how?
I just did the rear pads on my P5. I no longer have an e-brake! There must be some kind of Mazda trick that I don't know about. The rear brakes work great with the pedal, but the e-brake handle no longer does anything.
anyone know why, or what I need to do?
i've tried every trick I know - this car must have a completely different system from every other car I've ever worked on.

thanks in advance, Andrew

 

are you talking about adjusting the cables?
or do you mean pulling up and down on the handle several times?
cause i've tried that.

 

Pull the E-Brake handle up as far a it will go while standing on the brake pedal as hard as you can with the car running. Then let the hand brake off and pull it up again not as hard. It should be good then.

 

well i tried that too and it didn't work. (the first 20 times anyways)

so my e-brake works now. went out last night, everytime i stopped somewhere, i pulled the brake (forgetting). The last stop i pull the brake, it works! WTF Now I know some systems out there require the handle to be pulled like 20 times, i think my system must require 100! oh well.

 

OK, I meant to jump in before, here's my question...

Did you adjust the rear brakes according to the procedure in the manual, i.e. turn the adjuster screw clockwise until the rear brakes drag, then back off 1/3 turn?

If not, this may explain why the brakes didn't self-adjust properly when you were done.

 

After reading your post I put the car up on the hoist tonight at work. What adjuster screw? There is a 12/13mm? bolt head (beside the ebrake bracket bolt) that is center to the back of the caliper. Is that it? I didn't bother touching anything cause the ebrake is perfect now. And when you say manual - you mean a shop manual right?

 

I dunno if this link will work if you're not logged in to the Mazdaspeed website, but try this:

https://www.mazdamotorsports.com/maz.../pdf/04-11.PDF

This is the factory service manual. Scroll down to page 04-11-22. The adjuster is an Allen screw that may be covered with a little rubber cap.

 

cool, thanks.

maybe i'll put it up in the air again tonight and see if i can see it.