Handbrake adjustment

[e30-320i]

I put my car in for mot yesterday and it failed on 1 tyre a rear foglight bulb and a weak handbrake (on one side) which i was pretty happy with considering the car is 17 years old now.Can anyone tell me how to adjust the handbrake please.The car is a facelift 320i the rear brakes are drum.

[Templ8e30]

The rear drum brakes are self adjusting for wear, if they're not adjusting properly they'll need stripping/cleaning to free them off.

However if the adjusters are working correctly then the handbrake cables will most likely need balancing, jack up the rear end and put it on axle stands. Slowly (one click at a time) pull the handbrake lever up and check that both wheels can be turned between each click. There should be about 4 or 5 clicks until the wheels lock. Use the 2 10mm nuts under the handbrake lever gaiter to adjust them until they both lock the wheels at the same time at about 5 clicks.

Cheers,

Iain T

[e30-320i]

thankyou very much Iain that is very helpful i was in the car earlier and noticed that the lever comes up 9 clicks so i assume there's alot of slack on the cable i will adjust the cables at the weekend and hope that sorts it

thanks again Celvin

[Brianmoooore]

which i was pretty happy with considering the car is 17 years old now..

Walk around to the front of your car, and read the lettering on the bonnet badge! It says B M W, so I should hope it would pass an MOT.
There's no excuse for failing on a fog light bulb and a tyre. Just consider yourself lucky the MOT tester saw them before plod.
Regarding the rear brakes. It would be a good idea to slacken off the handbrake cables, remove the drums and clean up the adjusters as Templ8e30 says, reassemble, drive a little and work the handbrake a few times to settle things and let the adjusters do their thing, then finally adjust the handbrake cables for equal braking each side.
The brake requirements for MOT are rediculously low, so any fail on brakes should be thoroughly investigated.

[e30-320i]

Quote
There's no excuse for failing on a fog light bulb and a tyre. Just consider yourself lucky the MOT tester saw them before plod.


i know i should have done a quick check on the simple things but i wasn't expecting it to pass 1st time round as i only paid Ԛ£400 for the car so i put it in 2 weeks before the old mot runs out giving me a bit of time to sort it out i guess i should have had a bit more faith in the build quality.i also didn't realise there were 2 foglights at the back as one comes on so i assumed thats all there was at least i'll know next time.
thanks for your advice i'll check out the condition of the brakes before adjusting the cables

Celvin

[Brianmoooore]

Stand to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I think you only actualy need one fog light on tthe rear, but it must be the offside one. IIRC, it is actualy illegal to have two in some countries as they can be confused with brake lamps.

[Martinaston]

Check the drums for wear as well, if there too far gone no amount of toying with the adjusters will cure it.

[William]

Stand to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I think you only actualy need one fog light on tthe rear, but it must be the offside one. IIRC, it is actualy illegal to have two in some countries as they can be confused with brake lamps.

I, too, stand to be corrected, but my understanding was that if something was fitted then it had to be working even if it in itself was not a requirement. Things like side indicators, extra brake lights and foglights I think are not requirements on a vehicle but if they are fitted then they MUST work??

[Brianmoooore]

Don't think so in this case, 'cause I've read reports of indignant buyers of new cars from lesser manufactuers noticing that only their offside foglamp works, investigating and finding an empty lampholder on the nearside, and then storming back to the dealer demanding that the missing lamp be fitted, and being told that this is how it should be.