Parking Brake 2005

[Atlanta_man]

How do you adjust the p.b. ? If it is an easy cable or linkage adjustment I'd rather not take it to the dealer for that.

Mine is easy to push all the way down but does not do much holding on a hill.

New 4Runner,

now at 1500 miles and this is the only problem I've found.

 

[Sac State]

How do you adjust the p.b. ? If it is an easy cable or linkage adjustment I'd rather not take it to the dealer for that.

Mine is easy to push all the way down but does not do much holding on a hill.

New 4Runner,

now at 1500 miles and this is the only problem I've found.

I've had mine adjusted every time I take it in for an oil change. The dealer has tried to charge me for these adjustments. The parking brake and HVAC controls are the two worst design features of the 4th generation.

 

[Atlanta_man]

Guess I'll buy an hour on the technical web and figure out how to do it. Someone said it required removing the console but that makes no sense - not saying it is not true; just surprising.

 

[JB.]

I parked my 4runner on a very steep hill (front up) to take a picture.
I set the brake and put it in park. When getting underway again, it was pretty hard to get out of park. I later confirmed how lame the parking brake is, especially backwards. I wasn't happy to find out about the brake this way.

 

[Boyds4Runner]

Parking Brake Adjustment

I have a 2004 SR5 4Runner and have discovered this way to adjust the parking brake. It is a bit dangerous so extreme care is needed. Basically the parking brakes on the 4th Generation 4Runners are drum-brakes inside the hub for the rear-disc rotors. In other words, the normal (while driving brakes) are disc brakes all around but the parking brake is a drum-brake system housed inside the hub of the rear disc rotors.
In the old days (just need to go back 3 or 4 years), to adjust rear drumb brakes you had to drive backwards and hit the brakes hard in order to tighten the spring tension on the brake shoes against the drum's inner walls. Well the same goes for the parking brake. In the 4Runner case though you have to hit the parking brake pedal rather than the regular brake pedal in order for the drum brake to adjust tighter. So the dangerous part is that you have to go pretty fast in reverse and then press the parking brake pedal all the way in and hold it until the car comes to a stop. Do this a couple of times and you will notice that the parking brake will now hold in most any incline. Be VERY careful when going in reverse and do not press your regular brake pedal, unless of-course you are about to hit someone or something and the car is not coming to a complete stop. It's best to roll down a steep incline or driveway and have the gear selector in "N" rather than fighting the engine in "R" in order to have the parking brake stop the motion of the vehicle. Be Safe and good luck!

 

[Atlanta_man]

OK, will try it.
This will only work if the system has a star wheel adjuster with a reaction lever in each brake assembly.

My '71 Corvette, 96 Landcruiser, and 2001 Acura and many other cars have had this same (small drum) parking brake design with a star wheel adjuster but no provision for it to be turned other than by hand,
and sometimes only after pulling the rotor / hub / drum.

I'm thinking my soft parking brake may be more related to slack in the cable since the truck is brand new - but its just a hunch, no real evidence for that yet.

 

[Jim_Chow]

On my 1st gen (rear drums), you can adjust the slack in the e-brake via a nut on the cable underneath the vehicle. IIRC, the cable makes this diamond-shape, then there's a nut or something you can use to take up the slack when the cable stretches. This will only help if your e-brake is engaging with the pedal too close to the floor due to cable stretch. I'm sure they all have some kind of adjustment contraption like that.

 

[beeper]

Parking brake

I have a 2005 se and the brake was not tight enough since it was new .I park on an inclined driveway and I really have to press down all the way...too much for me. I ask the dealer to adjust at 200 mi and they said it met Toyota spes;s ...can you believe that. This dealer sucks anyway...but I sure would like a tip on how to adjust, if its a cable it should be easy.

 

[mjfrank]

The parking brake adjuster on the 4th-gens is inside the center console. If you pop off the top of the console, and look down behind the shifter you will see the cables poking through.

There is a nut/jamb nut arrangement used to adjust it. You loosen the outer nut, tighten the inner, and then tighten the outer nut against the inner to lock it.

It's in a really piss poor location, and unless you have really small hands and tools, it's a beotch to get to. It might be easier to get to it if you remove the entire console. I didn't have that much ambition, and decided I'd have the dealer do it sometime.

Also, I figured out that I wasn't using the brake properly anyway. I was under the impression that it only released when you pushed the pedal all the way to the floor, so I was stopping before what I thought was the release point. After playing with it, I realized that it releases anywhere, you just have to do the little push-pause-release thing. After I figured that out, I was able to push it all the way down and get it to hold.

--Mike

 

[toybox]

Re: Parking Brake Adjustment

I have a 2004 SR5 4Runner and have discovered this way to adjust the parking brake. It is a bit dangerous so extreme care is needed. Basically the parking brakes on the 4th Generation 4Runners are drum-brakes inside the hub for the rear-disc rotors. In other words, the normal (while driving brakes) are disc brakes all around but the parking brake is a drum-brake system housed inside the hub of the rear disc rotors.
In the old days (just need to go back 3 or 4 years), to adjust rear drumb brakes you had to drive backwards and hit the brakes hard in order to tighten the spring tension on the brake shoes against the drum's inner walls. Well the same goes for the parking brake. In the 4Runner case though you have to hit the parking brake pedal rather than the regular brake pedal in order for the drum brake to adjust tighter. So the dangerous part is that you have to go pretty fast in reverse and then press the parking brake pedal all the way in and hold it until the car comes to a stop. Do this a couple of times and you will notice that the parking brake will now hold in most any incline. Be VERY careful when going in reverse and do not press your regular brake pedal, unless of-course you are about to hit someone or something and the car is not coming to a complete stop. It's best to roll down a steep incline or driveway and have the gear selector in "N" rather than fighting the engine in "R" in order to have the parking brake stop the motion of the vehicle. Be Safe and good luck!

I did this in my driveway a few times and it seems to improve.

Previously I told the dealer the last two times it was in for service that the p.brake was holding good. Both times he came back and said it was fine and did not need adjustment and I just let it go.