Tell her for gods sake.....

[outsmartsmart]

My partner collects her brand new CLK180K auto in a few weeks and is now an expert after listening to a showroom jockey and its doing my head in.

Whenever I park my E320CDi I stick it in park and 99% of the time don't apply the handbrake.

Firstly, according to SWMBO the car "rolls away" and secondly "the man at Mercedes said I must ALWAYS apply the handbrake on the car when stopping".

What a load of old tosh, somebody back me up, PLEASE

 

[television]

By law I apply the parking brake.
In practice I hardly ever do, unless you live in Lyme regis, where the parking brake has to be used to stop straining the parking pawl.

Up to 2 tons holding on number 15 and 10 in the link

Number 15 is about 20mm long with a very small lobe on the end that locks into the wheel 10

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...GA=722421&CT=GA&cat=09S&SID=27&SGR=090&SGN=06


The choice is yours

 

[outsmartsmart]

We live in flat Warwickshire not 1 in 4 Lyme Regis, the steepest thing she'll park up is the kerb.......

As you also don't use the brake that is the bit I'll quote as you ARE the font of all knowledge Malcom!!!

 

[outsmartsmart]

Oops her new car is a CLC180K and the man saying the handbrake "had" to be applied wasn't quoting 'law' but that it was a mechanical necessity

 

[Miffy]

well, tbh i dont use the park brake either, but what happens if your parked on your steep kerb, with just the PARK to hoild it, and some car whacks you from behind, you have a dented bumper, and a damaged autobox

 

[Cnics]

You'd have the same damaged auto box if you DID apply the parking brake though. I guess something we have to weigh up. Parking brake and neutral, relying on a cable and some plastic clips. or Park, with or without a parking brake and risk damage to the box in a collision whilst the car is parked. I guess Parking brake a neutral is ok but it rolls away after a cable failure and hits someone then surely that is worse than a gear box repair. Ah well, one to think about i guess.

Current non MB i'm driving is auto and i don't apply parking brake unless its a steep hill. If it IS a steep hill i tend to put on the hand brake first, let off the foot brake so the hand brake is holding the car and THEN put it in park, so as to not put the strain on the pin or pins, or whatever the mechanism is on that car.

 

[Micman]

Firstly, according to SWMBO the car "rolls away" and secondly "the man at Mercedes said I must ALWAYS apply the handbrake on the car when stopping".

What a load of old tosh, somebody back me up, PLEASE

Hi,

I don't use the handbrake on mine either except for when parked on a hill.

One idea, try telling her this....

After she's been driving her car the brakes will be very hot. If she parks and applies the handbrake the heat at being held in one spot can cause the brake discs to warp. She doesn't want to buy new brake discs when she could use that money towards a lovely pair of new shoes! (that's shoes for your feet.... not brake shoes) lol.

A bit extreme I know, and really only true if you've been hammering the car round a circuit or something. But hey, it might be enough to make her think twice. :lol::lol::lol: I did a Ferrari driving day a few years ago and after returing to the pits I parked up, it was a manual - put it in neutral and applied the handbrake. The instructor next to me promptly released the handbrake (obviously we were on a flat surface) and told me that very same reason, which actually made perfect sense when you consider how fast I'd been going around the circuit and how much we had used the brakes to slow us down.

 

[michaelj]

It's a matter of degree isn't it? If you always jam the parking brake on hard, regardless of where you are, then you stretch the cables and wear out all the pivotty bits. If you don't use it at all then you are relying on the transmission doing something that it's supposedly not designed to do....

So, level ground, just put it park
A bit of a hill, put it in park and push the park brake on gently
Steep hill, park, brake on harder and front wheels pointing into the kerb.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

It's a matter of degree isn't it? If you always jam the parking brake on hard, regardless of where you are, then you stretch the cables and wear out all the pivotty bits. If you don't use it at all then you are relying on the transmission doing something that it's supposedly not designed to do....

So, level ground, just put it park
A bit of a hill, put it in park and push the park brake on gently
Steep hill, park, brake on harder and front wheels pointing into the kerb.

As a learner driver I was taught to depress the button on the handbrake before applying and release when applied - to save wearing out the pall and to avoid the "rachety noise" when applying. It must have been effective, because I still clench my teeth when I hear some one not doing that!

I didn't believe it mattered, until a pall failed not long after I had bought a car. Perhaps the previous owner had not been to the right school?

Wear and tear is always going to be an issue for everyday items like this. I like Cnics solution - apply the parking brake while the foot brake is engaged, then release the foot brake gently.

