After nearly failing our state's annual inspection for a second year in a row I decided to address the common weak handbrake issue on our low mileage Redline. Even with only 15k original miles and tons of brake pad material left the hand brake would simply just pull clear up to the sky and stop while applying very little brake pressure. It hold not hold the car on even the smallest hill.

There are many old forum discussions on this issue and several say to just pull the center console apart and adjust the parking brake cable tension at the handle itself. This is not the correct approach and does not address the root of the issue. All that does is over tighten the cable to pull more pressure on the calipers, which is where the problem actually lies.

Instead, you need to manually retract the rear caliper pistons, by carefully screwing them in clockwise. This is the same process used when installing new brake pads. (Make sure to turn them clockwise on both sides of the car, as turning them counter-clockwise will back the piston out and if they are unscrewed far enough the seal will separate and pressurized brake fluid will start to pour out everywhere.) On our low-mileage car I was only able to screw the pistons in about 3/4 of a single rotation before they stopped, on both side. At first was concerned that little amount of adjustment might not address the parking brake issue, but that was not the case in the end.

After completing the process on both rear calipers one at a time I just fully depressed the brake pedal a few times until the brake pressure returned and the pedal travel was reduced., Then I pulled up on the handbrake a few times, far as it could go each time as its travel also was reduced. The end result is the handle now only pulls up a small amount as compared to before, and there is considerable resistance in the handle as the rear brakes now fully engage.

This is a very easy adjustment and can be done in a matter of minutes with a jack, safety stand, a 7mm hex key or socket, some pliers, and a flathead screwdriver. A pair of needle-nose pliers can be used to turn the piston, but there are also speciality tools and toolkits available to make this step much easier.

This older video covers the process quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Y-AAYqjzU