Problem with the parking brake

brennizone · **Joined:** Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:05 pm **Posts:** 2

Hi,
I bought my first Jeep a couple of weeks ago, bought a 2004 Liberty Sport, manual transmission. I've been in the habit of parking my previous cars (also manual transmissions) with the emergency brake, seldom leaving it in gear (we can get into the pros & cons of this later). After getting the car home, I tried to park it in my driveway which is sloped about 30-35 degrees and the emergency brake did not hold. I had the mechanic look at it while I took it in for something else and they said they fixed the problem. Returning home this evening, I tried once again to park the Jeep with the emergency brake, but I just started rolling back down the hill.

Is this normal for the Liberty? I'm inclined to believe not but I thought I'd ask around before I go back to the mechanic.

Thanks,
Mike

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:04 am

It's pretty normal, our emergency brakes are more "parking brake assists" then anything

to fully answer your question, they weren't designed to hold the vehicle on a grade by themselves

my feeling is that they ran out of room or encountered the current system as a cheaper alternative to a proper emergency brake

at least in terms of the KJ's, gone are the days of your E-Brake preventing you from moving with any sort of ease while in gear and attempting to drive, if you forget and leave it on, and don't see the dummy light, you'll never know it's still on till you smell it

Billwill · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:06 am

The parking brake should hold the vehicle on a hill. When my 2002 CRD was still new, everytime I took it for a service at the Agents I complained about the parking brake to no avail. Finally when the Jeep was out of warranty, the Agents fitted a new assembly and it has been working fine since then. They gave me the old assembly...it is quit a complicated system that uses a wrap-around spring that acts as a sort of one-way clutch. I have seen on other jeep forums that these assemblies fail quite often!

Slitch · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 5:18 am

JeepinJarhead03 wrote:

It's pretty normal, our emergency brakes are more "parking brake assists" then anything

to fully answer your question, they weren't designed to hold the vehicle on a grade by themselves

my feeling is that they ran out of room or encountered the current system as a cheaper alternative to a proper emergency brake

at least in terms of the KJ's, gone are the days of your E-Brake preventing you from moving with any sort of ease while in gear and attempting to drive, if you forget and leave it on, and don't see the dummy light, you'll never know it's still on till you smell it

Totally agree mine doesn’t hold the liberty even on a slope of not more than 15 degrees

brennizone · **Joined:** Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:05 pm **Posts:** 2

Thanks!

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

I never use mine at all, doesn't hold much, found that out the first week of ownership back in 04.
So now I never even think of using it, E brake shoes look brand new even yet with 151,000 on the KJ :ROTFL:

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:55 pm

FYI - the 02's should have a better Ebrake - they have full rear drums - so their Ebrake surface area is larger. 03's on up have a much smaller drum brake in the hub of the rear disk - smaller surface area - harder to generate the force neccessary to hold on a hill.

but you can adjust anything - Jeepjeepster - adjust - first thread is inside adjustment - link in the thread is to the rear drum adjustment. - be prepared to readjust on a regular basis.
http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=187268#p187268

SavageUrge · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:43 pm

There is a thread on this forum (though I'll be darned if I can find it) about one user who tightened his e-brake with great success. I remember it involved removing the housing and holding something down while clicking the cam that the cable attaches to - I know - this isn't much help, my apologies...I personally had my mechanic do it, also with success. I live on a hill and frequently park on the street. I always use the ebrake along with putting it in gear and turning the wheels to rest on the curb, so my Jeep isn't going anywhere without a great deal of help!

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:13 pm

SavageUrge wrote:

There is a thread on this forum (though I'll be darned if I can find it) about one user who tightened his e-brake with great success. I remember it involved removing the housing and holding something down while clicking the cam that the cable attaches to - I know - this isn't much help, my apologies...I personally had my mechanic do it, also with success. I live on a hill and frequently park on the street. I always use the ebrake along with putting it in gear and turning the wheels to rest on the curb, so my Jeep isn't going anywhere without a great deal of help!

I attempted this method myself (through the interior console) a couple months ago, and had no luck. I couldn't figure out what he adjusted once inside, and I wasn't willing to remove the ENTIRE console to get to it.

Supposedly, if you back up about 10-15 miles per hour, put the vehicle in neutral, and pull the e-brake up fast as far as it'll go... the e-brake will adjust automatically. This only works if all your parts inside the rear drums are healthy and in good operational order. I did this last week and my brake will now hold my KJ on an incline all by itself.

Problem with the parking brake

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