Handbrake adjustment - 1.4TD - Learner driver abuse!

G

Geecee

Member
Hi there,

Week 2 of teaching my son to drive and the poor handbrake is getting battered. I looked on Sarge's maintenance thread and didn't see a way to adjust the handbrake. My A2 has rear drums. Can anyone advise please?

Thank you!
 
I would not adjust the hand brake just yet. Wait until some mechanical sympathy has been learnt, then adjust later. Remove the rear ashtray the adjuster is under it. Make sure the rear brakes are adjusted first otherwise there is too much play.
 
audifan said:
I would not adjust the hand brake just yet. Wait until some mechanical sympathy has been learnt, then adjust later. Remove the rear ashtray the adjuster is under it. Make sure the rear brakes are adjusted first otherwise there is too much play.
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Thank you! It needs some adjustment as its not holding the car on a hill. I'll take a look at Sarges list for adjustment instructions. They are great cars to learn in...the diesel engine is super forgiving, difficult to stall, can pootle along at 30 in 3rd or 4th nicely. The gearbox, even on my 170,000 mile one, is still easy to navigate.
 
If you use the manual link you can access the whole manual, just takes a bit of lateral thinking to find your way around it.
 
Geecee said:
Thank you! It needs some adjustment as its not holding the car on a hill. I'll take a look at Sarges list for adjustment instructions. They are great cars to learn in...the diesel engine is super forgiving, difficult to stall, can pootle along at 30 in 3rd or 4th nicely. The gearbox, even on my 170,000 mile one, is still easy to navigate.
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If your son is not taking professional lessons, in which case I'd defer to that instructor's advice, it is usually not good practice to use 4th gear in 30 mph 'built up' areas; using 4th if there's a hazard free stretch is fine but 3rd for 30 is the customary mantra. Using 4th looses the flexibility of easing off the gas to adjust speed momentarily when conditions demand.
Second tip is to avoid rachetting up the handbrake. Button in, pull up lever, release button. The moment an examiner hears the sound of the rachet, he/she starts to look for other differences between their own driving and that of the candidate and determining whether they're minor faults or more serious ones that lead to a failure.
 
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Jeff Sutcliffe said:
If your son is not taking professional lessons, in which case I'd defer to that instructor's advice, it is usually not good practice to use 4th gear in 30 mph 'built up' areas; using 4th if there's a hazard free stretch is fine but 3rd for 30 is the customary mantra. Using 4th looses the flexibility of easing off the gas to adjust speed momentarily when conditions demand.
Second tip is to avoid rachetting up the handbrake. Button in, pull up lever, release button. The moment an examiner hears the sound of the rachet, he/she starts to look for other differences between their own driving and that of the candidate and determining whether they're minor faults or more serious ones that lead to a failure.
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Jeff, thanks for this. I did my test 30 years ago, when 4th at 30 in a Metro was doable. Nowadays (even with a 20 year old A2), 3rd is more comfortable, so thank you. We will go with that.

Yes he gets the idea on how to use the handbrake...no ratchet sound.

Driving Instructors aren't working yet, and I expect there will be a huge backlog of tests. So by the end of the summer he should be ready just fine. We have yet to go through the joys of parallel parking. I had forgotten how important feathering the clutch is when you do the 3 point turns and slow maneuvering. I gave him the option of just doing it in an automatic (I have an i3, Mrs a new auto Mini), but he wanted the manual option!
 
Geecee said:
Jeff, thanks for this. I did my test 30 years ago, when 4th at 30 in a Metro was doable. Nowadays (even with a 20 year old A2), 3rd is more comfortable, so thank you. We will go with that.

Yes he gets the idea on how to use the handbrake...no ratchet sound.

Driving Instructors aren't working yet, and I expect there will be a huge backlog of tests. So by the end of the summer he should be ready just fine. We have yet to go through the joys of parallel parking. I had forgotten how important feathering the clutch is when you do the 3 point turns and slow maneuvering. I gave him the option of just doing it in an automatic (I have an i3, Mrs a new auto Mini), but he wanted the manual option!
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The big problem with parallel parking on the driving test is that examiners aren't allowed to use an actual space as you or I would need to parallel park in. They simply require the candidate to park behind a car! The technique shown in the learner driver's manual shows that, after stopping alongside the car at the front of the gap, around a metre away from it and about half way along its length, the candidate then reverses, turning to the left until the off side of their car lines up with the nearside headlight of the car at the back of the gap (which isn't there), then quickly straightens up their wheels and reverses until the front of the car is clear of the car behind which they're parking, at which point they quickly turn to the right to swing the front into the gap.
It's always useful to have a manual licence. The automatic licence restricts you to only autos; a manual licence gives you the choice.
Do have a look at the other options for manoeuvres that may be required. There are several, so the parallel parking might not be required on the day.
 
My friend was customer services manager at Audi at the time of the launch of the A2 and all he remembers about the car is the claims they had for broken handbrake levers. Not sure if the whole thing broke off on the early models of just the button!
 
Thanks to all who helped on this. Axle stands arrived Friday, and we adjusted it today as discussed above. Perfect. You are all wonderful!
 
Geecee said:
... They are great cars to learn in...the diesel engine is super forgiving, difficult to stall, can pootle along at 30 in 3rd or 4th nicely. ...
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Well I can't agree less. My friend's daughter did driving lessons in diesel car and then when she sat in their first gen Fabia 1.4 MPI she wasn't able to get it rolling. And 30 on 4th is not possible unless you are going on flat ground or slight downhill. Otherwise engine and transmission rattles as hell. It's definitely good for it.
 
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