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Handbrake stuck on car - ideas?

IHN · 2026-04-21T09:35:40Z

I'm away at the moment, due to get the train back tonight. Just had a call from MrsIHN saying she can't undo the handbrake on the car, which she'd driven to a local(ish) park to walk the dog this morning. I tried to suggest some things to try but by the time she called me her anxiety was beginning to peak so she decided to walk home. The upshot is that I get to try and sort it this evening (by getting the train to the next stop from the usual one, then walking half an hour to the car, anyway...) The car is parked facing downhill, on a steep tarmac slope. When she tries to reverse hill-start to get out, the button on the lever won't depress. My suspicion is that, given it is a steep slope, she's hauled on the lever to put the brake on (rather than, say, leave it parked up in reverse) and now it's so tight that there's no slack to release the mechanism. What are my options?

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dooosuk

Posts: 3337

Free Member

Certainly on a certain era of BMW, handbrake mechanisms wore out from ratcheting. Replaced one myself on E85 Z4 and the forums are full of examples of others requiring it to. Might have just been a mid-2000s model though.

Posted : 23/04/2026 10:11 am

slowoldman

Posts: 18028

Full Member

I've no idea why we were all taught to do this - noise?

Probably. It's akin to slurping soup, rattling through the ratchet like a tommy gun is just uncouth.

This. Though I don't mind slurping soup.

Posted : 23/04/2026 11:55 am

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