EPB FAULT Please please help I am at my wits end

[webs666]

Hello wonderful people. It just so happens that one of you may save my life with your input here. I am out of ideas, quickly running out of money and have completely lost all love for cars after this. I’ll try to keep this brief but there is nothing brief about it unfortunately. Also please note: There are forum posts like this one but nothing sums up my fault entirely, and trust me I’ve tried and exhausted every idea I’ve seen on the thousands of Google searches I’ve done. So I need a saviour in one of you….

The Car

Peugeot 308 Feline 1.6 Diesel, Manual, 2014

Pre-Fault

• About 5 months ago I returned to my car to get a warning siren going off warning me of a fault with the electronic handbrake, the moment I unlocked the car. I started the car, turned it off again and when I re-started it, the fault had gone.
• About a month later the same thing happened. This time, however, it took about 3 or 4 times of turning the car on and off to clear the fault. After that nothing for the next 3 or 4 months, until…
It is worth nothing that I jump started another car about a week before this happened….

The Fault

• Started the car after having parked it somewhere for 5 minutes to get the same warnings going off – ‘Parking brake fault, get repaired’, ‘Auto handbrake disabled’, etc. This time however, nothing would stop it.
• The handbrake was not seized on or anything, but just wasn’t working. When I turned the car off, it would only obey the laws of gravity as if there were no handbrake at all.
• As I was driving home, there was a loud screeching from the rear right calliper at certain moments, especially in between gear changes. It sounded like the EPB trying to engage whilst driving. A very metallic sound as if metal is scraping on metal. It didn’t do it on every gear change and I struggled to find a pattern. Still though, the car behaved as normal – minus a handbrake.
• Brake lights stay on, no matter what. They go on on first press of the brake pedal, and then don’t go off until the ignition is switched off.

The Garage


Took it to a Peugeot main dealer, where my real troubles began. Won’t rant about the £155 diagnostics charge, the £150 hourly labour or the fact I waited 2 weeks for nothing, but…
• They told me over the phone a software update usually fixes this….
• They updated the software: nothing.
• They told me the car wasn’t communicating with the diagnostics correctly. The handbrakes would sometimes listen to it, sometimes not. Something that happens now with my TopDon scanner.
• Occasionally, the two handbrake motors would work in reverse of one another – one would engage whereas the other would disengage.
• At multiple times, the car handbrake jammed on unexpectedly, and they had to manually release it each time.
• They checked all wiring, using a small LED bulb for continuity and found no faults
• They checked the physical hand brake lever/button and found no fault

Their recommendations

• Change both the rear brake callipers, pads, rotors for £1500 (unbelievable). But…
• This may not fix the fault – it could be the (I forget what he said, but basically an ECU possibly the BSI module?) for a bargain £2000 (on top of the £1500).
Even if I wanted to, I can’t afford any of that.

The aftermath

I took the car home, with both EPB motors disconnected to avoid them going off on me. Normal warning sounds, but everything else felt absolutely fine. The brakes all felt good. I then spent the next 2 weeks until today looking at forums, YouTube, Haynes manuals, everything from waking up to going to bed, to try to fix this.
(With the parking brake motors plugged back in), I bought a diagnostics tool, and got the following (relevant) faults. There were a few others, but these are what I think matter:

The fault codes

SYSTEM FAULT CODE DESCRIPTION
ABS C1560 Electric Parking Brake (FSE) left-hand actuator
Air Bags U1802 Vehicle Speed Data Fault
ABS C156D Parking Brake Actuator Fault

Interestingly, the final one didn’t come up on the initial diagnostics check, but did after my experimentation and has since never gone away.
Also, please note the fault says left-hand actuator. Both Peugeot and I thought the fault was the rear right.

