Anybody have this problem....U park on a hill, put ur e brake on and the car still rolls, i only have 2800 miles on it. Are my brembos almost done with. I know to put it in gear and all but I really have to crank that sucker hard to hold. Maybe just an adjustment. What do you guys think?

 

Why does this come up time after time. Put the car in gear when parked. If up hill, put in first, if downhill or on level ground, put in in reverse. The emergency brake is what it says it is, an emergency brake. It is not a parking braking. An automatic transmission car has a park position to lock the transmission to keep the car stationary. That's the same reason you put a manual transmission automible in gear, to lock the transmission, so the car wont move.

With that being said, the emergency brake should be able to hold the car from moving. It's probably a cable adjustment.

Lou

 

The emergency break only engages when you pull it all the way up to the end. That is they way it is calibrated. It beats me why they did that but that's how it works. I have an inclined driveway so I know how it works. My wife complains later that she can release it because it takes some force to disengage it from that position.

2004 G35 Coupe/OB/Graphite interior/Premium and aero package/Popcharger/Z tube/Hotchkis sways/Tein H-tech springs/Kinetix plenum/Crawford cats

 

Nothing new. The e-brake in our cars suck big time. I brought it up with my dealer, they checked and said there is nothing they can since it's already set to the factory spec. Like other have mentioned above - just put into gear.

P.S.

When you engage your e-brake, it has nothing to do with your Brembos. These are used only when you press the brake pedal. The e-brake holds the car using a separate mechanism and has nothing to do with your Brembos.

My G-enie

 

What really sucks is that in FL you cannot turn your car off for 5 seconds w/o it heating up to 100+ degrees. When I park on my driveway to get the kids out of the back of my coupe the darn car gets so hot it's insane. I'd love to let my car run and have the AC cool the vehicle and kids as I bring one child into the house at a time, but that's not possible because I have to engage the tranny, thus turn off the car and AC. I always take out the girls as fast as possible, but I miss the old days of putting the car in park, applying the e-brake and letting the AC blast...

I now look forward to the days where I beat my wife home from work so I can park in the middle of the garage, leave the car running, and take each child out one at a time w/o half baking the last kid out of the car.

<font color=blue>The above statements are only my take on the issue. If you disagree with anything I typed then you are 100% right!</font color=blue>

 

I know what you mean Texas heat is just as bad maybe worse. I don't know about leaving the car running while the kids are still in.
Using the emergency brake "only" for parking is a disaster waiting to happen, always put it in gear. On steep hills you are supposed to turn your wheels into the curb just in case it rolls while in gear or accidentally slips out of gear.

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by jwg35c on 08/23/04 08:47 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

The E-brake on the Z is comprised of a small drum brake. It does not use the rear calipers to lock the rear wheels. Drums are far less effective then rotor/pad combinations. To make matters worse, the drum surface and shoes may be at different radii, particularly when they are new and they rarely will ever be bedded in properly as they are not used during normal braking. With the different radii, the contact area of each shoe to the drum's surface will be quite small. And without being bedded in, the coefficient of friction will be less than if it were bedded in properly. Secondly, these are rather small drum brakes as well, as they have to fit within the rotor hat so that have very little brake torque for a given amount of pressure between the shoes and drum surface. My 83 Celica had a primary rear drum brake and the parking brake worked fine. Most trucks have used drums in the rear without these kind of problems.

You can probably try to bed the rear drums by pulling the ebrake a bit as you are coming to a stop(be very careful if you do this) in order to try and bed the pad and increase the contact patch between the shoes and the drum liner. I would avoid using strictly the E-brake alone to slow down the car when bedding as they will heat up much quicker than a rotor and will not dissapate heat as quickly. By using the E-brake alone you are trying to slow/stop the car's entire momentum with a relatively small brake. The rear drums are probably no bigger (perhaps smaller) than a drum you might find on a Honda Civic (they are quite small btw) and you are asking it to stop nearly 1000 lbs more weight. Drums have relatively poor heat dissapation qualities. Larger drums tend to have cooling fins (albiet small) to try and help, but they are not very effective. I do not recall seeing any on our brakes. While heat will tranfer to the rotor and some to the wheels, but with such a small brake and potentially large load, it can easily overheat the pad quickly. This could cause the pad to crystallize.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

I don't know about leaving the car running while the kids are still in.

<hr></blockquote>
I know what you mean, but when I'm the father of a 23 month old and a 4 year old (who is usually sleeping while strapped in her child seat every day after preschool) I have only one choice... Take out the 23 month old while the other child (~25 feet away in my driveway) sleeps in the back of the G. I then take the shoes/socks off of the baby, put her in the house and then immediately go wake up (not an easy task) the 4 year old zombie. I just hate leaving her in the car without any AC, especially when the outside temp. gage on my dash is reading 101 degrees, even if it is only for 1 minute.

Maybe this is a good reason to talk my wife into the newer, bigger house with the 3 car garage. "But honey, I can't open my door and get the girls out in our garage." ...yeah right.

<font color=blue>The above statements are only my take on the issue. If you disagree with anything I typed then you are 100% right!</font color=blue>

 

This is one of those G35 anomalies. I have a 5AT coupe and the e brake does not hold. The dealer says my "e brake works consistant with other G35's," so no fix. This is BS. It may be consistant with G35's but it's not consistant with everyother car I have owened or how ebrakes are supposed to work (or safety for that matter). The ebrake on my BMW holds on any hill and will fully stop the car while moving, if necessary.
This is just a crap ebrake on this car. I get the impression that the hand ebrake on the 6MT is probably a little better than the foot ebrake on the 5AT.

 

I dont know whats with the seemingly lengthy responses.

Answer: Go get it adjusted at the dealer.

2004 Twilight Blue Coupe
6MT
Premium Package
Aero Package