>>Brakes need to be stripped down fully, pads out drums if fitted off, so the >>pistons/cylinders can be exercised in and out and everything lubed up >>correctly.

Car is serviced @ main dealer around £200 on my CRV- a squirt of brake cleaners is all the brakes are likely to see.

@ 2 years I had my Indie - wheels off - strip the brakes, blow out the crud, grease where needed, adjust drum handbrake.

@ 4 years Ditto

Roughly £50 on each occasion - takes an hour & get it done when in for an MoT.

Saves sticking pads, extends life of calipers, handbrake drum brakes adjusted manually & not depending on the auto adjust feature - win win - after all sticking pads on 1 side might cost pads, disks, calipers which can be ££HUNDREDS

Edited by Falkirk Bairn on 22/11/2016 at 19:18

The handbrake function on the 8th and 9th generation Civic isn't great when it's new, it needs a good strong hoist on the lever to hold it on a hill.

I had my Civic brake calipers in bits after the warranty expired in 2010 and on all four the pads were bound in the caliper brackets by corrosion. The corrosion gets under the stainless steel wear plates and pinches the pads tight in the brackets so they can't move freely.

After a good refurb and new original pads all round the handbrake was better but not what I would call brilliant, having checked,cleaned and freed everything off.

Leaving the car in gear is a good idea, and if parked on a hill, turn the front wheels toward the curb is an additional precaution.

I much prefer the drum inside disc design,

That's troublesome for many owners - the inside of the drum corrodes, like any drum brake, but isn't cleaned by application of the brake while rotating - it's only applied once stationary.

The easy cure of course is to drive a few yards/metres with the handbrake partially applied occasionally - but few owners know that or do it - and can't easily be done with EPB!

The Peugeot 406 has a drum handbrake and most of them dont work.

Always leave your car in gear when parked.

Car Mechanics has an article rebuilding rear brakes on a 406 Nov 2016 edition.

Absolute rusty junk from the photos.

The Kia Sorento still uses drum within a disk - same as Hyundai Santa Fe

Had probably 8 cars with the handbrake that used the rear calipers since 1986 and in that time I have had issues with just a single caliper and that was after almost 100,000 miles. Simply fitted an exchange caliper, cost about £30.

Had one car with drums inside the discs (a Kia) and never had an issue but as far as I am concerned its a solution to a problem that does not exist. The fact that any rust does not clean off while you are driving was a worry especially since Kia brakes attract surface rust faster than any other make I have esperienced. As far as I know Kia don't use such a system now.

My i30 has this system, now 7 years old/50K miles, original discs all smooth and shiny; maybe the Hyundai factory uses different supplier to the Kia Ceed one.

Ok I will tell my wife to travel more miles than than she has to get to work, maybe travel around for a few miles evey day just to bring the usage up to what you think is usable milage.M"""""t and that's being polite.

The point is that YOU need to accept that low mileage can CAUSE issues - as many things on car deteriorate with time.

The advice here is freely given - and you get a choice whether to accept it or not.