Frozen handbrakes and cold butts

Hey People,

Have any of you guys ever had a handbrake cable freeze? And if so what did you do about it? Mine appears to be frozen at the moment (we have a high of -6 to -8 during the day in the Netherlands at the moment) so it works far too well. I.e. Can't release it. The garage that just serviced the car has had a look (incidently we came to an amicable agreement regarding the bill) and said that the cable is froze (my guess anyway) and oiled it. However both he and my dad suggested not using the handbrake until the weather warms a bit and it defrosts.

Chat later people, about to freeze my butt again going home...

Until the heated seat kicks in that is!

Stu

PS Issues regarding heated seats. Howeasy are the thermostats to fix / replace. The passenger seat gets toasty warm, the drivers seat meerly gets rid of the cold. Still much better than nothing, but should it do more?

[cbyard]

Not on a Volvo, but certainly on various old vans of my youthful acquaintance. Instant fix then was take a blowlamp/hot air gun to it, but that might not work for very long at -6. Underlying problem was always water in the cable- best fixed by fitting new well greased cable- then (cost driven) by removing offending cable, retiring indoors to warm it up, strip if possible and inject as much oil/grease as I could, refitting and crossing fingers.

Also once had similar problem with throttle linkage on type 2 VW Camper van.....

Cheers

Chris

[Peter Milnes]

Perhaps only one of the heater mats is working. There should be one under the seat part and one in the back part of the seat.

All the best, Peter

I think that the one in the back is definately not working. Would this cause the one in the base to not get as warm as it should? I've only just noticed as my other half past her test a couple of months ago and I get to sit in the passenger seat. That gets toatsie warm! Are these things easy to fix or are they an electric nightmare (don'tmind mechanicals, or electronics, but not electrics - my wiring looks like spagetti!

Cheers

Stu

Got a fix for the handbrake at christmas. Going home to Leicester and going to put the car in the garage to keep it warm(er) and me and my dad ar going to do as you suggested chriss. Get as much grease in the cable as possible!

[Paul Wildsmith]

Unless I'm missing theobvious, you don't say which car. I had lots of trouble with the handbrake cable on my 760 - even though I never used it (was auto so left in park). The problem was that the cable ran inside an outer sheath, and where it curves into the backplate on a wheel, it just somehow always got a bit kinked. While I didn't buy one, German Swedish had an alternative, which was just the cable without an outer sheath. I guess if you can get some grease in then all will be well.

Heated seats? Likly to be a broken element. Fairly easy to replace, though you need to take the seat out of the car. Suggest you do some contiunity checks first. The seat bit (rather than the back bit) tends to go first, as you sit on it.

The car is a 1996 440 1.8. It's only one wheel that giving me problems (the right side), if I use the hand brake it very slowly releases (over 1/2 hour or so). As I said I'm gonna get it in the air just before christmas, i'll check to see if it's got a kink in it, thanks.

As for the seat. The seat part definately has power, as it does take the chill of the seat, it just cuts out really early, meaning that the seat isn't frozen, but it isn't toasty warm either......

Thanks

Stu