# Parking brake . . . continued.



## AlainSDL (Jun 13, 2013)

So I posted a few months ago about my parking brake lever having to be pulled very high for the brakes to engage (even to the point that the armrest must be pushed back). An issue that many have dealt with.

In July a local dealer "adjusted" the brakes with absolutely no change. I think they were only humoring me but didn't actually do anything. I think this because the advisor clearly didn't feel that I had an issue. 

Because I have two jobs and very little time to dicker with a BRAND NEW car I've only recently brought the vehicle back to dealer I bought the car from. This time they said that the lever assembly must be replaced. Parts are on order.

What do you all think? Is it worth my time to go back in for this? Will it actually fix the problem?

Thanks,

AlainSDL


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

I'd say give them a chance. Mark the old assembly so that you can tell if they really replaced it. I surely don't understand why an adjustment won't correct the problem, but I also don't know the mechanism. If the new parts don't correct the problem, time to call GM and open an issue.


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

Jim Frye said:


> I'd say give them a chance. Mark the old assembly so that you can tell if they really replaced it. I surely don't understand why an adjustment won't correct the problem, but I also don't know the mechanism. If the new parts don't correct the problem, time to call GM and open an issue.


Maybe they did adjust the brake but that was not the problem. The adjustment should have corrected the problem unless the cable was stretched beyond the point of usefulness. Ergo the problem is neither the lever or the adjustment of the brakes but the cable. So maybe they did adjust the cable but that is not the problem and if they replaced the lever that would not correct the problem either since they probably would not touch the defective cable. Have them replace the cable and I bet anything that corrects the problem.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

I don't see how the lever assembly can be the problem. It's a very simple mechanism. I agree with the previous responders that its either the rear brakes adjusted too far from the drums or a stretched cable.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Not sure of the others, there is a self adjusting device under the center console for the ECO manual. You can manually spin it but it will reset to what it wants. You have to adjust the rear drums via the how to because "GM specs" is geared towards FE and brake life. They claim putting the brakes to where we want them causes drag and lower than EPA MPG numbers. 


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

With rear disk on my 2LT, wife still asks why am I working the parking brake while stopped, same reply, brake pedal feels low, two or three pumps gets the brake pedal up where it should be. Still the maximum throw is about six inches.

As we are learning, GM has many different sources for the same part, and some are not so good. If you finally found a dealer that would replace it, I would jump at it.

With my old DeVille, a brake line broke when driving causing a major leak, all I had left to stop was my working parking brake. Even with a dual master cylinder, the brake pedal went clear to the floor. Did make it home, but driving rather slowly. Can happen to anyone, that parking is the only thing you have left. I would indubitably get that repaired. 

I do not think it was a good idea for the Cruze to share that same brake reservoir with the clutch, can't even downshift to slow down with a brake failure.


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## brian v (Dec 25, 2011)

Vote him up OB !


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Jim Frye said:


> I'd say give them a chance.


Agreed, and you really don't have much choice. Give them a shot at fixing it and see what happens. Your only alternative would be to look into it yourself or go to another dealer.

I would suggest opening a ticket with Chevy Customer Service on the forum here, but I'm not sure what they will be able to do in this case beyond contacting your dealer to make sure _something_ is being done...


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Hi AlainSDL,

So sorry to read about your negative dealership experience. You are welcome to keep us posted or contact us during or before your next dealership visit. As Blue_Angel said we can call the dealership for you. We can also open a service request for you to document the issues that you have been having and forward your information to the correct hands if necessary. please let us know how we can help by sending us a private message. 

Jackie
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## Dragonsys (May 27, 2013)

I doubt it will fix the issue, but let them try I suppose.
If that does not fix the issue, try adjusting the drum (http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/57-how-library/6485-how-adjust-rear-drum-brakes.html)
If that still doesn't work, then the parking brake cable is stretched, which really should not be happening yet, as 3-4 years max on these cars is too early for the cable to stretch.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Proper way to adjust the rear drums brakes is to back up at about 2 mph, then hit the brake pedal. Repeatedly. If it doesn't self adjust, you have mechanical problems that should be addressed.

