Does anyone use one in place of a mechanical one on the road? If so, then how have you found it? Any problems?

I guess the question will be asked why I don't just fit a mechanical handbrake, so I'd better answer in advance! Firstly, the car is already road-registered, but had latterly been used for racing and is fitted with excellent rear calipers and bespoke discs / bells. I also have a hydraulic handbrake and cylinder in the garage, so the cost to fit this instead would be negligible compared to having to change discs, bells, calipers, handbrake lever, cables, etc!

Also, my car will never be left unaccompanied anywhere other than my garage, and the handbrake will only ever be used when stopping / starting in traffic on inclined roads, so no long periods where the fluid pressure will drop.

Cheers.

It wont pass mot with one, when i mot a rally car i have to disconnect the hydralics, and prove it also works with a cable set up

Yep... I'm not really concerned about that for now though.

other than the legalities (which you know about anyway) a hydraulic handbrake works very well on the road, never had any problems.

Re. the leaglities, this is crazy too, as now there are a huge number of cars on the road with electrical "handbrakes" which are NOT a mechanical system, and really push the technicalities of type approval just for the sake of it as far as I can see! They are also chronically unreliable! I was relaying a tale of woe about an audi electric handbrake (usual caliper motor position issues) to a friend of mine who has a new passat with one of these crap devices on it.....he passed comment that he had no problems and it was up to 40K miles now in its second year......he then txt me the other day to say "spoke too soon, handbrake now playing up, keeps needing dealer reset due to something with motor positon"

back to the topic though, yep you'll be fine with a hydraulic handbrake, just make sure the master cyl isn't too big, you want 5/8" really and no more.

Ta muchly!

Electric operated parking brakes are mechanical in that mechanical friction holds the brake applied. T the least sophisticated system is that employed by Ford the parking barke cable simply pulled on by a screw tensioner turned by an electric motor . Because it is a simple screw mechanism the friction characteristic is over hauling, the motor has actually drive the tensioner in reverse to release the brake.

Other systems are more complex usually but still rely on an over hauling friction characteristic.




[Edited on 6/12/10 by britishtrident]

if you need a small compact master cylinder for that then the fireblades used to have a 5/8 master cylinder for the rear brake

its what I use to operate the rear brakes on my trike builds

I always like the idea of a hydraulic park brake on my Indy. Primarily because it would allow you to remove the lever from the top of the tunnel (I know you could do this with a cable set-up, but nowhere near as easily).

RE: electric park brakes on tin tops I have it on my current Passat and once you've got used to it (and the hill hold function) going back to a tunnel mounted lever seems antiquated and a waste of centre console space. c. 60k miles over 3 yrs and no problems, but then it's a lease car and about to be returned - not so sure I'd be as confident buying a used car with the same set-up waiting to fail £££.

Cheers guys.

Where would you put it Nick?

quote:

---

Originally posted by nick205
RE: electric park brakes on tin tops I have it on my current Passat and once you've got used to it (and the hill hold function) going back to a tunnel mounted lever seems antiquated and a waste of centre console space. c. 60k miles over 3 yrs and no problems, but then it's a lease car and about to be returned - not so sure I'd be as confident buying a used car with the same set-up waiting to fail £££.

---

Re electric handbrake.

Mine has it (A6). It works well, but I don't like it, you just don't feel you have control (uphill starts for example).
85k miles, 54reg no problems.

Mike, emergency stop function is brutal (brakes on hard, might even be fronts as well), but would be good if really needed.

Matt

quote:

---

Originally posted by scootz
Cheers guys.

Where would you put it Nick?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by MikeRJ

quote:

---

Originally posted by nick205
RE: electric park brakes on tin tops I have it on my current Passat and once you've got used to it (and the hill hold function) going back to a tunnel mounted lever seems antiquated and a waste of centre console space. c. 60k miles over 3 yrs and no problems, but then it's a lease car and about to be returned - not so sure I'd be as confident buying a used car with the same set-up waiting to fail £££.

---

Have you ever tried to use it to stop the car i.e. as an emergency brake rather than a parking brake?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by nick205

quote:

---

Originally posted by scootz
Cheers guys.

Where would you put it Nick?

---

Favoured set-up would located on the passenger side of the tunnel with an ally panel covering most of it to protect the passengers legs.

The other set-up I've pondered is a very simple line lock device in the rear brake circuit - i.e. use the foot brake to apply the brakes then lock the rear circuit. Not sure how this would affect the master cylinder/pedal return though, particularly on tandem master cylinder set-ups.

---

ive fitted one to mine in the passenger side vertical unit,

ill post some pics of mine later

i fitted one to do a bit of drifting, i kept the conventional one as well which is on the passenger side of the tunnel. I made a removable handle on mine, so it wasnt in the way if i wasnt using it and fitted down by the seat as you can see in he pic.

If you are going to fit one, you may as well fit it where you can reach it if you want to play a little, assuming its a track focused car.

I dont think you can use a line lock, the solanoid will be on using power when the brakes are on and will probably over heat after a minute or so, they are only designed for burnouts etc. Its always usefull to have a system that you can lock the hand brack in place if you need to but it will test your brake joints as they may not leak under normal use but if left for several hours under high pressure the fluid may find a way out.



[Edited on 8-12-10 by Antnicuk]

doesn't have to be an electrically operated line lock, "our" kadett turbo just has a 1/4 turn valve in the front brake line, works fine. It also has a vertical hydraulic handbrake for drift use too.

fited to mine too and works a treat

quote:

---

Originally posted by NS Dev
doesn't have to be an electrically operated line lock, "our" kadett turbo just has a 1/4 turn valve in the front brake line, works fine. It also has a vertical hydraulic handbrake for drift use too.

---

So how does the line-lock work?

You depress the pedal, then twist the 'lock' and voila... braking pressure is held???