using the e-brake

[creeg]

I use the handbrake alot. When you get the brakes good and hot, then need to stop like at a light, the pads against the rotors can warp them...handbrake. Trailbrake into a corner to get rotation....induce oversteer in loose dirt....lock up the rear...bleed off highway speed without lighting up the brake lights ....oh yeah, and to park

I wanna go riding with you, Chopper.

[spaceCADETzoom]

I never knew people DIDN'T use the parking brake. I learned to drive that way and was surprised years later when I found a buddy who never used it. I just took engaging the parking brake as part of the "process"...like taking the keys out of the ignition.

dunno. My first automatic trans car was the vehicross. It was honestly the second car I've ever driven that wasn't manual. I learned to drive a certain way and couldn't easily drive another (I drive LOTS of cars...but my family always chose manual over auto and all of the cars I wanted to drive that were other people's were performance based ..i.e. requiring the driver to, well, DRIVE..changing gears is as part of the process as steering is.)

People don't think there's a transition from manual to auto like there is to auto to manual. I disagree. I kept shifting to neautral and mashing on the brake (i dont know why I compensated for my dead clutch leg by mashing hard on the brake with my rt foot....but I did).

Anyway. point of all that? backgrounds and experience is different all around...we take practice for granted. What you know to be right, some people get away with not doing. I'm sure there are people that don't know they have to change their oil...and it works for them...

[VehiGAZ]

Almost never - only in extreme parking circumstances. Never at home - and my driveway is sloped downward a little, too. The VX transmission seems very heavy-duty and doesn't seem to mind. It would probably be a good idea for me to use it, but I don't.

The wife's A3 with the DSG transmission seems to get a lot of strain on it when doing the same, but she doesn't use the parking brake despite my suggestions.

By contrast, I ALWAYS use the parking brake on the 928... I saw Risky Business, and I learned my lesson!

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

besides on hills....I use mine alot because I learned from my mechanic that in the rustbelt if you don't use it...things don't stay freed up and tend to stop working.
Case in point...I had more troubles with the e-brake on my Fiero than I care to mention. After repeatedly soaking cables & linkages with penetrating oil to get them unstuck...I started using it daily and didn't have trouble anymore.

[WyrreJ]

I used to use the PARKING BRAKE religeously (stick or automatic). Then I spent 7 weeks in Alaska during the winter for work. I was told when I got the rental that under NO circumstances should I use the EMERGENCY BRAKE. It would freeze engaged. It was -20 the day I got there (+60 the day I left). I just never got back in the habit of using the HAND BRAKE ... maybe I should.

I learned that when its wet and still really freakin cold you should only apply the break ~80% - then when it freezes you pull it to 100% which breaks the ice and then you can release it back to 0% with no problem. I haven't lived in alaska, but I did live in illinois for too many years and never had a problem in the winter.

[tom4bren]

Good to know. Doubt I'll ever need it. If your 80-100-0 trick doesn't work, what's the next step? Piss on your wheels? LOL

What a PITA it was to plug in your car every time you stopped for more than 30 min. I'm sure construction is a PITA having to put 110 outlets at just about every parking spot. Beautiful countryside though. Would love to go back in summer just to see the difference (& get to use my parking brake too)

[Chopper]

I wanna go riding with you, Chopper.

Every morning, when I turn a key.........It's LeMans

[Mark Miller]

I only use mine when playing in the dirt.
No hills Here.
I'm sure I would use it when parking in the mountains.

[mdwyer]

Good to know. Doubt I'll ever need it. If your 80-100-0 trick doesn't work, what's the next step? Piss on your wheels? LOL

Well, way back in my high school days, the drivers ed teacher said you just had to put the car in R and roll back an inch or two, and the brakes would come free.

I guess I've never had a problem of ebrakes sticking.

My problem is that I've been driving a manual so long, I roll up the driveway, give the ebrake a tug, turn off the engine and... and the damn thing won't give me my keys back!

Not until I put in in P at least...

[Dino]

I use it the parking brake all the time. I NEVER trust an auto trans in park to hold a car from rolling away. If you took a trans apart and saw the little piece of metal that holds the whole works .... wow! Tough little assembly it is, but I'd rather trust the e-brake.

[castigan]

id like to start a revolution in USA where by the EBRAKE would now be know as the HANDBRAKE.....

SPREAD THE WORD!!!!!!

i mean... ebrake???????? come on. hand brake makes a LOT more sense

[mdwyer]

id like to start a revolution in USA where by the EBRAKE would now be know as the HANDBRAKE..... i mean... ebrake???????? come on. hand brake makes a LOT more sense

That would take three more letters, and we're lazy. Why do you think we leave the U out of 'color' and 'flavor'?

[Chopper]

It's always been a handbrake, when it is on the console, and is operated by hand The pedal on the floor is a parking brake...I don't think they've been a true E-brake since Alpha separated brakes into two distinct loop systems, and stuck a small drum brake as a mechanical third on the rear disc (like ours) for the hand brake(think it was Alpha). Kind of moot point anyway...on most high-end cars, it's now electronic...activated by a dash button. Precisely the sort of crap tech that trickles down, diluting the driving experience. Weird at the very moment we are creating the most powerful,reliable, most exciting cars, ever in history to drive, the technology that created them is constantly working to destroy them

[castigan]

It's always been a handbrake, when it is on the console, and is operated by hand The pedal on the floor is a parking brake...I don't think they've been a true E-brake since Alpha separated brakes into two distinct loop systems, and stuck a small drum brake as a mechanical third on the rear disc (like ours) for the hand brake(think it was Alpha). Kind of moot point anyway...on most high-end cars, it's now electronic...activated by a dash button. Precisely the sort of crap tech that trickles down, diluting the driving experience. Weird at the very moment we are creating the most powerful,reliable, most exciting cars, ever in history to drive, the technology that created them is constantly working to destroy them

yea... i mean..emergecny brake? id like to know when would be the emergency that would deem the time to apply that brake!!!!

[Ldub]

yea... i mean..emergecny brake? id like to know when would be the emergency that would deem the time to apply that brake!!!!

When you wanna go in the other direction NOW...