I can honestly say, the only place I religiously use a parking brake is on a boat ramp or a mountain. Living in the flat lands, they really aren't necessary.
I can honestly say, the only place I religiously use a parking brake is on a boat ramp or a mountain. Living in the flat lands, they really aren't necessary.
1kris06 wrote: 3 winters and I've yet to have issues with my parking brake freezing. Must be an old/E36 M3ty/bad maintained vehicles thing.
You live in the balmy southern part of the state. Does it ever get below -10 degrees there?
I also wish they were more effective. I've owned both used and new cars and I'd never count on them to do squat. That said, when I park on a steep hill I do use it, but with few steep hills around here I haven't in years.
I guess it depends on the design. the handbrakes on both my old 318ti and my current Rover are very very good.. the latter being on the driveshaft rather than at the wheels. My old fiat 124.. you could crank that up till the handle bent, and could still get out and push the car around
Had the parking brake on my D90 freeze up a couple times on cold icy winter days. God that system was awful, silly big drum brake on the backside of the transfer case. Useless as an emergency brake as it just locked up the rears completely and away you go, with a godawful slamming sound through the axle and driveshaft as it took up the driveline slack. I used to carry chocks with me in the winter.
And isn't the rule for track days that you're not supposed to use the parking brake after a session, or you risk the pads seizing to the rotors?
-Hans
outasite wrote:1kris06 wrote: 3 winters and I've yet to have issues with my parking brake freezing. Must be an old/E36 M3ty/bad maintained vehicles thing.You live in the balmy southern part of the state. Does it ever get below -10 degrees there?
Depends, are you talking actual temp or wind chill adjusted.
In reply to 1kris06:
Actual temperature, your car does not care about wind chill
hhaase wrote: And isn't the rule for track days that you're not supposed to use the parking brake after a session, or you risk the pads seizing to the rotors?
It's not about seizing them, it's about uneven cooling of the rotors. I dunno how true it actually is.
1kris06 wrote: 3 winters and I've yet to have issues with my parking brake freezing. Must be an old/E36 M3ty/bad maintained vehicles thing.
It's a road salt/poorly manufactured thing. I came up in this world driving luminas. Their parking brake was such a joke that if use you were almost guaranteed to seize the caliper. The rendezvous parking brake exploded inside the drum at 90k. That just looked like a crappy design. I used it constantly on my manual trans dually until one day I applied it in a customer's steep driveway and the cable snapped.
The salt water gets in the cable sheath and no amount of use will keep it from seizing. I'm going to oil spray the new truck and try to get it all over the cables, but i still feel it's going to be a losing battle
In San Francisco it's a ticket if your wheels aren't pointed to the correct direction (downhill vs up) when parallel parked.
Needless to say I set the parking brake firmly as well.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_17877504
Never use em.
So even with an automatic? I do this all the time even with my auto as my friend said it's easier on your brakes if you are on a slight incline/decline to have the e brake hold it steady.
The "parking brake" has not been called the "emergency brake" for many years because it isn't. They are not designed to do more than hold a car that is stationary and either in Park or in gear for manual transmissions. This is how they are tested. Some perform better than others as previous posters have mentioned.
outasite wrote: The "parking brake" has not been called the "emergency brake" for many years because it isn't. They are not designed to do more than hold a car that is stationary and either in Park or in gear for manual transmissions. This is how they are tested. Some perform better than others as previous posters have mentioned.
depends on where you live. Before they pared down the inspection process here in NJ to the bare minimums (emissions only) they would test the "parking brake" by accelerating the car to 10mph and engaging it to see if it locked the rear wheels. Something my Fiat's could never do, even with completely new parts from handle to wheel
From a more technical point of view, lot of rear drum vehicles have the auto adjuster built into the parking brake, so it's use is necessary to keeps your brakes adjusted properly.
Obviously doesn't apply very much anymore, but worth knowing.
Also worth knowing for drum brake vehicles is the fact that most drum brakes are "self energizing," which means that the linkage is designed so that they tend to try to engage themselves harder once they engage. This is why you have to put the short shoe toward the front of the vehicle if you're replacing the lining. It's also why the parking brake keeps the car from moving forward better than it keeps the car from moving backward.
Second little tidbit: If a manual car is parked facing down a hill, use first. If it's facing up the hill, use reverse. Do this so that the engine turns forward if the car tries to roll away. It makes better compression when the engine turns forward.
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