How strong is your e-brake ? How to adjust?
 

I tested one day the e-brake (tranny in neutral, rolling at about 15 mph) and it hardly works. It does engage but is not grippy enough to really make a difference.

Except the cable adjust, is there something else to adjust? Maybe take to the dealer to check the pads?

Car has 8000 miles on it, pads should be fine (no squeaky sound when braking).

It sounds like your e-brake is working just fine. It shouldn't be able to slow a moving car down that quickly at all. The term emergency brake is missleading because the brake is no longer ment to do that. The term came about (if I remember correctly) when master cylinders first came out. Because they were single piston, if the piston broke hydro pressure would be lost to both the front and rear. At that time, when cars had drums in the front and rear, a lot of force was needed to apply the brakes. The hydro system could not do this if the pressure was lost, thus the emergency brake was invented. Today, the e-brake is used simply to hold a stationary car still. The application force that the cable and levers of the e-brake system generates on the rear pistons is no where near the force that the normal brake pedal produces, even when the engine is not running. It barely has enough force to hold a car on a steep hill (thats pne of the reasons why it is recomended to turn your wheels toward the curb on a hill). Normal e-brake adjustment is 4-8 clicks. As long as your lever doesn't click more than that, everything should be fine.

What you are referring to is actually the parking brake and so named by Mazda. Although the parking brake is capable of stopping a rolling car, it is really not intended primarily for that purpose. If the parking brake keeps the car from rolling when parked, it is working within spec.

For those with the AT 8 you have to left off the gas before the actual E-Brake will engage itself...

I had someone run out in front of me and I still had the gas on when I yanked it. Didnt engage till I moved my foot over to the Brake.

Simplex

Wow. What you did is extremely dangerous. Like I mentioned above, that is not what an e-brake / parking brake is ment to do. NEVER pull the e-brake in a panic stop instead of appling the normal breke.

Well i Did some fun ebrake pulls like to do 360's and and after doin that 2 times my ebrake is much softer. now i gotta yank it higher. Can some 1 do a diy on how to retighten that bolt.

Yea, I used to use the E-brake for drifting purposes, but there is just no way with the 8.

What do you mean by steep? It will not hold your car on a hill in San Francisco.

I pulled it many times and it does seem kinda weak

I understand that's no longer it's intended purpose, but I can assure you, based on extensive tests performed on behalf of hertz, enterprise, alamo and avis... yanking the handbrake'll lock up the rears quite nicely.

My eclipse is the same way, the e-brake locks the rear wheels quite easily.

Maybe there's a difference on e-brake application between FWD and RWD cars? On FWD, braking the rear wheels does not cause as much stress to the drivetrain. On RWD cars, pulling the handbrake would cause a direct stress to the engine if you don't step on the clutch pedal.

As for drifting, I can see why you'd need to use the handbrake for FWD cars. But I don't see why anyone would do the same for a RWD car when you can have the same effect by inducing a power oversteer.