Rattly handbrake lever

[Gold 'N' Brown]

Does anyone else suffer a rattly handbrake lever in their V70/S60?

Mine drives me nuts! There's slight side to side play. When pulled on the tension stops this, but when released and driving it creates an annoying constant rattle. Thought it was just mine but I was robbing some bits off a V70 at the breakers today and noticed it's handbrake had a lot of side to side play in it too.

Anyone had this and cured it?

[LeeT5]

Does anyone else suffer a rattly handbrake lever in their V70/S60?

Mine drives me nuts! There's slight side to side play. When pulled on the tension stops this, but when released and driving it creates an annoying constant rattle. Thought it was just mine but I was robbing some bits off a V70 at the breakers today and noticed it's handbrake had a lot of side to side play in it too.

Anyone had this and cured it?

I guess, from what you say, your handbrake has too much free play?
My handbrake (recently replaced by dealer inc all cables and rear brake shoes) does not move at all. There is slight tension on the lever in the rest position, so no movement and certainly no rattle.

Have you tried tightening up the 10mm nut a couple of turns? Don't over do it or the hand brake will bind and overheat the shoes.

[htomi]

In addition to Lee's recommendation, I'd suggest to check the hb cable too. I had similar rattling and play before. The original 11 years old cable got stuck and had to be replaced.

[Gold 'N' Brown]

Well I do know that it needs a new cable on the OS as it doesn't move as freely as it should, which has caused issues getting the adjustment right. There isn't too much free play at the handle end as I've adjusted it many times and it's never made a difference.

I did try bodging it slightly a while back by gently squeezing the body of the handbrake together with some mole grips. Can't really explain without pics but by slightly compressing it to make the action a little stiffer it reduced the lateral play and reduced the rattling a bit. Didn't affect operation of the lever at all. Then the other day I noticed that if I raise the lever very slightly (when fully released), and I mean just a few mm, it stops rattling. So I'll just do this until such time as I can get around to replacing the cables and possibly the lever too.

[Gold 'N' Brown]

I replaced both handbrake cables today. My god, what an absolute arse crack of a job that is! So glad I won't need to repeat it, hopefully ever again. After 5 years of putting up with it, it's so nice so have an effective handbrake at last.

But even better than that, no more rattly handbrake lever. Yaaaaas. Lee was right as per usual. Think I'm even happier about the loss of the rattle than I am about the working handbrake!