The Nissan Path

Hi,

I have my Pathy for 2 years now, done 30k and already replaced discs and pads front and rear, including rear brake shoes.

Regarding braking performance I just miss some BAS ABS helper to engage brakes faster, but for almost 2 and a half tonne vehicle it stops quite normally.

But PARKING BRAKE was a joke before I changed rear discs and shoes, and is a joke after replacement. I can tighten it as much as I can pull the handle, I also adjusted pads properly, but still it's only good for leveled surfaces. On slight incline it simply does not hold, so I usually park near a tree or a building and turn wheels so that they touch the tree or wall.

Any advice on which shoes/discs you use, or what have you done to make parking brake more brake-like?

on north american pathys, we don't have a brake lever. Its a pedal on the floor.

I've tried it out, and it seems to perform just fine.

But I never really use it as I have an Automatic trans, and just use Park.

t

I've always been a bit disappointed in regard to parking brake holding capability.
Seems "weak" to me.
Even with proper adjustment, it doesn't (and never has) seemed to lock the car in place, certainly worse on hills.
I don't like to mash down on the parking brake pedal, maybe I should put a little more force in it.

Mine works just fine, but you do have to mash it down. You might just need to pull the hand lever with significantly more force. I believe it only applies the rear brakes.

My normal procedure if I'm on an incline is to set the parking brake while my foot is on the brake pedal and the transmission in neutral. Then slowly release the brake pedal and the vehicle will move a bit. Once my foot is off the brake pedal then I put the transmission in park. This avoid stress on the transmission.

Mine does not hold on incline, no way. I can pull the lever so hard, that it's painful to disengage later, but still does not hold the vehicle.

Regarding A/T "Park" position...it hurts when moving shifter from Park to Drive when it is so heavily loaded that I have a feeling I will break the shifter when pulling from Park.

I think brake shoes might be too hard or maybe they do not hold with entire surface against brake drum, and that's why it does not hold. Will examine on first occasion, take brakes apart, clean and see what's the touching surface. Maybe hitting shoes with rough sandpaper and re-shaping brake shoes a bit will help.

AZ_Path wrote: My normal procedure if I'm on an incline is to set the parking brake while my foot is on the brake pedal and the transmission in neutral. Then slowly release the brake pedal and the vehicle will move a bit. Once my foot is off the brake pedal then I put the transmission in park. This avoid stress on the transmission.

labsy wrote: Regarding A/T "Park" position...it hurts when moving shifter from Park to Drive when it is so heavily loaded that I have a feeling I will break the shifter when pulling from Park.

............transmission damage always concerns me because of this

Though the brakes are generally weak, the parking brake should hold the truck on a reasonable incline. You're probably due for a new set of parking brake pads.

When my parking brake stopped holding, I replaced rear rotors and PB pads and now it holds on a hill with the car in Drive.

Well, that's why I already changed rear rotors, pads and shoes. Bought Brembo kit hoping to get good quality, but it was only good for 14 days. After that it came back to weak hold as it was before.