Hydraulic Handbrake Legality?

[rallysteve 22]

Just wondering if it is legal to only run hydraulic handbrake system? I have heard a range of opinions before but would like to clear it up. Id not can anyone recommend a hydraulic handbrake that retains the cables to for MOT purposes?

 

Cheers Steve

[swordfish210 20]

The handbrake needs to be able to lock in to position as part of it's mechanism for the MOT man to pass it.

[welshpug 1,658]

no its not legal on its own as there has to be a mechanical method to aply the brakes.

 

you can mod the original handbrake to accept a hydraulic cylinder, but as yet I've never come across one that works well, if at all that way.

 

best bet is a separate HH, preferably with a 2 foot long vertical lever if the Belgian rally cars I've seen are anything to go by, none of this lame standard length ones!

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

This is a good point as whats the crack with car's with Electronic/Electric handbrakes, No cable's there

[swordfish210 20]

Seems my MOT man lied to me then

[philfingers 5]

normal thing if you have one with a bracket from the std handbrake is slacken the cables off so it's working on the hydraulics.

best bet is a hydraulic one that's independant of the cable brake. Then there's no argument.

Most rally scrutineers will fail it if there's no cable brake these days,

 

phil

[jackherer 543]

Thats an interesting point Miles, I know they have special testing procedures for them and VOSA are well aware of them.

 

http://forums.motester.co.uk/view_topic.ph...&forum_id=4

[rallysteve 22]

Thats an interesting point Miles, I know they have special testing procedures for them and VOSA are well aware of them.

 

http://forums.motester.co.uk/view_topic.ph...&forum_id=4

 

Thanks for the info guys, I think I will go down the route of fitting a completely seperate lever system for the hydraulic one and simply leave the standard one as it is for mot purposes.

 

Thanks

Steve

[lewthepimp 0]

ive got one on my bmw,i brought a driftworks one and the handle is already bent slightly,what make is yours?

[Joe-Tait 0]

Think iam going to go for the compbrake vertical one its looks great for the cash and has a adjustable locking device built in

[205wrc 16]

Just remember that if you are using your car for road rallying, the MSA have a proposal in place to ban vertical hydraulic handbrakes

[Marshall 0]

Just to throw my two pence in here, and I may be waaaay off the mark, but I'm sure Hydraulic Handbrakes are legal providing they have their own circuit. The way I see it is currently the rally boys hook up the handbrake to the rear calipers by basically 'teeing' into the main brake line that the foot pedal also operates, meaning that if the circuit was to fail you'd have no secondary mechanical braking system as back up.

 

If you had a hydraulic handbrake that operated a separate circuit then it 'should' pass an MOT. You'd have to design and fabricate a carrier bracket (obviously) to take a smaller caliper like these to work along side the existing calipers, but should you have a failure with the primary brakes due to, say, a split hose then the other won't be affected.

 

Anyways, first proper post, hopefully I haven't just made a total arse of myself....

[shalmaneser 26]

I'm fairly convinced that there needs to be a specific mechanical system to lock the wheels for a car to pass the MOT - the logic presumably being that if the brake fluid all leaks out then the car won't roll away.

 

You may find that the new electronic handbrakes are mechanical in operation, just using a servo not someone's arm to actuate the brake itself so don't fall foul of this rule.

[hcmini1989 16]

I'm fairly convinced that there needs to be a specific mechanical system to lock the wheels for a car to pass the MOT - the logic presumably being that if the brake fluid all leaks out then the car won't roll away.

 

You may find that the new electronic handbrakes are mechanical in operation, just using a servo not someone's arm to actuate the brake itself so don't fall foul of this rule.

spot on mate with this thats excaclty it if you park your car on a hill and a pipe burst`s the cars gone .You need a mechanical handbrake for an mot even the electric ones are still mechanical just operated by an electric motor.

[Baz 421]

You can get a cylinder to run the hydraulics T'ing into the standard system, mounted off the standard lever.

 

Of course because it retains the standard lever, the cables can still be attached for MOT/'legal' purposes etc, but you can back off the cables from the lever so just the hydraulic system works when/if you want to.

 

Edited June 2, 2010 by Baz

[oonip 4]

spot on mate with this thats excaclty it if you park your car on a hill and a pipe burst`s the cars gone .You need a mechanical handbrake for an mot even the electric ones are still mechanical just operated by an electric motor.

 

100% correct.

 

As long as there is a mechanical force holding the brake on its ok. An Electronic park brake can vary from exactly what has been said above (a motor taking the strain away from your arm!) Or as per some top end super cars they will have a separate handbrake caliper that has an electric motor that directly winds the piston onto the disc via a ball screw. The later is an electronic park brake whereas the former is an 'electrically actuated handbrake' if that makes any sense!

 

Nick

Edited June 2, 2010 by oonip

[Baz 421]

You'd be silly to purely rely on the handbrake on a hill anyway, especially on a rear-disc braked car. Just ask M@tt!!

[Marshall 0]

spot on mate with this thats excaclty it if you park your car on a hill and a pipe burst`s the cars gone .You need a mechanical handbrake for an mot even the electric ones are still mechanical just operated by an electric motor.

 

 

Surely it'd be exactly the same scenario if the handbrake cable snapped?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Indeed it would.

 

My understanding was that the mechanical link was required so that in the event of hydraulic failure, there was some means available to slow you down.

 

However with these modern vehicles with electric handbrakes, they will not let you apply them above 2mph or something, so not sure what you are supposed to do there, "crash" I presume!

[hcmini1989 16]

Indeed it would.

My understanding was that the mechanical link was required so that in the event of hydraulic failure, there was some means available to slow you down.

 

However with these modern vehicles with electric handbrakes, they will not let you apply them above 2mph or something, so not sure what you are supposed to do there, "crash" I presume!

if a cable snapped usualy you still have one cable to the other wheel left i know this doesnt apply to everything.Allso i`d imagin that originaly it was to stop you if hyduralic failure some years ago before split line systems but now with dual line systems if a pipe burst you still have brakes.And again this doesnt apply to things like master system failure.Hence the parking brake effiency being allowed to be 10% less on a dual line system over a single line

 

And can i say these are realy hard to brake test [electric handbrake] as you cant pull it up slowly so it doesnt lock ,Its either on or off.Allso a complete c*nt to do rear brakes on unless you can get a computer to wind the pistons back other wise your f***d

Edited June 2, 2010 by hcmini1989

[welshpug 1,658]

if a cable snaps that's generally it, due to them usually being attached to a levelling bar, rather than directly to the handbrake lever independently.

[oonip 4]

Indeed it would.

 

My understanding was that the mechanical link was required so that in the event of hydraulic failure, there was some means available to slow you down.

 

However with these modern vehicles with electric handbrakes, they will not let you apply them above 2mph or something, so not sure what you are supposed to do there, "crash" I presume!

 

On the one's I am familiar with, the motor directly winds the piston onto the disc, so there is no way it can fail once it has been applied. Also it is designed to stop the car in an emergency (albeit only once!) if the hydraulic system fails. ABS can also be used on this type of handbrake caliper.

 

I'm pretty sure any car with any type of electronic handbrake would let you activate it in the event of the service caliper failing. But I cannot guarantee that. Maybe an override function when the ECU notices a pressure loss in the system? I'm speculating!

[Joe-Tait 0]

Ah cheers for clearing a few things up, think al keep the cable one just incase