 

[roadhog]

I hardly use my park brake unless I'm parking on a hill. Norfolk's not that hilly though.

I got into an argument with a jobsworth female customs operative at the Tunnel the other day over this as the car rolled ever so slightly when I got out to be searched by them. She said she was worried it may injure on of her collegues legs.

I did my best Sean Connery impression.

 

[popuptoaster]

i hardly ever use my handbrake and i've seen plenty of cars roll away with it applied anyway, P for me.

Although having said that i have often thought if your gonna wear something out then its probably more sensible to wear out the cheap parts such as handbrake cables rather than autoboxes.

 

[jberks]

Handbrakes are pointless items these days. They are fundamentally flawed in their design, more often than not, innefective and utterly unreliable. Some newer upmarket motors have 'electronic' ones. Not sure how they work, but I suspect they are much better.

Like many, I do apply mine on steep hills to give the gearbox a helping hand but I never rely on one entirely, even in a manual. Too many things can go wrong. More often than not, I don't bother with it. If the car isn't resting hard on the pawl I already have a foolproof mechanism to hold the car so why do I need the handbrake? You could argue, use it anyway, but that will only wear the components for when I do want to use it.

Being a mechanical cable arrangement, cables stretch and sieze. Often one side is working and the other not - something you often don't find out about until the MOT so there are loads of cars out there with less than 50% effectiveness. Pawls can slip, cables can snap -I've had this happen twice - once it didn't go for several minutes after applying - the car was seemingly on the flat and it still slowly rolled until the gearbox bit!. Finally, they normally apply a drum brake arrangement that can only just about hold the car if the hill isn't too steep so very often, people 'cleverly' apply the handbrake and walk way. If you were to simply lean on the car, it would roll and once past inertia, may not readily stop. Hit it with another car and you have a missile.

Park on the other hand is pretty flawless - I have never heard of any car moving in park, no matter how abused. Sure it will rock a bit but it isn't going anywhere. The mechanisms are pretty strong and I have heard of people applying park at motorway speeds - the wheels locked andpark held. Not a good idea but a good demonstration all the same.

Sorry, but anyone who leaves a manual car in neutral with the handbrake on should get 3 points and their car impounded IMO. Even on a slight incline the car could roll without any failures and failures of the 19th century engineering of most handbrakes is all too common.

There was something on telly a couple of years ago with Vauxhalls slipping the pawls and rolling off into walls and owners complaining. I could only think that if they'd left the car in neutral they were too stupid to own a car in the first place.

 

[st4]

I always use the parking brake. I'll come to a stop, put the car in N and apply the parking brake, firmly with my left foot (my right foot will be on the brake). I'll release the foot brake and the car will hold. Then I'll select P. Much smoother and less jerky than just stopping and then applying P.

To be honest I try to avoid parking on steep hills anyway as a the parking paul can fail as can the parking brake and I'd try to avoid putting wear on either system if at all possible. Therefore parking in neutral in a manual car is fine with the handbrake on of the gradient is flat.

 

[Lisa Jayne]

The SLK is my first auto and I always leave it in P and apply the handbrake, but I guess that is just habit from always having manual cars

 

[jberks]

The SLK is my first auto and I always leave it in P and apply the handbrake, but I guess that is just habit from always having manual cars

Belt and Braces - always the best way.

 

[roadhog]

Handbrakes are pointless items these days. They are fundamentally flawed in their design, more often than not, innefective and utterly unreliable.

The park brake on mine was pretty ineffective until I replaced my disks not long ago. The shoes weren't worn and cleaned up like new, the inside of the drum on the old disks was and didn't.

Before the new disks the brake wouldn't even hold the car in D, now it's spot on. Park brakes are like anything else, use it or lose it.

 

[grayb]

I always use both 'P' and the parking brake - but then I always leave manuals in gear with the handbrake on as well. Grew up in old MG's where the handbrake was not always very effective! Latest handbrake linkage on Midget is fully adjustable so it actually works...

 

[Geezer]

I never use the hand brake. The Merc foot hand brake is pathetic and soooo last century! :lol:

 

[antijam]

Get a Renault with an electric parking brake - the decision is taken out of your hands then - literally!

 

[popuptoaster]

Ive seen a couple of broken gearboxes from P being engaged while the cars moving, a Ford box i saw had a chunk broken out of the side of it with the pawl still attached to it, other than the hole the box was still working well enough to drive the car around the yard till it was due on the ramp.