We often look towards our parking brake handle as a drift starting device. While it can do that it’s generally used for keeping your Subaru from rolling away from the other Subaru you recently spotted in the parking lot.

Whether you use it everyday or ignore it…. it’s good to have a working maintained parking brake lever.

Over time and with use your cable will likely become a little stretched and your parking brake shoes will also wear down with use… especially with frequent use. Luckily for us Subaru like other manufacturers have made these relatively simple to service with minimal tools. If this is just the job you are looking forward keep on reading!

Time Frame

If you are interested in the full version of this Diy you will want to put around an hour and half aside. If you are just making adjustments at the lever you can easily complete this in less than 15 minutes.

Tools

With a few wheels to remove we will want our trusty impact wrench, jack and jack stands. For our hand tools we will want a couple of flat head screwdrivers, the more variation the better. Next up on the list is a phillips screwdriver and lastly a couple of 10mm wrenches to complete all the tools we need.

These Gearwrench ratcheting wrenches are an amazing tool to have on your side. I use them just about everyday.

How to

We will want to start to at the rear of the car but first we will need to lift the rear of the vehicle off the ground. Making sure to be on a flat surface and using a proper wheel chock (on the front wheel) to keep the car from rolling away. With everything in the air and secured, you can now remove the rear wheels.

With the rear wheels off you can now locate the rubber seal in the rotor hat to expose the parking shoe adjuster. Using an adjuster wheel tool or flat head screwdriver you can now adjust outwards towards the rotor hat to help engage the shoes sooner. If your parking lever takes more than 7-8 clicks outwards is the way for you. Otherwise if your lever engages before 7-8 clicks you will need to pull the shoes inward away from the hat. You will want to move the adjuster to get it close, don’t max out the adjuster wheel to one side or the other, we will take a look at the final step below.

After your adjustments you will want to double check your parking lever by engaging it and disengaging the shoes. Now you can check to make sure the shoes aren’t adjusted too far outward. If they are you may find the rotor no longer spins freely and becomes caught on the shoes. You will want to roll the adjuster back inward to alleviate this. Otherwise you can overheat your rotors and shoes causing many issues, one being an overheat so bad it causes the shoes to come apart.

The interior of the rear rotor hat is where the parking brake forces the shoes against to keep your car from rolling away. If you leave it on or it is adjusted to tightly it can cause excessive heat and wear that can distort the rotor and/or damage … — The interior of the rear rotor hat is where the parking brake forces the shoes against to keep your car from rolling away. If you leave it on or it is adjusted to tightly it can cause excessive heat and wear that can distort the rotor and/or damage the wheel bearing.

Next up you will want to fine tune the adjustments you have just completed by going inside the vehicle to adjust the lever and cable tension. Over time with daily use of the parking brake the cable can stretch, to combat this you will need to periodically check it. Luckily, this is a bit simpler than removing the rear brakes.

Just a parking brake hanging out where it usually does.

Stepping inside the car you will want to make sure the car is in gear and the wheels are chocked before we start adjusting everything. Next up we will unscrew or remove the gear shifter knob, this allows for removal of the shifter boot and attaching surround. Once you have removed the shifter boot surround you will see two screws that hold the center console on, remove those. You can now pop the button loose on the parking brake leather cover and move to the center console. With it opened you can undo two top screws which will allow you to remove the upper portion of the console. If you have heated seats you can undo the connections to switches to move it completely out of the way. Otherwise you can just set it aside.

The center console here is what we need to remove to access the cable. Undo the parking lever button to help remove it.

Now you will see what you have been searching for, the cable and adjustment nuts for the parking brake. With two wrenches you will want to hold the lower one in place while loosening the upper nut. Now you can spin the lower nut clockwise to tighten the cable to lower the engagement point. If your finding the throw too long (too many clicks) clockwise will be the fix for you. Running the lower nut counterclockwise will loosen the cable if your engagement is too low. Use the parking brake when you need until you find your 7-8 clicks for full engagement.

With the center console out of the way you should easily be able to locate the parking brake adjuster.

Holding the lower nut steady you can turn the upper counter clockwise to to begin the adjusting. Going clockwise will tighten the cable while counterclockwise will loosen the cable adjustment. Take your time and retest to find the sweet spot of 7-8 … — Holding the lower nut steady you can turn the upper counter clockwise to to begin the adjusting. Going clockwise will tighten the cable while counterclockwise will loosen the cable adjustment. Take your time and retest to find the sweet spot of 7-8 clicks.

Making sure you are in a safe area you can test out the holding power of the parking brake. This is best done with two people so you can always have someone in the car to hold and release the brakes while testing. Otherwise you can make sure the vehicle is in gear, with the parking brake on, now remove your wheel chock and step back into the car. You can now hold the brake, shift into neutral and then check that your parking brake is holding tight at your desired 7-8 clicks!

Congrats! You have improved the holding ability of your parking brake, no longer will you second guess yourself when parking on a steep street or driveway. I would always recommend to use both for a bit of extra safety, nobody wants to be the person to find their car has rolled into another car or pond.