One key problem is having the parking brake cable too tight where with excessive gap, that pawl cannot catch the next notch in the adjustor. Another is not having the shoes properly cleaned and lubricated where they cannot self center on their own. Learned many years ago, Permatex anti-seize is the best lubricant to use in particular on the shoe anchors that just love to rust.

Now if the Cruze is using a self adjusting parking brake, they gave us a new age old problem, self adjusting stuff is BS. Never grips as well as a manual adjustment that with brakes will last for years. Ford tried that with climate temperature control, a sliding pawl that is suppose get a good grip, stupid in my experience that pawl wears out.

Another thing I hate is the self adjusting clutch, first off, hydraulics with worn seals and leaks, and the only way to get at the slave cylinder is to drop the transaxle. My old Honda used a cable with a knob adjustment, Every 5-10 thousand miles or so, just had to give that knob a couple of clicks to get the free play back. And once that knob became tight against the stop, knew the clutch disk was worn and had to be replace.

With this hydraulic self adjusting system, you don't know where you are at. And one day, clutch works normally, the next miles away from home, you just lost all of your freeplay. To me this is not convenience, but a complete PITA.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Found it. This is what the dealership said they used. 










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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Merc6 said:


> Found it. This is what the dealership said they used.
> 
> View attachment 46186
> 
> ...


Gathering GM copied these self adjusting parking brake levers from Ford. In my experience, it is not a better idea. And the procedures are far more complicated than that posted bulletin.. Haven't studied the Cruze yet, maybe I will trade if off first. But the only cure with the Ford was to replace those brake cables.

Then they only mention the far easier rear disk brakes where you can see the levers without the aid of x-rays. With drums, have to remove the drums first when closely adjusted properly. Can't do this with a ridge on the drums, that has to be turned off first, and everything cleaned off. That is when you can see that shoe lever to make sure its properly seated. Or after years of this, develop a feel by pulling on the parking brake cable with your hand to make sure its properly seated. 

Suppose if your dealer tells you a full pull on the parking brake lever is perfectly normal. All you can reply with, so is the proliferation of idiots in this country. Find another dealer, find small town dealers have a lot more common sense.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

NickD said:


> Gathering GM copied these self adjusting parking brake levers from Ford. In my experience, it is not a better idea. And the procedures are far more complicated than that posted bulletin.. Haven't studied the Cruze yet, maybe I will trade if off first. But the only cure with the Ford was to replace those brake cables.
> 
> Then they only mention the far easier rear disk brakes where you can see the levers without the aid of x-rays. With drums, have to remove the drums first when closely adjusted properly. Can't do this with a ridge on the drums, that has to be turned off first, and everything cleaned off. That is when you can see that shoe lever to make sure its properly seated. Or after years of this, develop a feel by pulling on the parking brake cable with your hand to make sure its properly seated.
> 
> Suppose if your dealer tells you a full pull on the parking brake lever is perfectly normal. All you can reply with, so is the proliferation of idiots in this country. Find another dealer, find small town dealers have a lot more common sense.


I pulled the brake in a snow covered parking lot, lol guess what happened. Absolutely nothing happened. This is the best dealer for the area. I could try again in NJ or just adjust it myself. Been too lazy to buy another jack and lug wrench. Having an on base DIY shop back in my active duty days spoiled me. The one in NJ is horrible. 


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

Ahh. Base Auto Hobby Shop! Brings back all those memories of the seemingly countless hours I spent fixing my '69 Z28. Alongside the guy that was rebuilding his Cessna there.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Merc6 said:


> Been too lazy to buy another jack and lug wrench.


You need to expand your network of friends until you get one with a hoist and tools!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Merc6 said:


> I pulled the brake in a snow covered parking lot, lol guess what happened. Absolutely nothing happened. This is the best dealer for the area. I could try again in NJ or just adjust it myself. Been too lazy to buy another jack and lug wrench. Having an on base DIY shop back in my active duty days spoiled me. The one in NJ is horrible.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com App


Ha, remember those days, had to requisition a 9/16" boxed end wrench, sorry, we only have two of those and both are checked out. So I saved my pennies and that is what we were paid to buy a basic tool set from Craftsman that was 50% off on a lucky day.

