since i have got my car i can't pull the e-brake. it is stuck in the off position. any ideas?

 

The cable is probably rusted, get under the car and check the cables to the rear brake calipers, then check follow them back to the front of the car. If the cable looks like it has rust on it, try spraying WD-40 or PB blaster on the rusted areas and keep trying to release the handbrake.

 

i will give it a try

 

I have a 1996 A6 Quattro, which had both parking brake cables broken when I bought the car. Both of the cables broke at the large pastic blocks they pass through. To replace the parking brake cables, the rear exhaust and some of the heat shieldsmust be removed. I have a 1998 A6 Quattro wagon which had a frozen parking brake lever on the right rear caliper.
The BentleyPublishers.com Audi shop manual will help to do this work. The exhaust pipe hangers are an insane design, and hard to remove and install. The front parking brake cable spring clips are also a bad design. They are hard to reinstall with the drive shaft in the way. However, if you wire the spring clipsto a wooden dowel you can install them without disconnecting the drive shaft.