[Richard Gledhill]

Spotted something weird over the last few days. I park on my (flat) drive each evening, put the handbrake on by going into Park, pressing the brake pedal and holding the park brake button up for about a second. I get the usual whirring for a second and all seems normal.

Now I notice in the mornings that I turn on the car, put my foot on the brake pedal and move into Drive, it seems to put the hand brake on a bit more! Even though I still have my foot firmly on the brake pedal, it seems to do this. So when I do then put the parking brake off, it has to fully unwind from the "extra brake" position.

I guess if I change my order of things to: "foot on brake, release hand brake, move to Drive" then it doesn't do this. I suppose it's upping the brake pressure to ensure that even downhill, when I release the foot brake (in Drive but handbrake still on), the car won't move?

Has anyone else noticed this? Or am I the only one in the world to do things in this particular order?

Richard

 

[Richard Gledhill]

Ah, so it's not just mine then. I think it's adding the extra bit of tension (like they recommend when leaving it on a steep hill), as it then takes longer to disengage than it normally would. Thanks!

 

[Richard Gledhill]

I do, yes - I put my seat belt on before moving out of P (bad habit not to IMHO?); also the car should never really be in N anyway, should it? I can't think of a reason why it should exist at all, really, except for towing.

 

[Richard Gledhill]

Thanks Gary

Using N in the way mentioned above is rather dangerous as you shouldn't be shifting in and out of N while driving; while I agree it's not as dangerous as putting a manual car in neutral and coasting, you are still moving through the gearbox's settings when you should be concentrating on driving, and it means (more importantly) you cannot suddenly accelerate out of trouble because you're not in gear. A good hypermiler will use the accelerator pedal to achieve the same effect...

 

[Richard Gledhill]

Frankly I think the electric handbrake is a ridiculous anachronism. On a car where everything is optimised for using minimum power, to replace a time-tested simple mechanical system with something that uses power and could therefore stop working at some point is plain stupid. I've no idea why car manufacturers started doing it - just like forward-opening rear doors (which are impossible in tight car parks), it deserves to be consigned to history's dustbin.

All just my humble opinion of course