veo

i know we must use the parking brake while parking on hills. is it a good idea to use it on level ground?

meazz1

I think if it is good enough to use on hills, it's good enough to use on level ground.
No harm in using it when the car is parked.

wackjum

It's best to get in the habit of setting the parking brake everytime you park the car. This is a necessity in a car with a manual transmission, but many people with automatics never use it. Then the cable starts to corrode and freeze into place.

"Park" in an automatic transmission isn't even designed to be the primary way of securing a parked car. Most manufacturers will tell you to use the parking brake.

NFLblitze1

i always use the parking brake, ive always gotten into a habit of just pulling it up as im about to get out of the car even if im in the garage, but it has its negative aspects because i tend to sometimes forget i pull it up and i drive with it on

TLBaller

i do it in case a tow truck wants to tow my car for whatever reason. they can't tow it if your e-brakes are up. They get real pissy when they have to tow your car but cant and have to wait until you get back to your car.

NBP04TL4ME

Let's face it if the care is going to be towed and the e-brake is one, the tow truck driver can do one of the following:

1) Slim Jim the door and get into the car and release the brake - Yeah I know the alarm should go off.
2) Drag the car up onto to a flat bed with the e-brake still engaged.
3) Get underneath the car and disconnect the e-brake.

I saw this done over and over when I was in college. There was a local towing company that would come into the commuter parking lot with a fleet, yes, fleet of tow trucks and pull out a dozen or so illegally parked cars at a time. $25 for the hook-up fee, say another $30 for distance to tow yard and then the cost of the ticket to the campus police. That tow company had one of the nicest set of truck around, primarily paid for by commuter students at the beginning of each semester. Nice orange trucks from little ones all the way up to the the heavy duty emergency commercial heavy duty recovery trucks. If they want to move them, the e-brake ain't gonna stop em.

ljmushock

Yeah, I set mine everytime I put it in park, even if your on level ground it is helpfull. What I do is stop the car, put in park with my foot still on the brake, yank the ebrake, then let my foot of the brake, you will feel the car kinda settle itself a lot smoother than if you dont use the ebrake!

DJRamzy

Well, heres another way to think about it....



Its called the EMERGENCY BRAKE.



you use it when you have an EMERGENCY...

If you wear it out with normal use, when a real EMERGENCY comes... its not gonna be there







am I right?

TLBaller

if one was to crawl beneath my car to do whatever, its going to be hard b/c i have a body kit unless they rip off my skirts lol mechanics cant even put a lift under my car. i can only fit my car jack beneath my car if someone lifts my car manually with their hands from the fender well and once that is done, i have to turn my jack sideways and slide it in lol

TLBaller

nah, you cant wear it out. you can only wear out your rotors maybe if you have it on while you drive.

Soo ICeY

well i dont recall there is enough time or if anyone thinks of pushin down on it at that moment i use it as a parking brake my self either if imma on a hill or street level

Ysidro

Well.
One day, I had a flat tire while coming home from work.
It was a rear one. I parked my car, jack it up, removed the wheel.
What I noticed was, I was still able to rotate the wheel.
And I assume it should work for the other side too.
Im not sure how the parking mechanism work. I guess it only locks the transmission so it wont turn. If you're parked on a hill, the weight of the car may be too much for the lock and cause it to fail, thus, the car will roll. I dont think the brake pads are clutching on the rotors cause I can still rotate it. I dont, thats just my theory. From that day on, I always apply the parking brakes no matter if its a hill or not.

Mizouse

yea when you put the car in park, its something with the transmission and since our cars are FWD, you can easily turn the rear tires...

i still dont get how people at least with automatics end up driving with the parking brake on, cause when you put the car into drive, assuming you have a good parking break, your car shouldnt lurch forward, unless i guess you're the type of people to just put the car into drive and jam on the gas.. then theres the light that turns on when your brake is on? i just dont get it all i know is that when people drive, alot of people are oblivious to their gauges and whatnot...

wackjum

First of all, in a real emergency, it's gonna suck if your cable is rusted into place and you can't use it at all because you haven't moved it in so long.

Secondly, the e-brake is just a cable that pulls on your rear calipers. If you don't want to wear out your e-brake, don't use your brakes! The rear brakes and the e-brake are one and the same.

Thirdly, you don't wear your rear pads and rotors if you're just pulling it to hold the car in place while parked.

Driving with it engaged is a different matter entirely. But that's not the point of this thread.

dubcnea

USE THE E-BRAKE! it's good for you and the community.

UnsanePyro

I don't see how you could drive with it engaged? Isn't it supposed to be adjusted so that it will hold the car in place after 4 clicks or something to that effect?

ljmushock

Emergency break is pretty much slang, dealerships, manuals, tecs...etc call it a parking break...thats what it was designed for, just drive a manual transmission and you will see!

DJRamzy

ah, ok thanks for clearing that up for me.

veo

thanks to all of you for the great discussion.

98_2.5_TL

I agree 100%. it'd be real difficult to tow a car with all 4 brakes applied. i also use the parking brake because i like the idea that my car can't be rolled no matter what. cuz you know you can roll it a little bit with just the shifter in Park. o well. i heard it does your transmission better to use parking brake too. don't know if it's true.

98_2.5_TL

by the way, it's definitely called a Hand-Brake, or Parking Brake. Not E- or Emergency. theoretically, you can use anything in an emergency. You can only use certain things to park you car. you can use a foot brake in an emergency.

WolfpackBill

Don't manufacturers use "parking brake" instead of emergency brakes?? I know my Honda's Acura service manual calls it "parking brake".

Anyways...back to the subject. I only use my parking brake when I parked on an incline. That way, it won't put too much stress on the tranny. If you park on an incline without the parking brakes, it'll be hard for you to shift out of Park. So whenever I park on an incline, I pull my parking brake up first, then shift the tranny into Park. That's the best way to go.

cray

Same with me, I only use my parking brake when I am on any type of incline.

DJRamzy

yeah, I only use it on an incline.