These grew like crazy for 3/4" drives when working on semi's, even more with this ridiculous change to metric to please the Japanese when what they really wanted was a steering wheel on the right hand side.

Growing like crazy with special purpose tools. What from my wife, you need more tools? What are my alternatives? To pay 1,500 bucks for a shop to do this or to lay out a hundred bucks for a tool I need. Well was 80 bucks to change a water pump on that 04 Cavalier.

More money went out the door from the switch from R-12 to R-134a, even more from the switch from R-22 to R-409. Then buying scanners I never needed before. Then losing my mind when looking over my special tool collection, can't even remember what they were for. Just tell myself, heck no one else will listen, what did I buy this for? Must have needed it at the time.

Really got teed off when they switched from that very reliable double flare for brakes to that newer bubble flare, swear these guys are smoking crack with this change, has to be absolutely perfect or they will leak like crazy. Also complete English and metric die sets, you can't remove a bolt anymore, they break off. This country at one time, did know how to make a good bolt. 

The list goes on, latest are these plastic pry bar kits.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Welcome to the future, Nick!


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Merc6 said:


> I pulled the brake in a snow covered parking lot, lol guess what happened. Absolutely nothing happened. This is the best dealer for the area. I could try again in NJ or just adjust it myself. Been too lazy to buy another jack and lug wrench. Having an on base DIY shop back in my active duty days spoiled me. The one in NJ is horrible.
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com App


Pull up to their service bay's outer garage door. Set the handbrake. Turn the engine off and put the car in neutral. Push the car into the service bay. Since it won't stop it will hit something unless you jump into the drivers seat and hit the brake pedal so be ready to do so. If this doesn't get their attention nothing will. Have a friend video you doing this so if they still refuse to fix it you can send the video to your local media, the NH AG Consumer Protection office, the NHTSA, and GM. The Cruze's rear brakes are stupid simple and shouldn't take them more than 15-30 minutes to fix.

The fact that your parking brake doesn't work is a violation of the US Motor Safety Code. The parking/emergency brake is the secondary braking system in the Cruze and it must be able to stop the car from 20 MPH on dry pavement.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Blue Angel said:


> Welcome to the future, Nick!


Ha, in the future now driving at 300+ mph, and if traffic gets thick, just pull back on the steering wheel and fly. At this was predicted back in the 50's. 

Latest tool I am looking for is a bumper jack for my Cruze, Haven't found one yet.


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## Dale_K (Jul 16, 2011)

The factory service manual has a procedure for adjusting the brake shoes. Basically it says to measure the drum and set the shoes to be a certain clearance. I can scan the page if you need it. The adjustment for the shoe-to-drum clearance is an entirely separate thing than the cable slack. Either thing can keep the parking brake from working but the cable slack is very unlikely to be the cause.

I'm not sure the Cruze brakes self adjust the same way as 60's cars. I can say my 2011 LS did not respond to any of my efforts to force the drums to self-adjust. Pulling the drum and adjusting the star wheel totally fixed the parking brake. It has not required any follow-up adjustment over the course of the last 25k miles.


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## Dragonsys (May 27, 2013)

NickD said:


> Proper way to adjust the rear drums brakes is to back up at about 2 mph, then hit the brake pedal. Repeatedly. If it doesn't self adjust, you have mechanical problems that should be addressed.


In my experience, this does not work on the Cruze, at least it doesn't on mine


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

obermd said:


> Pull up to their service bay's outer garage door. Set the handbrake. Turn the engine off and put the car in neutral. Push the car into the service bay. Since it won't stop it will hit something unless you jump into the drivers seat and hit the brake pedal so be ready to do so. If this doesn't get their attention nothing will. Have a friend video you doing this so if they still refuse to fix it you can send the video to your local media, the NH AG Consumer Protection office, the NHTSA, and GM. The Cruze's rear brakes are stupid simple and shouldn't take them more than 15-30 minutes to fix.
> 
> The fact that your parking brake doesn't work is a violation of the US Motor Safety Code. The parking/emergency brake is the secondary braking system in the Cruze and it must be able to stop the car from 20 MPH on dry pavement.


