E-Brake sticking
 

2007GT here (Manual). I parked on a hill last night. I had to pull the e-brake pretty high to keep the car from rolling backward. When I went to leave in the morning, the e-brake stuck for a good 10 minutes. I tried driving a little, lifting and releasing the e-brake again and again to get it to release, but it would not.

After a while the car drove fine, and felt like the e-brake was completely released, but I think it is still gripping just a little bit. When I am on a very slight incline the car does not roll backward (when in neutral) and also the first inch I raise the e-brake it feels disconnected, like the lever isn't pulling anything.

I know there is a TSB on this issue. I want Ford to take a look and fix it, but i have no spare money for repairs. Frankly I'm pretty pissed right now. I just fixed the broken/faulty spark-plug issue 2 weeks ago (out of my own pocket) and now my car is having issues again. I'm angry enough to start wishing I had gotten a Chevy instead. F*** man. 60,000 miles and the trouble is starting. Is this just a coincidence or is it time to turn my back on my beloved Blue Oval?

Was it very cold the night your Ebrake locked up? I have an '06 GT and I had this problem years ago. My car was still under warranty and the dealer replaced both rear Ebrake cables and I have never had any more problems. As I understand it, the OE cables had a seal that kept water from entering the cable. This seal broke down fairly early and allowed water into the cable which in cold weather could freeze. Supposedly the seal was redesigned and solved the problem. You might look in this direction.

Both of the issues you mention have TSB's associated with them so don't EXPECT them to NOT affect you; just be thankful if they DON'T. There are quite a few other things we know about our Stangs from the TSB's. Yes, it's disturbing to have to deal with them but when you begin dealing with non-TSB related things, THEN it's time to trash the car. Many of the big, bad TSB's were issued before your model year.

No it was not very cold that night. And yes its definitely the infamous issue that is described by the TSB.

Do you guys think a dealership would fix this for free? What kind of money can I expect to get the ebrake lines replaced if I do indeed need to pay for this?

The same thing happened on my '05. It was an $80 fix and easy to do as long as you've got a set of jackstands. Should you give up on your Mustang? I don't know. Do you want to? Then maybe. I doubt you'll have any issues after you get the e-brake cable taken care of. All cars are going to have issues. At least you've got a car that you enjoy when it isn't having issues.

But if you feel like the fun is going out of owning it, maybe get rid of it. I kept having the same conversation with myself over my '05 and now I wish I'd gotten rid of it sooner instead of dumping so much money into it fix fairly substantial issues, but everyone is different.