New Parking Brake Cables

Well after the second time of having my parking brake freeze up on me, I decided to change the cables. I was parked on a pretty big incline at work the other day, and I made the mistake of using my parking brake. (might as well call it an emergency brake, since it is USELESS for parking in the winter.....I was planning on installing an alarm system that has a remote starter, but for it to work on a manual transmission vehicle, you need to set the parking brake, and leave the car in neutral, engine running when you exit the vehicle. That way it knows that its safe to start it remotely. But I can't do that since I cant use my parking brake when its cold out....which is when the remote starter would be really nice ) I had to set for almost 45 minutes before I could even move the car, and then the brakes were still dragging some all the way home. Once I was home, I turned on an electric heater (blowing directly under the car) and a kerosene heater so that I could get them completely unfrozen. I went to the stealership and talked to the service department about the TSB, and since my car has just over 40,000 miles on it, I was SOL. So, I ordered the cables at a cost of just over $100. Then I went to Vaderzone and bought a set of duralast gold ceramic pads and ordered new rotors. Normally I would have gone with better aftermarket parts, but I plan on upgrading the brakes all the way around later on anyway, and until then, lifetime free replacement will be good enough. While I was at the stealership I was looking at an '09 GT500 that they had in the showroom, and when looking at the brakes I was surprized to see that only the front calipers were Brembo. The rear calipers looked like stock units, although they may just be 2 piston OEM calipers. They definately weren't Brembos.

Today I changed the cables, and I'll change the pads/rotors when those parts come in. I was really surprized at how easy a job changing the cables was. The hardest part was lifting my car so that I could get all the way under it. If I had a lift, it would have been a 1/2 hour job. It took me about an hour and 1/2 messing with my jack and jackstands, and doing one side at a time. Even after changing the cables, the passenger side seems to still drag a little. The rotors may be warped, or the caliper may be sticking some. I'll have to evaluate that when I change the rotors & pads. But it definately feels much better. I may have found the reason that my gas milage has been decreasing so suddenly. And the parking brake can actually be used for parking now (at least until the rubber boots deteriorate, and water gets into the cable again). I think that this is the 4th or 5th revision of the part numbers for these cables, so I would HOPE that Ford finally got it right.