UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

After having my SE handbrake cable replaced under warranty, the action became reasonably smooth to my satisfaction.

Sadly a few months later it has once more become stiff.

What's going on here?

Is the cable rubbish?

Has anyone had the same experience?

The car is going in for service this week, and it would be worth being aware of other experiences.

I took my Polo in a few weeks back, for the recall about the seatbelt (which they couldn't even sort at the time) when it was sent in for this, after I collected it back they actually said they fixed a handbrake fault that I wasn't even aware of

Were you not aware of a stiff handbrake? Did the garage say how they had fixed it?

I was told that my handbrake cable was replaced and the "problem would be solved"

I had my handbrake cable replaced at it's first oil service due to the handbrake being stiff and creaky. It's only done a couple of hundred miles since but so far all is well..

My replacement cable was fine for a while, then started stiffening up again. It's probably 70% as bad as before now.

My suspician is the cable is either badly designed or installed or more likely just needs some good old fashioned grease applying!

I remember years ago you could get handbrake cables with a grease nipple fitted halfway along to lubricate - imagine nowadays nobody owns a grease gun so it's all obsolete. My handbrake is stiff and sometimes doesn't hold well, have just got used to it and to be honest with hill hold it's not required in traffic only when parked up. For me it feels odd having the handbrake located on the left side of the console, suppose it's fine for left hand drive but for UK it's further away from the driver so you are grabbing it from an angle which also doesn't help.

I have just got a recall letter in the post

Safety Recall - 46H9 - Parking Brake

...affected Polo vehicles with rear drum brake the operation-related movement of the brake shoes and the related settling of the drum brake can lead to a loss of tension on the handbrake cables and therefore on the adjustment nut of the handbrake lever adjustment.

If tension is lost, the position of the adjustment nut can change when using the handbrake and as a result the handbrake level travel can increase. If the driver does not notice the increased lever travel, the vehicle may not be secured correctly by the parking bake.


Great.

weezul wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 3:52 pm I have just got a recall letter in the post

Safety Recall - 46H9 - Parking Brake

...affected Polo vehicles with rear drum brake the operation-related movement of the brake shoes and the related settling of the drum brake can lead to a loss of tension on the handbrake cables and therefore on the adjustment nut of the handbrake lever adjustment.

If tension is lost, the position of the adjustment nut can change when using the handbrake and as a result the handbrake level travel can increase. If the driver does not notice the increased lever travel, the vehicle may not be secured correctly by the parking bake.


Great.

Hi Weezul

Same here got a letter today with some general statements about operation related movement can lead to loss of tension. Suggesting I take it in for the adjustment nut to be checked and a locknut fitted taking at least 30 minutes. I reckon this is a cover for fitting brand new cables - the fault description sounds made up to me.
Will be making another appointment, first one for the seat belt fix it took 90 minutes - will drop it and leave not hanging about again...

Just to add it seems recall just for cars with rear drum brakes. Presume disc models are unaffected. Two recalls in six months on an 18 plate car - never had any before in 30 years of driving! It smacks of penny pinching using cheap materials or rushed out launch model without development.

Mines booked in for this safety recall on tues, least the coffee machine there is good lol

Just received a recall letter ref 46H9 today re the handbrake. It says nothing about my recurring stiff handbrake operation. Just waffles on about a lack of tension in the cable. And they will fix it by adding a lock nut! A pretty obvious design omission I would have thought.

So that's 2 issues then regarding a simple part of the car, one of which I've just learnt about and the other stiffness issue which they have yet to fix properly!

If they can't sort out simple components like this it makes me wonder what issues will surface amongst the more complex areas of the car?

It's going in for the service and 2 fixes tomorrow. They had better sort it this time.

I think that VW Group history will prove that you can get away without a second locking nut on the handbrake cable adjustment it has been like that for as long as I've had the pleasure of needing to look after VW Group products, so that goes back design wise to mid '90s, though it would make better engineering sense to have some cheap form of anti slacken mechanism built into that single nut. Adding a second half nut or nut is just a cheap quick retro action that must work.

I'd suspect that there is more to this than a single missing "anti slacken" element - and that is probably the manufacture or the current manufacturer of these cables and/or even the rear drum brakes, cheapness leading to probably problems for the users!

Edit:- also, on my wife's previous Polo and this 2015 one, okay both with rear discs brakes, I've fitted external lever return springs (not relevant to drum brakes) to ensure that the handbrake levers always return to their stops when the handbrake is off, and because this allows there to be no "lost movement" at the handbrake "handle", I have slackened off the cable at the equaliser yoke - really belt and braces job to avoid any possible binding of the rear brakes - and when in that condition, the adjuster is more prone to slackening off as there is no load in the cable, and over the past 17 years neither of these cars suffered from the cable adjuster backing off. I've just added this to point out that these rear brake cables did survive in the past versions of Polo etc without these issues - as did rear drum brakes on Ibizas manufactured from mid 90s to 2010.

Interesting info. Mine's the drum brake model

Just had the call from JCT600. They have replaced the cable yet AGAIN because it was "seized".

So that's 2 replacement cables in 12 months! Can I expect to have to replace this thing every 6 months, just for the lack of grease on such a simple component??

i've chosen to wait for the car.
now it's £15 for pick up a drop off.... that's new...
i'll have my 3 coffees, 6 biscottis, and the car better be clean!!!! although I have little faith, it's NEVER been on time once when I've opted to wait. what a ballache.

No charge at JCT600 for picking up my car and returning after the service