[Zheez]

Hi guys,

I'm at a bit of a loss with what to do with my car's handbrake. My car is a manual and I'm one of those people who uses the handbrake all the time when in traffic or stopped at traffic lights etc, so when it squeals when I move off after releasing it, it really annoys me.

The noise appears to be from the rear left side. I have also noticed that sometimes I can have the car on a slight incline and release the handbrake and it won't move until I put it in gear and come off the clutch. Sometimes it's fine and it will roll by itself and other times it will roll a bit with a straining noise and squeal. I also noticed that when it was cold I could hear a slight clunking noise when reversing my car off my drive which was obviously something freeing up somewhere (likely a shoe on the inside of the disc).

Things I've done:

1). Adjusted the handbrake screws the correct way - pushed the spring in on the handbrake lever, removed a wheel bolt from each side, adjusted the star screws until the wheel can't move and then backed off 9 clicks (which is what is suggested for the 160mm handbrake shoes).

2). Replaced the handbrake shoes and springs for non-genuine ones and the rear discs/rotors from whatever crap was on there to Brembo discs.

3). Replaced the shoes and springs again with genuine BMW ones along with the shoe expanders and the adjusters.

I just can't figure out what else to try. I've replaced everything relating to the handbrake and at the moment the only other thing I can think of trying is to change the rear brake discs again for genuine BMW but even that's a long shot as there's no logical reason why the Brembos shouldn't be fine.

The other thing I have noticed is that the handbrake itself does seem to only need 2 or 3 clicks to engage which seems way too low, although it will fully pull up to 5 or so clicks but it's definitely biting much lower than that. Sometimes it will pull up a bit more than other times though which is just the self adjuster doing its thing, but it does feel a lot tighter than any other F30 I've ever driven.

I then tried one more thing - I adjusted the handbrake shoe screws again but this time I backed off 12 clicks instead of the recommended 9 and it made no difference. I can only think of trying again with 15+ clicks on the adjuster, but this just confirms that something is wrong somewhere and I don't know what it would be.

Any thoughts appreciated

[Markyboyt]

The brake holding when pulling away is more likely to be your abs doing it’s brake hold function, next time it does it stay in neutral longer and see if it releases after a few seconds. The squeal is more likely to be the brakes dragging rather than handbrake unless it is too tight. 2-3 clicks to engage does sound too tight though. When the noise happens pull the handbrake lever up a click and see if it changes the noise, also press the brake lightly and see if it stops. The clunk when reversing is likely to be the hand brake shoes sticking though.

[Zheez]

I've tried pulling the handbrake up a little while moving at slow speeds and the noise still seems to remain. It's a noise that changes with the wheel rotation and speed.

At a crawling pace you can hear it squeal then stop for a second then squeal again etc. At a slightly faster speed (5mph or so) it'll still do it but at a faster pace so it's definitely changing with the speed. Once I do something like 10mph+ it stops so I guess it frees up at that point.

The only other thing that I didn't mention is that with the non-genuine shoes on there one of my wheels was getting hot. The shoes were crap and after I checked pics of them I could see they were poorly made and a little longer than the genuine ones which is why I swapped them out. All I can think of is that it got hot enough to deform the disc slightly which is a possibility, but it wouldn't explain why the problem was already there in the first place with the discs/shoes that were on the car when I first got it. It's all very strange.

[Oksamit78]

1. Are there any conditions when there is no noise?

2. While doing the multiple shoe replacements, did you also replace the springs that pull the shoes together or did you re-use the original circa 2015 springs? The old springs might not be as stiff as they should be and thus you hear the clunking - the shoes are sitting somewhat loose.

3. The brake shoes can be getting stuck clamped onto the rotor because there could be rust/water damages in the liners of the hand brake cords coming to each side causing the cords to slowly retract. I've seen this before on older cars. Doing the 12 clicks on adjuster without changes to noise could be pointing towards that.

4. 2-3 click is tight in my opinion, I prefer 3 - 4 personally.

[Zheez]

Thanks for the reply.

1). Yes it's sometimes fine. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it being hot or cold though. I can drive off after leaving the car sat for a few days and it's fine, yet other times it'll do it as soon as I move off. As an example, I drove over to Ireland a couple of days ago and had no issues at all. I drove off the ferry with no problems at all but soon after I was in the stop/start traffic to get through customs, it was squealing.

2). I did use new springs. Replaced the hex screws that hold the shoes in place too. I only ever seem to hear the clunk when the car was sat for a few days in the cold and now it's been a bit warmer for a few months I haven't heard it at all.

3). That's what I'm concerned about, I guess replacing the cables themselves is a nightmare of a job to do. I guess I'm going to have to take it all apart to have another look at it since I haven't done anything with it for a few months.

In fact I thought I'd sorted it out as I hadn't heard any noise for quite some time. There'd been a few times I thought I'd heard something but dismissed it, but generally it was fine. Does seem to have got a lot worse in recent weeks though.

