reference, this is what the parking brake assembly looks like underneath the disc (passenger side). You do not have to remove the rotor. I did this just so people can visualize what’s going on underneath
The service manual recommends tightening a lugnut onto the wheel to keep the rotor from separating from the hub. I did it but it’s probably not necessary. Anyway, what you need to do is “tighten” the parking brake until you can no longer rotate the rotor. This is done by using a flathead screwdriver to rotate the sprocket “down” toward the center of the wheel. If you look through the hole and just a little to the left, you can see the adjuster lengthening as you rotate the gear. Once you get to a point where you feel resistance and cannot rotate the disc, stop tightening, and loosen the brake by rotating the adjuster in the opposite direction 6 clicks. Note: in the picture below, the arrows represent the direction you should move the handle of the screwdriver.
Replace the rubber stopper, bolt on the wheel, lower the car and repeat on the other side. Once this is done, again replace the stopper and wheel, and lower the car. I found that with my car the passenger side needed much more tightening than the driver’s side, indicating to me that when the hand brake was pulled, it was probably only engaging the driver’s side drum. Back inside the car, begin to tighten the self-locking nut. The service manual says to replace the nut, but I don’t really see a reason to do that. However, if you don’t want to take the risk, I’m sure you can find one at any hardware store. Once the nut is about halfway tightened, pull the parking brake handle, with full force about 10 times (it says to do this in the manual, I imagine it removes the slack from the cable). Continue to tighten the nut until you are satisfied with the amount of force required to pull the handle up.
You don’t want to over tighten or else the brake will engage even with the handle all the way down. To test the brake, first lower the handle completely and make sure the car rolls freely. Then pull up five or six clicks and make sure you can’t push the car. When you’re satisfied, put the console back together and enjoy the piece of mind that comes with a properly adjusted parking brake.
I hope this helps someone out. I'm sure any dealer would do this, possibly even for free but Id rather just spend the hour doing it myself. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me as I'm lurking pretty much every day.
The following 4 users liked this post by KevinHeld:
#2
10-25-2007, 08:21 AM
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I don't mean to rain on your parade, but you should've taken that to the dealer instead of spending hours on DIY.
My parking brake only takes 3 or 4 clicks to fully engage and I've never had my car roll away.
Also, when parked at any sort of incline/decline, you should always park it in gear.
My parking brake only takes 3 or 4 clicks to fully engage and I've never had my car roll away.
Also, when parked at any sort of incline/decline, you should always park it in gear.
#3
11-20-2007, 02:15 PM
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Bret Jones (02-17-2015)
#4
04-18-2008, 08:22 PM
#6
10-12-2008, 05:51 AM
Great write-up!
The dealer wanted me to pay them a ridiculous amount of money for them to put in dino oil and cheap oil filter before they would adjust my ebrake. They've always told me to bring my car in for servicing and they'll adjust it for me for free, but when I brought my car in for other issues and requested that they adjust my ebrake, they told me to bring my car in to get an oil change. I even offered to pay them to just adjust the thing for me because I don't want their sh*tty oil, and they still said they can't do it.
Originally Posted by dirrtybear
I don't mean to rain on your parade, but you should've taken that to the dealer instead of spending hours on DIY.
#7
10-12-2008, 01:21 PM
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