I got handbrake wrong all these years

[multicam]

Well...in my youth I didn't wear seatbelts, rode in the beds of pickups and went swimming right after eating. I suspect that the parking brake danger is not exactly the Sword of Damocles. There is SO much more to worry about.

Tell that to Anton Yelchin

(different issue, I know. Also- too soon?)

Sponsored

 

[Fast-n-Furious]

This may be the dumbest thread I've ever seen.

I appreciate your contribution.

 

[ChuckQue]

Well...in my youth I didn't wear seatbelts, rode in the beds of pickups and went swimming right after eating. I suspect that the parking brake danger is not exactly the Sword of Damocles. There is SO much more to worry about.

Most people never use their fire extinguisher under their sink, either. Doesn’t mean don’t have it and maintain it.

 

[desertdude59]

Am I the only one who's been driving so long that they remember when the "hand" brake was engaged with ones left foot? [And you twisted a handle 90° with your left hand to disengage it.] You also flashed the highbeams with your left foot.

No you aren't ?????

 

[T.Pigott]

Great insights! There’s another scenario I probably should engage the handbrake. At a big intersection when the red light stays very long, I normally shift to P while still foot on the brake. As I’m thinking about it, I probably should shift to neutral and pull the handbrake, relax my foot.

A mechanic told me years ago that holding your foot on the brake at at red light for long periods of time will cause the rotors to warp because of the heat from the pads held tight to one spot. I started pushing my shifter forward to neutral and releasing the brake after that unless I was on a slope. Those old cars allowed me to pull the shifter back into drive without pressing the brake to shift. Now that's not possible. Our GC makes you press the brake to shift back into drive from neutral. It's probably because a GC took out Anton Yelchin with that weird electronic shift crap. My Wrangler is a manual, so I pop it into neutral at red lights like every other manual driver does. I'll hold it with the brakes if it rolls, but I try hard to use the brakes as little as possible. But I really have to pay attention to what the Jeep is doing. That's why I have a manual in the first place. To control all aspects of the driving experience. Not just ride in the car.

 

[Fast-n-Furious]

A mechanic told me years ago that holding your foot on the brake at at red light for long periods of time will cause the rotors to warp because of the heat from the pads held tight to one spot. I started pushing my shifter forward to neutral and releasing the brake after that unless I was on a slope. Those old cars allowed me to pull the shifter back into drive without pressing the brake to shift. Now that's not possible. Our GC makes you press the brake to shift back into drive from neutral. It's probably because a GC took out Anton Yelchin with that weird electronic shift crap. My Wrangler is a manual, so I pop it into neutral at red lights like every other manual driver does. I'll hold it with the brakes if it rolls, but I try hard to use the brakes as little as possible. But I really have to pay attention to what the Jeep is doing. That's why I have a manual in the first place. To control all aspects of the driving experience. Not just ride in the car.

I’m not as consistent in this use case. Sometimes I switch to N at red light, one reason is my dad had taught me if by any chance I get rear ended, my gear box may not be damaged as bad.

Sometimes I keep it at D, so I can take off immediately if there’s An emergency. It happened to me a few times Iforgot to shift from N to D.

 

[Apexcars]

Your rotors aren’t going to warp from sitting at a traffic light after normal driving. You aren’t even going to get any noticeable pad transfer onto the rotors. You have to get your rotors glowing cherry red and then sit with the brakes applied for any of that to happen. You don’t want to sit with the brakes applied after running hard out on a racetrack or right after coming down a mountain where you have been overusing the brakes instead of using a lower gear.

Your daily drive around town or on the highway is not going to heat your brakes anywhere near enough to cause those problems.

You should be sitting with your car in gear and ready to react in case of an emergency like someone running up behind you that isn’t paying attention.

 

[NWJeepr]

Probably a stupid question since I've been driving a manual for a long time and just recently switched back to an automatic after many years, but going from say drive to park or park to drive, should it be one deliberate movement going straight from P to D, quickly passing through the other gears (reverse and neutral) or should you briefly pause at each gear?

I've never had an electronic shifter before, just the old mechanical center and column mount style, so maybe it doesn't even matter anymore. Anyone know?

One deliberate motion, even with the new electronic shifters. The most important thing is to be completely stopped when shifting into any of those gears (P, R, D).

But, to the point of this thread, there's good sense to pause in neutral to set the parking brake and make sure it holds and make sure the driveline is unloaded before shifting to park. You want to skip over reverse so it doesn't actually engage.

 

[Headbarcode]

Most of the times I park on a relatively flat surface and don’t even use the handbreak.

I've developed the habit of using the emergency brake whenever I park in a spot that the Jeep would roll if left in neutral. Doing so will avoid the clunk when shifting back to drive.

Sequence of operation, when parking in a spot that it would roll in neutral:
-with foot on brake, shift to neutral
-pull brake handle to a firmness that suits the grade
-let up on the foot brake, to let the Jeep lean into the emergency brake
-shift to park

When leaving, I shift to drive before releasing the hand brake, and drive away clunk free.

 

[NWJeepr]

One more tip, where you can earn style points: Keep the button on the park brake lever pushed in while you pull up until it's snug. There's no reason to put wear on the racket mechanism or make that awful noise (vrrrrrrrrrp). Push and hold, set, release.

 

[CptFloridaMan]

One more tip, where you can earn style points: Keep the button on the park brake lever pushed in while you pull up until it's snug. There's no reason to put wear on the racket mechanism or make that awful noise (vrrrrrrrrrp). Push and hold, set, release.

In fairness I think that’s such a minuscule amount of wear that it that the ratchet mechanism will outlast the life of a vehicle.

 

[Fast-n-Furious]

I've developed the habit of using the emergency brake whenever I park in a spot that the Jeep would roll if left in neutral. Doing so will avoid the clunk when shifting back to drive.

Sequence of operation, when parking in a spot that it would roll in neutral:
-with foot on brake, shift to neutral
-pull brake handle to a firmness that suits the grade
-let up on the foot brake, to let the Jeep lean into the emergency brake
-shift to park

When leaving, I shift to drive before releasing the hand brake, and drive away clunk free.

Thanks! Exactly what my dad does when I asked him yesterday.

 

[KCSgtMaj]

Well...in my youth I didn't wear seatbelts, rode in the beds of pickups and went swimming right after eating. I suspect that the parking brake danger is not exactly the Sword of Damocles. There is SO much more to worry about.

Flying by the seat of your pants! I love it! ?

 

[JLeco2022]

there is so much bad information in this post

 

[Opus]

I guess I'm in the minority here as well. Maybe it's because I live in the flat mid-west, but I generally don't give the parking/emergency brake a second thought.

That said, I suppose if I did have to park regularly on a hill I would use it and when I have in the past I have to admit that I engaged it after the vehicle was turned off (in gear). I had always thought of it as being a fail-safe if the vehicle slipped out of gear. It hadn't occurred to me to engage the brake first to take pressure off the transmission. So, thanks for that, OP.

Sponsored