Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

Has anyone else had or heard about handbrake failures on the 5. This afternoon my 5 parked on my sloped drive failed and my car rolled into my wifes car causing damage to both cars. I will be talking to my insurance company monday morning. I am sure that when i parked the car the handbrake was on, after all my drive being on a slope I have too.

Its strange I am hoping that this is a known fault.

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

I put our Mazda 5 Sport in for the door latch recall work and when it came back the handbrake was much much much much more stiffer...

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

my two week old 5 hand brake is maybe three clicks at most

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

Kenmaz,

Our Mazda 5 Furano let its handbrake go on a steep hill with 2 kids in the car. It ran away and hit a wall. Only luck prevented it from seriously injuring the children or some innocent bystander. It is now in the body shop for repairs, having hit another car and demolished a wall, God know what he bill will be.

It held on the handbrake long enough for my wife to get out, go fetch afriends kid, open the door, load her in and then have a chat. Whist they were chatting - it took off. Both my wife and her friend report hearing a 'bang' before the car shot off down the hill. Lets be clear here, the handbrake failed completely, it didn't just creep forwards. Cynics might think she just forgot to put it on, but that doesn't explain why itremained staionary for 5-10 mins (at least), thisisa steephill as well, not some gentle slope.

We have had it just 6 weeks, it is a Jan 2007 Model with just 3500 on the clock.

Initial reports from the garage indicate that there is 'nothing wrong' - no surprises there.

Will post further if mechanical inspection reveals anything.

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

We had a very similar problem to Furano today.

We were parked up on the drive (slightly sloped). I had vacated the car, my wife got , herself and our THREE kids out of the car and unloaded shopping. Ten minutes later we had a knock at the door. Our next door neighbour informed us that our April 2006 Mazda 5 was trying to get amorous with their car. Slight damage and I mean slight, to both cars.

When I got into the car to check the handbrake it was fully engaged. I had to give it quite a yank and I'm a strong man!;) to engage one more notch.

Our intitial contact with Mazda pretty much confirm that they will wash their hands of it.

Another thing we noticed that may, or may not be related was a groaning on the handbrake(?) when loading and unloading from the car. I put it down to a normal strain on the cable, but maybe not?

Also. Like so many other Mazda 5 owners we have had tyre wear issues.

Other than that I love the car. So versatile, what with three kids. I just hope our neighbours can be reasonable about three tiny grazes on their plasitc bumper on their seven year old Toyota thingy! [:-]

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

This is interesting... sincethe 5 and 3 are sisters under the skin. They are the same chassis and drivetrain, same brakes a an S model 3 and I would assume the same handbrake setup too, though I don't really know. Yet I haven't heard any complaints from the 3 crowd of any year? I've had mine for nearly four years and use the handbrake all the time w/no problems.
Curious?

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

The handbrake cables do seem to stretch. Our car has only done 10000 miles and the lever had to be pulled up a long way in order to hold the car. I also experienced Sam17's groaning noise when loading the car. The handbrake is really easy to adjust. Pop out the plastic plug in the little tray behind the lever. You then need a 10mm socket on a long extension to reach in to the adjusting nut. Here is the relevant passage from the manual:

PARKING BRAKE LEVER INSPECTION

Stroke Inspection
1. Pump the brake pedal a few times.
2. Pull the parking brake lever two to three times.
3. Inspect the parking brake stroke by slowly pulling
at point A 50 mm {1.97 in} from the end of the
parking brake lever with a force of 98 N {10 kgf,
22 lbf} and counting the number of notches
(clicking sound).
• If not within the specification, adjust the
parking brake lever.
Parking brake lever stroke when pulled at 98 N
{10 kgf, 22 lbf}
3—6 notches

PARKING BRAKE LEVER ADJUSTMENT

1. Pump the brake pedal a few times.
2. Remove the service hole cover of the center
console.
3. Turn the adjusting nut and adjust the parking
brake lever.
4. After adjustment, pull the parking brake lever one
notch and verify that the parking brake warning
light illuminates.
5. Verify that the rear brakes do not drag.

I seem to recall that a weakness of a handbrake operating on disc brakes is that the discs expand when warm then shrink as they cool causing the handbrake to be less effective. Maybe we need to ensure the car is in gear as well when parked.

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

Good info/suggestions Mozart!! The groaning noise is not uncommon in any car I've ever owned. And as you said, cables do stretch. The nature of the beast imo.
If you want a horrible parking brake, try the early Volvo's w/4 wheel disc brakes. Small shoes inside a small drum in the rotors center hub.
You could get them to hold pretty when well parked, but as an emergency measure they were pretty useless.

RE: Handbrake Problem - Urgent
 

This is a common problem with cars that have rear disc brakes. The handbrake works by squeezing the brake pads against the disc. When the dis is hot, after driving, the brake will hold fine but as the disc cools it's thickness reduces and the brake can slip. What you should do with any car is depress the brake pedal firmly with the engine running and then pull up on the handbrake. This ensures the brakes are applied using the hydraulics and the handbrake mechanism only has to take up the slack and will hold when the brakes cool.

To test this, next time you park pull up as hard as you can on the handbrake and then press the brake pedal.....you should find the handbrake will easily come up a couple of extra clicks.

Same problem here with the parking brake releasing after the car is stationary. First time, the car rolled down the hill and took out a neighbor's mailbox. After that, I thought that maybe the brake was not pulled up enough. Second time....not so much...It took out the neighbor's shed. Mazda says that there have been no other complaints about the issue. After reading this forum, I tend to not believe them. My insurance company put in our claim as Mazda's fault and they are investigating the issue. Please contact me with information about your particular problem and what happened for you if you had property damage as a result of the parking brake disengaging so I will have some ammo when I go to the Department of HWY safety to see if they can create a recall. Mazda NEEDS to do something about this before someone is hurt. Thanks.

Carmen Russo
russoca@gmail.com