went to set my parking brake recently and it wont stay set. i can feel the tension from the cable and let the car slowly roll back down the driveway and checked and the brake still works it just wont stay up. can't hear it clicking into place at all. i imagine it's something inside the car on the handle itself (maybe a bad spring keeping something from locking into place). I searched the forum and checked my haynes manual and havent found anything relating to this particular ebrake malfunction and was wondering if any of you have had this issue before or have a better knowledge of the ebrake mechanism that might be able to save me a little time in figuring this out so i can get it fixed. it's a manual a4tq so i need to get it fixed asap so i don't have to continue parking strategically to keep my car from rolling away or putting too much strain on the tranny by locking it in gear. any help is again much appreciated.

-mike

edit: forgive my use of run-on sentences =D

 

I had this problem in my old truck, but it was rusted (and subsequently snapped) parking brake cables. That's not likely the solution here because you said you can feel the tension from the cables. I'm thinkin you're gonna have to tear up the center console and have a look at the parking brake assembly. I'm sure you can find another one in a junk yard or from someone parting out their car for next to nothing, but its gonna be a PITA to get in there.

 

Check the cables at the rear calipers themselves. Pull the brake up and down, you should see the caliper parking brake assembly move.

 

BTW until you fix it please leave it in gear. Its really not bad for it and would hate to see your car roll and hit something. I usually set the Ebrake they put it in gear just in case the ebrake fails better safe then sorry.