My attempted fixes

This is what I have tried, and why…
• Many posts report faulty wiring harnesses. Even though Peugeot checked this, I don’t really trust that garage. I have done my best to check them. Although a bit grubby looking, I can’t see a fault. I’m not very good with electronics and can’t see much of the cable without a ramp, but I don’t think this is the issue.
• Replaced the left parking brake actuator. Couldn’t get the car’s EPB into service mode, so changed the motor leaving the calliper attached. The old parking brake motor’s spindle was incredibly loose. You could rock it with no force from side to side, but it still turned okay and sounded okay when turned by hand.
• Replaced brake switch, due to the brake lights staying on. This did nothing and lights still stay on.
• BSI reset procedures.
• Have punched the car multiple times, this hasn’t worked.
• Ran full diagnostics whilst driving the car, everything seemed normal: It knew when I was braking, knew my road speed, knew what gear I was in, knew the handbrake wasn’t engaging, etc.

Other observations

• When I brake fairly hard, I hear a very similar noise to the metallic engagement noise I heard on the drive home/I hear on the occasional time the car attempts to engage the handbrake after me manually applying it. I don’t know if this is normal calliper/pad noise though.
• Hill start assist works fine (I know this is just the callipers)
• The car will also return ‘radar distance’ faults on the dash, but somebody told me when one element of the braking system is faulty the car basically goes into meltdown mode and disables loads of features.

My questions and hunches

I have so much to ask here. If you have even read this far then you are a hero, thank you so much. Here’s what I’m thinking:
• Horrible French electrical demons, in which case I’m screwed.
• Seized calliper – could it be seized in the open position as opposed to brake force? How effective would a calliper change be, and do I need to do both or just one? Read the following point regarding this…
• The faults are being returned on the left side, and this is the side I’ve been working on. But I’m sure the problem is on the drivers side. WHAT IF, this car was made in a very French way, and the wiring was wrong – the left had actuator wire was actually going to the right hand side? This would explain a lot.
• Brake modules and ECU faults, which I really don’t understand unfortunately.

Please, please, please can I have ANY of your opinions? I don’t care how obvious sounding, have you seen anything here that jumps out at you? Peugeot are not sure of this fault, if you get in there first you are better than the main dealers. I will take this car to a garage again but I am so skint, I’ve spent around £700 so far with Peugeot charges, tools and parts. ANYTHING you can suggest here, will be so gratefully received. I work a lot and don’t aways have time to work on it, but I’ll endeavour to do anything I can if you are able to probe in the right locations. I will honestly repay you however I can if you offer me the miracle fix.
In advance, THANK YOU SO MUCH you are wonderful, beautiful people.

[captainpugwish]

You mentioned that both you and Peugeot thought the issue was on the right side, but you replaced the left hand actuator.

The code descriptions for the EPB actuators are:
C1560 1E - Electric parking brake (FSE) - right hand actuator (Permanent - Resistance out of range)
C1561 1E - Electric parking brake (FSE) - left hand actuator (Permanent - Resistance out of range)

So, it looks like your first thought was correct and it's probably the right hand actuator that needs replacing (at least, that's what the C1560 code indicates). Unless that code only came up after the initial work was done, I'm a little (but not very) surprised that the dealership didn't just replace that first, since it wouldn't cost thousands. Of course, if that was all it took to fix it, then how could they upsell you for an arm and a leg (and a kidney)?

[webs666]

Hi Andrew.

Sorry I've only just seen this reply - thank you so much for taking the time to read that essay.

Wow! Where did you check those fault codes? My TopDon diagnostics tells me they both relate to the left hand side. Imagine if all long I had solved this, but worked on the wrong side of the car!!! I will try this on my day off.

I have a screeching sound however when the handbrake decides to occasionally work, it's metal on metal. What could be causing this?

My next bet is to change the brake callipers, but they all feel fine whilst driving. Can a faulty caliper cause a handbrake issue?

Thanks again for your help.

[RichardW]

I would fix the brake lights first. What does the diagnostics say about the brake light switch position and the brake pressure?

Moving on to the handbrake, as you now have a known good actuator, I would measure its resistance and compare with the other 2 to see if you can pick out any faulty ones. It may be that you have fixed the fault but it needs a reset for the computer to know about it, or a recalibration as the motor is now 'out of position'.

Metal on metal noise, don't know - there is only one set of pads so unless the service brake is not working handbrake won't make any difference to the noise.