2minutedrill

I just purchased a 1997 993 Coupe (26785 miles and immaculate) and have been enjoying car.

Still getting used to many things about the car. Yesterday after parking in the driveway to let the car cool a bit before pulling into the garage had my first "issue". I got in to start it up, with the clutch engaged and the emergency brake on the car rolled back a bit at start up. Since then I have been getting the "!" indicator and Parking Brake indicator. As soon as I disengage the emergency brake the ! and the Parking Brake indicator both go off. Does anyone have any suggestions? I read through many posts, but did not see a matching issue. Thank you for any help/advise.

BTW, Just got the Porsche 993 The Essential Companion book by Adrian Streather - looks like an awesome book.

ONEOFEW

Congrats on your purchase.
It’s normal for! & P brake indicator to be on while the P brake is pulled.
! acts as a secondary precaution indicator, if any of your warning indicators are active.

Droops83

Well the "!" in conjunction w/ the parking brake light is perfectly normal when the praking brake is engaged, and of course it should go off when you release the parking brake. It is not uncommon for the warning light to stay on in these cars, even when the brake is off. The switch can go bad, or come out of position. You have to take off the panels on the center console, they are held in by phillips screws, some of which are hidden under the little rubber mat in the tray. The switch is at the base of the parking brake lever, I wish I had pictures to show you, but I know that I've seen threads on this subject before. The switch is a simple on-off affair, make sure the light comes on when the contacts touch and goes off whne they don't, and that this corresponds w/ the paking brake lever. It definitely requires a bit of manual dexterity to get the switch in place though!

It does however sound like your parking brakes need to be adjusted if you engage it and car still rolls back. In these cars I like the brake to start holding after 3 clicks or so. If you want to tackle this yourself, jack the car up and removed the rear wheels, and release the parking brake. There are mini drum brakes inside the hub of the rear brake rotors that act as the parking brake. There is a large (~1/2") hole in the hub that gives you access to the starwheel adjustor, just like on any set of drum brakes. Use a long flathead screwdriver and turn the starwheel till it locks the rotor, then back it off 4-5 clicks, and you should be good. Do the same for the other side. Now engage the parking brake and make sure that both wheels lock up w/a few clicks and then you're good!
Only reason that the parking brake would be out of adjustment on this low mileage of a car anyway is if the previous owner drove w/ the brake on. Hope this helps!

---Chris

JasonAndreas

HowTo: Checking and Adjusting Parking Brake and just ignore steps 1 and 2.

2minutedrill

Thank you for your help. If I am understanding the ! will come on everytime I start the car with the parking brake on. Once brake is off both the Parking Brake indicator and the ! will go out. I just don't remember seeing the ! the first few times I drove the car.

Thank you for the DIY links too. I will try to tackle the parking brake adjustment over the weekend. I hope that doesn't cut into the weekend driving too much.

2minutedrill

Finished the parking brake adjustment last night. Thank you Jason the DIY was perfect. Do you have more of these DIY's? If so is there a way to see the ones that are available? It seems I was a bit too eager on the handbrake adjustment, as I can only pull it up two clicks, but at least now she is steady on an incline.

By the way, your ratings were spot on level of difficulty 1 level of potential frustration 8 - fortunately with some help I don't think we reached the full frustration level. Plus the adjustment hubs were really clean (not sure if this car has ever seen rain!!!!) so they were easy to find and move. Thanks again for you help.

JasonAndreas

In the DIYs and "How To" Archive look at the sections for the 964 and the 993. There is also the DIY section over at p-car.com.

There is a potentially less frustrating way of adjusting the parking brake but it involves removing the caliper which I'm not sure many people are interested in doing unless they are replacing the rear discs. Basically you adjust the shoes until you can no longer fit the disc over them and then back off the adjuster a few (3-4) clicks.

c993k

Congrads on the new car, if that ! light wasn't there,
most of us would take a ride with the handbrake partly on, now and then. Chris