OK, so now that I've bought my MINI and have mastered the art of shifting gears pretty smoothly (as for downshifting... I'm still working on that ) I'm teaching myself how NOT to roll on hill starts. Well, it's not going badly, but it's going better.

My problem is this: my hand brake doesn't seem to work very well unless I yank it ALL the way up. Of course I do this when I park my car, but it doesn't seem right that I'd have to do that just to not roll backwards when starting on an incline.

I tried the hand brake while driving down the street the other night just to see how it worked: I'm going maybe 35mph and pull just a little bit on the hand brake with the button depressed. Nothing really happens. I pull harder, and I slow down slighty, but it doesn't really slow me down significantly until I really yank on the thing.

Does everyone else have to do this? I'm thinking I might have to have my hand brake adjusted. But I'm not quite sure, because it works well enough while I'm parked (trust me, I've tried taking off with the hand brake set ).

So. Do people have to pull really hard on the hand brake while on a hill to keep from rolling back, or do other people's brakes work better than mine? Searching through posts here, I've seen that some people have had to get theirs adjusted as early as 25k, but I just got my car last week and it's only got 1k on it!

 

My Mini is on the way so I can't say for sure...but on my BMW 330, I have had to adjust the parking brake twice in 2 years. The cables stretch based on how much use and how hard the handle is pulled. If you can pry op the boot, you will likely see the adjustment screws. Adjust each side equally with a 10mm deep socket. Boot should come up by prying from the rear with a tape covered slot screwdriver. All this applies if the Mini's hand brake assembly is similar to my '04 330.

 

That doesnt sound right to me. I can lift mine up 3 clicks and it'll stay put on a small hill.

If she's still in the warraty perior, have her checked out.

On the other hand, if you want, you can try to do it yourself.

 

Yours is automatic so isn't that kind of irrelevant seeing as we have the parking brake?

 

I have a similar problem with my '06 MCSc (less than 1k on it). It seems like the parking brake needs to be pulled unusually hard to "properly" lock up the wheels when on an incline compared to past cars i've owned...now that I know it's an issue (thought it might just be the way my mini worked) i'll definitely have the dealer take a look at it. Anyone else have a similar problem?