We had some snow last night. 4or 5 " I moved my car partially up the snowy driveway so that I could blow the lower section. The driveway is quite steep. Put the car in park, and turned the car off. got out of the car and it started moving down the driveway on it's own. Traveled 6 or 8 ft and scared the hell out of me. I could swear that I saw the driver rear tire turning.

Question: Which wheels get locked when the car is in park.

 

Well, if you had the parking brake on, I'm inclined to say that the rear wheels get locked. But, if you just put the car in park, and didn't engage the parking brake, I'd say that it's the drive wheels which get locked. Since your car is AWD, I'm not sure?

 

In most systems, it's the rear brakes. In addition, the owner's manual indicates that parking your car on an incline without the parking brake is not good as the car could roll.

 

Yes, nothing like a bent parking pawl to ruin your day.

My guess is that park engages the transmission pawl which is the front wheels, if you had no rear wheel drive. The car's underpinnings are FWD.

 

from experience, all the FWD cars locked the front wheels...and RL is based on FWD, and that would make sense as the foot brake is for rear tires.

watching your car slide down on ice...not good. Glad no one got hurt.