What was the distance needed to stop the car? I only tried at 10 mph dry(difrent from previous post) and it took a while. Service bay door is at an angle steeper than my driveway and the brake held, story of my life. I'm not going back again, I'll try and see if I can make it to DIY before it closes Friday if the snow isn't as bad getting there. 



Dale_K said:


> The factory service manual has a procedure for adjusting the brake shoes. Basically it says to measure the drum and set the shoes to be a certain clearance. I can scan the page if you need it. The adjustment for the shoe-to-drum clearance is an entirely separate thing than the cable slack. Either thing can keep the parking brake from working but the cable slack is very unlikely to be the cause.
> 
> I'm not sure the Cruze brakes self adjust the same way as 60's cars. I can say my 2011 LS did not respond to any of my efforts to force the drums to self-adjust. Pulling the drum and adjusting the star wheel totally fixed the parking brake. It has not required any follow-up adjustment over the course of the last 25k miles.


When I went in, they showed me where the self adjuster was under the center console. You can kinda see it if you move the flexible part of the console by hand. The thing sets where it wants to be set and will reset on it's own if you try to manually index it. 20 pulls didn't get me any adjustment and reverse as Nick described did nothing either. Adjusting at the drums is what I will have to do.


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## brian v (Dec 25, 2011)

Good thing there is a Hard too . that describes all of the knuckle busting that we get to do to adjust that little round adjųster out a tad bit . just enough to snug up the drums against the shoes and then more knuckle busting to gather it all back together ..


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Now that it's cold that 1st bolt may be an issue granted this car has only seen snow/cold for 9 days on and off in it's lifetime.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Dragonsys said:


> In my experience, this does not work on the Cruze, at least it doesn't on mine


Me too. Over the course of a couple weeks I tried repeatedly to get the rears to adjust themselves with no success. The remedy was to adjust them by hand as before, instant cure. This will now be a spring and fall routine for me as the brakes feel so much better when the rears are actually doing something when you hit the pedal, and the handle hitting the armrest is annoying as heck.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Blue Angel said:


> Me too. Over the course of a couple weeks I tried repeatedly to get the rears to adjust themselves with no success. The remedy was to adjust them by hand as before, instant cure. This will now be a spring and fall routine for me as the brakes feel so much better when the rears are actually doing something when you hit the pedal, and the handle hitting the armrest is annoying as heck.


 Yes, I sometimes forget the armest comes out because the hand brake will move it back. That, and I tend to hide my usb cable when I park away from home so it has to be all the way back to open up. I leave nothing in plain view so there is no reason to break in looking for something.


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## AlainSDL (Jun 13, 2013)

So I'm back with the outcome. (I work 2 jobs so that's why it has been so long.)

The fix worked. The parking brake handle is now at a normal height and it holds the car. Interestingly though, it "sounds" different. It doesn't have a metallic ratcheting sound. Sounds like it might be made of some sort of plastic. Anyway, won't dwell on it. It works.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Hey AlainSDL,

So glad to hear you were able to get this concern addressed and taken care of. Keep us posted if anything changes. 

Happy Cruzing!

Jonathan A. (Assisting Jackie)
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Sounds like the hand brake is self adjusting and in my opinion a stupid idea. With a real nut on the handbrake, only time it has to be adjusted is when doing a brake job.

The clutch is the same way, self adjusting, far favored the adjustment used on my 85 Honda, had a thumb wheel, when the free play was getting low, just had to open the hood and give it one or two clicks. When I got close to the end of the travel, new well in advance the clutch had to be replaced.

Son has a 2002 Sunfire with this same hydraulic clutch, one day the free play was normal, next day it was gone and the clutch was slipping, no warning whatsoever. Good thing he wasn't 1000 miles from home. No warning with these darn things.

And anyone is a self adjusting hand brake that relies on a dog grabbing that cable will have problems they never had before.

One thing we don't need is more problems. And in the long term, not a convenience. Expecially if you have to rely on that hand brake for an emergency stop. 

Same thing with ABS, instead of two brake lines rusting out, have four to replace. And a valve can get stuck in that way overpriced ABS modulator and you don't have any brakes to that wheel, period!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

And why can't they give us an emergency hand crank for these power windows?


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

AlainSDL said:


> So I'm back with the outcome... ...It works.


Nice, glad to hear it!


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