4). Yeah it definitely shouldn't be that tight. My previous F30 definitely wasn't like this so I know it isn't right, just can't work out how to sort it out.

[Oksamit78]

Originally Posted by Zheez

Thanks for the reply.

1). Yes it's sometimes fine. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it being hot or cold though. I can drive off after leaving the car sat for a few days and it's fine, yet other times it'll do it as soon as I move off. As an example, I drove over to Ireland a couple of days ago and had no issues at all. I drove off the ferry with no problems at all but soon after I was in the stop/start traffic to get through customs, it was squealing.

2). I did use new springs. Replaced the hex screws that hold the shoes in place too. I only ever seem to hear the clunk when the car was sat for a few days in the cold and now it's been a bit warmer for a few months I haven't heard it at all.

3). That's what I'm concerned about, I guess replacing the cables themselves is a nightmare of a job to do. I guess I'm going to have to take it all apart to have another look at it since I haven't done anything with it for a few months.

In fact I thought I'd sorted it out as I hadn't heard any noise for quite some time. There'd been a few times I thought I'd heard something but dismissed it, but generally it was fine. Does seem to have got a lot worse in recent weeks though.

4). Yeah it definitely shouldn't be that tight. My previous F30 definitely wasn't like this so I know it isn't right, just can't work out how to sort it out.

I strongly advise you to exhaust absolutely every other option OTHER than replacement of cable upstream of the Y split under the car. For that you will need to drop the drive shaft, heat shields AND may be the gas tank in order to get there from underneath. On my wife's car this clip retainer (#12 below, 34406854898) failed and I've ended up making a stainless clamp to bolt over it as I didn't feel like dismantling the heat shields over the drive shaft in order to reach that retainer. That retainer not only holds both hard liners of each hand brake cable going to left/right sides of the car, but also supports the gas tank, but can not come out without dropping the gas tank. I barely got it done. I'll see if I can find pics I took to show. Maybe you can get away with replacement of #1, 34406857640 (and ## 9 and 10) alone?


The failure was a screeching sound inside the car over any bump, rail track and other road imperfections.

[Zheez]

Oh yes, replacing cables is absolutely a last resort. That clip also broke on mine a while ago and I've got metal cable ties holding it away from the driveshaft for now so I know how horrible a job that would be.

I guess I'll first take the brake caliper and disc off, then take the shoes and expander off to see if I can even move the cable freely and maybe squirt some sort of lubricant in there if possible.

[Zheez]

Haven't taken it apart yet, but I have at least now confirmed it's from the rear left side. Car hasn't been moved for a few days so I went out and released the handbrake while on a slight incline and it didn't move at all. Got out of the car and pushed it and then it did move. Got back in, put the handbrake on and released it and it stayed in place. Thrashed around in the seat for a bit and heard the straining noises before eventually it started to roll.

I noticed that there is no squealing at all when it rolls back, but when I pushed it forwards, perhaps half a metre or so, then it squealed for a short while and stopped. Rolled it back again to the same position and no noise, but when rolling forwards it squeals again.

So it's definitely the rear left wheel and it's only squealing when moving forwards which explains why I never hear anything when I first use my car because I always reverse off my driveway each time. This also proves it's nothing to do with heat because the noise is there even with the car having sat for a few days.

I wouldn't care so much if it was just a slight squeal when moving off, but if I drive at low speed it's constant. The other day I was in traffic crawling along for quite a while and it was squealing the entire time

I guess the only thing I can do is take it all apart, lubricate what I can of the handbrake cable and grease up the handbrake expander and where the shoes sit against the expander and backing plate but I still have my doubts it'll change anything. So frustrating.

[Zheez]

Finally got the chance to take a look at this today. I think I've sorted it. The cable on both sides seemed to be moving freely but I greased it up anyway. Cleaned everything thoroughly, put ceramic grease on all the handbrake assembly parts and while doing this I noticed something a bit weird with the expander:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_rL5yWZomQs

Basically the expander has a spring contact in it and the moving part that the cable hooks in to should push against this spring contact for it to have a bit of resistance. This expander wasn't doing that and it was actually pushing down past the spring and getting caught. The noise in the video should not happen at all and when pushing the expander in it should release and move back to the same position every time.

Replaced the expander with a spare and adjusted the handbrake with 9 clicks on the adjuster wheel, as per spec and so far it seems to be good. Handbrake is releasing every time even on steep inclines, there is no more squealing and the lever is now 4-5 clicks to pull up fully.

I changed the expanders back in October and it seemed to be fine at the time, but they weren't genuine BMW ones. I noticed that the spring contact on the non-genuine ones seems to be longer than on the genuine one which is interesting and likely why there is a problem - they were fine for a few months after I fitted them but I suspect they've just bent out over time and that's why I was having problems. The expander I've put in on the wheel that was giving me hassle is a genuine one, so I guess I just have to wait and see how it goes but if I have this problem again I'm just going to buy a pair of brand new genuine BMW expanders. They appear to be stupidly expensive for what they are, but so be it.