Well, considering it takes half a second and ZERO energy to engage the E-brake, and it could POTENTIALLY save you 1000s of dollars on a broken tranny, I'm gonna use it every time I park. End of discussion.

 

Have you figured out a way to disengage the brake lock permanently? It's so much easier if you can just pull the brake up until you don't need it, and let it drop back down without having to press the damn button!

Used to argue with a much older guy who said it was the EMERGENCY brake, and only to be used in case of emergency. I said it's a parking brake, and like selden said, I've seen the cables freeze up if they aren't regularly used. So I use it whenever parked.

My driveway is sloped anyways, and one time, I left my GTI in neutral, forget to set the brake, and a neighbor had to come get me 'cause the GTI was out in the middle of the street, and blocking traffic.

Shit happens. I got a M/T, when I park it, I set the PARKING brake, then put it in 1st. Works for me.

 

Assuming that the GTI was MT, how in the **** did you even get out without noticing?

 

hmm, i never thought about disengaging the button. thats actually a really good idea, but i use my ebrake alot for parking, or at least i used to. mainly because when i would turn my car off, the turbo timer would keep the engine on and you cant put it in gear when the car is still idling. now that i have taken off my turbo, i still use it because there are alot of gnarly hills where i live.

 

I agree with the way your using the parking brake. The whole idea is to keep the weight of the car from resting on the transmission. It makes good sense if you think about it IMO.

 

I never use my parking brake with my A/T. This all makes sense though... Maybe its time to start...

 

Ever since I've been driving I'v always used the parking brake even when I'm not on an incline. I usually put it in park, then engage the e-brake. Can't believe I've been doing it wrong for the past 7 years or so. I park in my driveway sometimes which has an decline coming from the road. Whether I'm parked uphill or downhill, I get that huge CLUNK going into drive or reverse. Now I know why I hear that noise. I always thought it wasn't supposed to sound like that, thought something may be wrong with my car. It's a good thing I found this thread. From now on I'm gonna do N, E-Brake, then Park.

Good Thread.

 

Yeah, it was an MT, was just one of those fluke things. The top of the driveway is almost level, I was in a hurry, parked it, for some reason I was in a hurry to get inside, and it managed to stay there long enough for me to get inside the house. 5 minutes later, the neighbor was knocking on my door. Fortunately, I don't live on a busy street.

I've only made that mistake once in the 23 years I've lived there

 

At the same time, auto transmissions have a higher failure rate than manual. The discrepancy is generally attributed to manual transmissions being simpler tech, but maybe it's b/c of drivers not using the handbrake!

My week-old Civic was bumped in a parking lot because some jackass forgot to put his car in Park *AND* forgot to set the handbrake. It rolled across the traffic lane right into my car. It was a very light grade so his car had not gained a lot of speed and there was no damage fortunately.

As an M/T driver I can see forgetting to put an A/T in park if you don't drive it often....but IMO not setting the handbrake is unforgiveable and if it was up to me that other driver would never drive again. He's going to be a headline when he "forgets" which pedal is which someday.

He saw me seething with rage and said "It's no big deal, that's why it's called an 'accident'" and all I could think was how this ding dong carelessly left 2000 lbs of metal to freewheel across a parking lot...someone could have been seriously injured...and he's saying "It's no big deal."

It requires so little effort to set the parking brake, so it's silly not to use it.

 

Oh okay, I pictured a pretty nice incline.
Well I can see how that could happen.

 

54857397 people, huh? Name them.

.

 

Nooo!! What a shame,...

I typed them ALL out, then when I went to post it, my internet timed out.

 

LOL!!! Very nice! In fact, I'm STILL laughing!!!

 

This is also the way I do it. After putting it on neutral, I set the handbrake, then wait for the auxiliary fan to settle down before I put the gear in Park.

 

Auxillary fan? You may have opened pandora's box. You'll definitely have to explain. Is there a reason to wait till it goes off and then park?

 

I'm just trying to remember to set the e-brake every time. After I read it in the manual, I wanted to start setting it again (I used to do it religiously in my old car, but I didn't know anyone else with an automatic that did it, so I stopped). I'm out of the habit now, but I think I've remembered the past five times or so, hooray!
I park on a hill when I'm at home, so it is definitely a good idea for me.

I do it the same way I always have: Apply brake until stopped; while still at a full stop, shift into Park, then apply emergency brake and take foot off brake pedal. Turn off car.

I'm not fancy enough to put it into neutral, wait for the fan, blah blah blah. Good enough, and better than nothing at all, right?

 

The fan goes on once the aircon turns-up. Notice that when the aircon goes automatic, the RPM goes up, close to 1k, the moment it settles down, the RPM also drops.

I do it because It allows the engine to cool down (and the coolant to rotate faster) a little bit before I turn it off.

 

Nothing cools an engine faster than stopping the source of the heat. I/E the 25-30 Mini-Explosions occuring ever second in your engine at idle. Just turn it off

 

cheez-its christmas!
its called park for a reason.
stop the car- put it in park. turn car off - leave car.
if my tranny fails itll be from my tapping into 2nd at 45 to make a turn,
or the D bombs that i do bc i think im cool.

 

for automatic transmissions, i rarely use the parking brake unless i'm parked on an incline.

for manual transmission: always, with the gear in 1st.