I'm new to this. Can I get some advice on adjusting the Emergency Brake on my 2003 LS 430? Thanks.

 

Haven't read a request on emergency brake in last 3-4 years. Hopefully someone with experience will chime in.

 

To do this you will need to:
1. take rear wheels off
2. on the face of the brake disks you will see a rubber plugs in one place with a small 'slots' - one per each side
3. take these plugs out carefully. they're just rubber plugs. be careful not to push them inside the rotor - that will require taking off the caliper to retrieve it...
4. find a long rather thin flat screwdriver.
5. you have to find the adjusting screw thru the hole (from which you taken plug out). i don't remember 100% but it's either 3 o'clock position or 9.. i think it's 3 on the left and 9 on the right side.
6. use a light and shine in thru each hole - you have to see the 'aduster'. it looks like vertical cylinder with sproket in the middle. it's actually adjusting screw, and the sprocket it for you to turn this screw with a flat screwdriver. each push on this sproket (thru the hole) in either direction (it's accessible so you can either 'tighten' or 'loose' this screw) produces a 'click' (sproket have little spring on the other side to make it stay in one place but to allow you to 'click' it tight or loose with a scrdriver).
7. service manual asks to first tighten adjuster until you cannot rotate the rotor by hand, then go backwards 3-4 clicks. i usually do it by ear - i loosen it 1-2 clicks and rotor is able to move and i leave it like that, as i like firm and tight handbrake.
8. repeat on other side.
9. put plugs back in
10. put wheels back on
11. check that handbrake is working ok.
12. hope that you do not need new handbrake shoes (they are inside the rotors and you just tightened the mechanism that uses them to apply handbrake)

 

Thank You, Lynzoid. Just as you said. Adjusted the star gear and the shoes contacted the drum. backed off a few turns and the Emergency brake now works well enough to pass NYS inspection. Excellent. Thanks again.

 

No probs!
Mods - this worth a sticky or adding to faq

 

Did you have to release the parking brake before doing all of these steps? Or did you leave it on the whole time?

 

Leave the parking brake released while adjusting.

 

Yep the idea of making contact and backing off, is right. If this doesn't work, maybe it's a cable issue. I'm not sure if say the shoes were worn, why that would be, driving with them on?

I stupidly forgot to release it when I did my rear rotors the first time and I ripped the shoes right off on one side. Thank goodness for google where I could see what they looked like. Then as a genius move, I said wait a sec, I'm doing the brakes, I can remove the other side and see in person what they're supposed to look like. It took patience but I reassembled them--one could say that implies I could put new shoes.

the concept of adjusting them is not hard even for someone who has no experience with drums/shoes--mine work really well. Sometimes I get the brake light and I simply pull the lever and it goes away, that's been since day 1 in 2016 when I got the car. Personally I think the parking brake is more relevant with a stick, but if on a steep incline then I guess they're belt and suspenders. I rarely use mine.

 

Sorry to ask a slightly different question on same thread, but the question made me realize I had a related one of my own: how to tell as a driver if emergency brake is OK in the first place, just from driving? Mine does not stop the car and I get a chime when I drive with it on by accident. I am not sure if it is SUPPOSED to stop a car at idle or low speed (such as when backing out of a driveway or pulling away). Is the fact that it does not hold a full stop enough for me to ask for it to be be adjusted/repaired? I don't know that it has ever held a full stop.

 

It should be able to keep the car still at light throttle

 

What I do is park on an incline, leave the car in neutral, apply brake, and see that it holds. I would prefer a hand operated one, but both the Lexus and my wife's has a foot pedal. The GM releases by pressing all the way down. I wonder if this puts unnecessary wear on the cable by forcing it to its limit over and over. Hers does not hold that well and I've adjusted it, maybe cable issue. I even carry a wheel chock. But the Lexus doesn't even come close to going very far down, and it does hold. The fact that I had the shoes fall off and had to reassemble, tells me the Lexus seems to have a good parking brake.

I notice where I live, nobody curbs their wheels even on a steep incline. I've been doing it my whole life, and no I did not grow up in San Francisco. but I also did not grow up in Phila. Very weird to be on a steep incline and wheels straight ahead, no?

Also, nobody will take a legal left on red. I do it all the time. One time I did it in front of cops to prove once and for all, it's legal!! (why else can you be in center city and there's a no turn on red sign, and the one way goes from your right to left?)