Parking Brake

[RobMag]

Does anyone know how to adjust the parking brake on a 04 AWD Vibe?Thanks

[Sublimewind]

It should be self adjusting with the rear brakes, it's lever actuated and the only adjustment would be under the center console for L/R bias, you might get a little more pull out of it from there, if that's what you are after...

[ned23]

It depends on what exactly needs adjusting. Believe it or not, most modern parking brakes will self-adjust when you put the car in reverse and hit the normal brakes. You can force this by going to a parking lot, putting the car in reverse, then accelerating backwards to about 10 -15 mph and then slamming on your regular brakes. Faster is better. If you're comfortable and can safely get up to 20 mph, you can even try that. Leave lots of space! ). This should work for a 2004 with rear drum brakes. I'm guessing that the AWD brakes are the similar to the FWD brakes.People will look at you kind of funny, though. The above example will tighten the shoes. If your problem is from something like a stretched cable, then the solution will be different. There are likely to be a cable adjustments at the base of the brake handle. I've never done this on a Vibe but I did it on my old Tracker and an old escort I owned. Rear discs are a little different. On my 1994 Escort GT you would pull the parking brake handle up as far as possible and pump the brake pedal, then while holding the brake pedal down as hard as possible, release the parking brake handle. That used to be how you would adjust rear disc brakes. Oh, and don't forget to do the above disc adjustments while the car is running and there is power to the master cylinder. This might work for newer discs too. (or maybe i've got this backwards? anyone? Do you pump with the handle "off" or "on"??)Quote, originally posted by 13Vibe03 »I've never seen an adjustment for L/R bias on any of my previous cars. There will be a nut you can turn to take a little of the slack out of the cable before it catches. If you get it too tight the brakes will drag.Yes, for left/right bias the first adjustment is usually synchronizing the cable tension. If you have rear drum brakes, you can also take off the wheels and the outer brake drum and there should be a little star-wheel adjuster inside there in on the wheel cylinders. Now, to be honest, I've not done my own brakes in 20 years, so this is from memory. Thinks may be different now. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. (Oh, and a common mistake people (like me) make when checkin the rear brakes is that they leave the parking brake on when jacking up the car. It's difficult to get the drums off with the brake on, LOL.I'm not sure exactly how you'd "individually" adjust modern rear discs.