New user of this page. Only have 1700 miles on my 04 Goat. Driving home yesterday I pulled the emergency brake just to make sure it was working. To my surprise I heard a noise sounding like the rear shocks coming through the trunk. The brake worked but the clunk was unbelievable. The dealer has me taking it in Tuesday, but I thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas!

Thanks inb advance.
Yorgos :unsure:

Originally posted by Yorgos@Oct 15 2004, 02:12 PM
New user of this page. Only have 1700 miles on my 04 Goat. Driving home yesterday I pulled the emergency brake just to make sure it was working. To my surprise I heard a noise sounding like the rear shocks coming through the trunk. The brake worked but the clunk was unbelievable. The dealer has me taking it in Tuesday, but I thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas!

Thanks inb advance.
Yorgos :unsure:
First thought - the 'thunk in the trunk' TSB. I'd guess you jumped the rear end carraige and hit the body w/ it. That's only if you have an early build car though.
Dan

I believe this is an early model. Should I be able to see the proble underneath the car?
Yorgos

The noise is extremely loun and appears to be coming from the emergency break drum on the pax side...
Yorgos

My car does the same thing. Not sure what it is. Let me know what you find out.

I would check underneath the car to see if anything is out of palce to begin with, you could try having someone pull the brake while your under the car also.

BUT be sure to do it with no risk to yourself, properlly jacked and with extra brakes/stops in case it starts to roll.

ive also had a similar problem
hearing a sound when i pull the e brake, but this was when i was going less than 5 MPH parking it, it also seems to grab violently not slow pressure makeing a clunk
has anyone also had a problem when you pull on the ebrake to get it engaged it is almost touching the plastic on the center console(didnt pull hard engough one time and when i got out car rolled back:))
other cars ive been in, is no where near this position

I just bought an '05 GTO three days ago, and have exactly the same experience as described by the original poster. Just roll at about 5 mph, and gently pull the brake lever and -- BAM! Thought I was going to lose something!

I took it into the dealer and had them look into it. They told me that it was normal operation, and that the 'Vette is the same way. Not that he was lying to me, but I had the salesguy let me take out another '05 GTO from the lot, and sure enough, exactly the same thing happens on the other car.

I wonder how this kind of thing can be considered normal operation!?!

--WW

It's not an "emergency brake", it's a "parking brake".

All holden Commodores also have this trait. It'sthe servo action of the drum linings if the adjustment gets even slightly exessive. As the lining band is pushed out to the drum and makes contact the rotation of the drum grabs the lining rapidly forcesthe rest of the lining out to make contact with the drum, this is when you here the clunk.
Adjusting the lining to drum clearance will reduce the noise but as it was designed as a parking brake and not a wheel brake it will always be more sudden in its operation than a conventional drum brake.
Hope this helps :type:

But it has rear disks, not drums!

Originally posted by holden tech 126557@Feb 20 2005, 08:13 AM
All holden Commodores also have this trait. It'sthe servo action of the drum linings if the adjustment gets even slightly exessive. As the lining band is pushed out to the drum and makes contact the rotation of the drum grabs the lining rapidly forcesthe rest of the lining out to make contact with the drum, this is when you here the clunk.
Adjusting the lining to drum clearance will reduce the noise but as it was designed as a parking brake and not a wheel brake it will always be more sudden in its operation than a conventional drum brake.
Hope this helps :type:
Thanks! Best explanation I've seen on this so far, and kind-of puts me at ease -- kind-of. I still would strongly prefer the GTO not to have this trait. Oh, well.


RE: "But it has rear disks, not drums! " the parking brake is itself a separate unit that has a drum, distinct from the rear disk main brakes, right? (don't particularly feel like going down, lifting the car and checking right now) :D

--WW

The parking brake is a single band drum brake mounted INSIDE the rear disk rotor. If you look under your vehicle you will see the park brake cable terminate at a lever below the CV joint this is the actuating lever for the drum brake. heres a pic!

Ah! And where might you have gotten pics? Perhaps from the Holden manual, because my GTO service manual is still waiting to be shipped.

YUP! I'm a true blue holden technician and I just happen to have my Techline folders within arms reach of my computer. :type:

Sorry about the quality had to make it small enough to post

Handy fellow to have about!!! :D

Thanks for the input!

So the question now becomes, does this shock cause any damage over time to the axles or brakes, or is it just an annoyance? I'm not saying that pulling the brake while driving is an everyday occurrence, but it will happen from time to time, unless I have reason to believe it will cause damage. What do you think?

-WW

Why would you want to do this?

I wonder if that would explain the noise I hear When I release the parking brake and start to go forward? Never happens when backing up, only when starting out in 1st gear after using the parking brake.

Emergencies I suppose...

We have an old VP commodore at the shop thats done 356,000kms (you convert) the parke brake is still on its original linings. Despite 3 previous owners and 3 years as our hack and loner nobody has been able to kill them yet. We always check and adjust the lining to drum clearance at every service (10,000km).

ps Always adjust the lining clearance at the brake first before touching the cable adjustment. the only times that I've had to replace the rear linings is when underbody damage has knocked the cable mounts and pulled the brake on and customers have cept driving them till the suddenly noticed that there park brake no longer worked :type:

Originally posted by Nocturn@Feb 21 2005, 07:22 PM
Emergencies I suppose...
:tongue:

:D

Originally posted by gto_in_nc+Feb 22 2005, 09:18 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (gto_in_nc @ Feb 22 2005, 09:18 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Nocturn@Feb 21 2005, 07:22 PM
Emergencies I suppose...
:tongue:

:D [/b][/quote]
Okay, OKAY! (Geez). Fact is, I wouldn't want to, knowing that it will cause this kind of shock. But on other cars, from time to time, some people use the e-brake to shave off 5 or 10 mph as inconspicuously as possible (w/o lights, w/o exhaust rumble) when, say, they're flying past a Highway Patrol unit entering the freeway. It's not that big a deal...

-WW