Thread: Disco 3 handbrake screech

Hi Shasma,
Your handbrake (epb) needs adjustment. Don't use it in the meantime or you could end up with a costly repair bill.

Is the vehicle moving or stationary when you hear this noise, regards Frank.

Hi Frank. It is stationery,and my wife is generally out of the car and a few hundred yards away in anticipation of the stares I get.

Does that mean a costly visit to my dealer?

Threads merged.

Unless you're handy with the spanners it's a trip to a dealer or a good independant specialist, depending on whether the car's still under warranty or not. The electric handbrake mechanism needs cleaning out properly & resetting, before it fails completely. Just beware that a main dealer may just go "it's knackered mate, needs a new one" when that may not be the case. Mine screeched like a banshee, all it needed was stripping down and cleaning out, the brake shoes had seized to actuating rods & backplate. It's now inaudible when operated.

Shasma,

Unfortunately this is a very common issue, more annoying that anything else, does give you a fright when it first happens.

I would suggest you become familiar with the manual release procedure as once it starts to scream you will shortly there after get a Park Brake failure and not be able to release the EPB.

The release procedure I think is described in the FAQ section of this channel but basically it involves removing the plastic cover directly behind the electronic park brake button with a screwdriver or similar and locating the obvious metal cable and associated loop and giving it a solid tug until you feel the park brake manually release, hard too miss as it is a fair old clunk.

I have had this happen 3 or 4 times and you need to get it reset by dealer of independent. Likely hood of a failure increases if you do much off road driving, particularly in the mud.

I now limit the use of the EPB whenever possible as this is obviously a very badly designed element of the vehicle !!!

Regards,

George

I've followed the sagas of these EPB failures closely over the years - mainly because I've never had one. In 3 vehicles over the past 7 years, never had a screamer.

The only thing that I can (anecdotally) think of is that I've never used the auto-disengage function - ie I always manually release the brake before driving off. Old habit I guess. However, most of the other owners I speak to (well actually all of them afaik) use the auto-release. I wonder if it stresses the mechanism, or at least contributes to a slippage of the adjustment?

Cheers,

Gordon