93 Explorer emergency brake

[bobwimbles]

I just bought this car. I parked it on a slight uphill with the engine running in neutral and applied the emergency brake, but when I released the regular brake pedal it rolled backwards. This didn't happen when I parked it in gear and applied the e-brake. Was told when I bought it that the rear brakes have recently been replaced -- surely if there was an e-brake problem they would have noticed?

[shorod]

The e-brake is generally not as effective in reverse as in forward, assuming you have rear drum brakes. However, if the self adjuster is properly adjusted, the brake should hold for reverse as well. And not having the self adjuster properly adjusted would not be obvious to someone performing a brake job. Also, even if the adjuster were properly adjusted when the brake job was performed, if the previous owner rarely braked aggressively while reversing and didn't use the parking brake, the self adjuster would not adjust itself and the owner wouldn't realize the e-brake wasn't effective.

-Rod

[bobwimbles]

Thanks for the response.

Does this sound like an expensive fix? Pay day is some time away....

[shorod]

I would not expect that it would be an expensive fix. If you have a long driveway, you could spend some time backing up and stepping firmly on the brakes and probably set them up yourself. Again, that is assuming you have rear drum brakes.

Well, I guess I'm also assuming that you felt some resistance when applying the parking brake pedal and the vehicle did appear to be freewheeling backward, just not staying stationary. If it seems to you like there is absolutely no parking brake, then it could be a cable issue which could get a bit more expensive if you don't have a friend or two that owe you some favors and know their way around a car.

-Rod