Following all the hoo-ha on TV recently about apparently failing handbrake mechanisms.
I was reminded of my own habit of always leaving the car parked in gear as well as applying the handbrake. I guess some would say there is a reason why I shouldn't but it's now an unbreakable ( sorry ) habit. I suppose it was innately learned on early shoespy transport which didn't always have much in the way of actual brakes ! It seems to annoy the hairspray off the the distaff side of the family when borrowing my car as she usually ends up kangarooing up the drive ! Just can't stop doing it tho' ;-)
So who's for it and who's agin' ?
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"it's now an unbreakable habit"
"It seems to annoy the hairspray off the the distaff side of the family "
Same here!
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Phil
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When driving a manual car I always leave it in first and apply the handbrake. Been doing it 38 years now and it doesn't seem right just to leave it all down to the handbrake. Offspring don't understand though.
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I usually leave the car in gear if it's on a slope.
When I was a lorry driver, years ago, I was told that you should never leave a diesel engined vehicle in gear because if the handbrake failed and the vehicle started to move, the engine could start up. Presumably this referred to the older type diesels with a 'stop control' where the engine was stopped simply by strangling the air supply.
Thinking about this, even if the engine did start up, if the vehicle was in low gear, as the vehicle rolled, it would soon be limited in speed by engine braking in a low gear, whereas it would just 'run-away' if it was in neutral!
So I do leave my Passat TDI in gear on a slope.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 24/11/2007 at 11:41
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How do you leave the new helltronic cars in gear, i'm not aware for example if you can leave the auto handbraked C4/ picasso C4 in gear.
Should be interesting in time to see owners carrying half bricks around to shove under a wheel when leaving...progress?
Sofa spud i'll take you back to a time when i left a 'mickey mouse' Foden in the layby at the top of a hill, and after about an hour the penny dropped and i remembered i had only used the dead man and not the diff brake. It was in gear but being a gardner engine it could run backwards anyway....panic.
Probably doesn't mean much to many of you but Sofa Spud will know my releif when it was still there when i rushed back to it.
I was only 22 at the time...my only excuse and i'm sticking to it.
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Forgot to say i've noticed that our cars handbrake wont wear out as Georgeous doesnt use it just leaves it in P
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If I don't leave my car in reverse I can't get the keys out of the ignition, the key locks the gearbox as a security measure.
But I've always done it on previous cars anyway, was taught by my Dad that its something you should always do.
Despite me telling my g.f. that she ought to do it, she refuses to and has once or twice started it in gear when I have left it like that..
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When I was a student and drove a 1929 Riley 9, in cold weather (In Aberdeen ... VERY cold), the SAE 90 (!) gerabox oil turned into honey and you could not engage 1st gear. So I always parked in 1st gear.
Became a habit.
SWMBO does not like it, she often kangaroo starts!
madf
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other way around in our household, 'er indoors does it all the time, whilst i'm quite sporadic......my excuse is i usually drive an auto, which gets 'park' and the h/brake
although since watching the recent Watchdog programme i've taken to doing it again when i drive a manual
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Became a habit. SWMBO does not like it she often kangaroo starts!
It's frightening how many people don't put their foot on the clutch when starting the engine. It's not taught in driving lessons and it's only a matter of time before someone gets crushed between two cars when walking between as someone starts the engine.
It's beyond me why the manufacturers can't put some sort of interlock that requires the clutch pedal to be depressed or the brake held on before starting the car. The only time I've ever seen this required was in a Megane with the push button start.
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The Honda IMA we have in work as a pool car does need its clutch depressing. I was taught to do it when I learnt to drive.......and still do it now. Me ? Landie's parked in gear, Skoda isn't this is due to the fact by sheer force of habit I let the engine run on after stopping to stop the turbo frying.
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Also leave it in gear and got my daughter doing the same, also front wheels pointed towards the kerb if on hill - surprised how many don't do that either!
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All my parking, outside of the garage, is in first or reverse gear.
Clk Sec
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Clutch in to start so as the starter motor is not turning the gearbox components as well.
Parking in 1st or reverse, depending on the slope.
Front wheels pointing towards the kerb on a slope - just in case.
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Fullchat
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I always depress the clutch when starting the engine for the reason Fullchat gives, important with a cold engine and tired battery in winter.
I always rely on the handbrake to hold the car unless it is defective. I don't leave the car in gear or turn the wheels in to the kerb unless the handbrake doesn't work. That seems to me to be belt, braces and holding up your trousers with both hands. It may be necessary in San Francisco or Aberdeen but it isn't in most places.
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>>Parking in 1st or reverse, depending on the slope.
>>Front wheels pointing towards the kerb on a slope - just in case.
Confession time ;- ((
I totally agree with Fullchat and others but a few years ago I was distracted and in a hurry so I forgot and did not even pull the handbrake on properly.
On my return I found our old tatty UNO with a busted headlamp and a slightly dented wing in very close proximity to wall having very gently trundled across two lanes and politely parked itself on the pavement so it did not cause any more traffic problems.
The BiB greeted me. I was much releaved to pay my dues to the bench and silently thanked all those unknown folk who saw what was happening and avoided the UNO on its unplanned solo trip on a sunny day on fairly busy but urban road.
I still shudder to think of what could have happened.
I hope my experience will encourage others to adopt " just in case" procedures.
My offspring still winge that I have left their cars in gear and do not accept my suggestion of starting their car with the clutch depressed.
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SWMBO does not like it she often kangaroo starts!
My Missus use to kangaroo start, but she's a little older now! Thank the Lordy she's in t'other room, probably watching the come dancing thing. B B boring!
VBR MD
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An exact reflection of what's going ion here PU struggling to cook and post whilst MrsP watches some dancing thing !
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"was taught by my Dad that its something you should always do"
Along with "always reverse into a parking space - in case the Germans come"
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Phil
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Left my father's Rover 10 with the handbrake off outside our house when I was 15 or so. Fortunately it just ran off the approach road into a field and was gently stopped by a convenient haystack. On another occasion I selected reverse by mistake, and used a bit more engine than usual to get going as the car was running backwards. This caused it to penetrate the stone wall round our front garden, again without serious damage to the Rover although the wall damage made me a bit unpopular for a while.
Just round the corner here a few years ago though, had to avoid a car running backwards diagonally across both carriageways with a distraught driver running after it. I don't think anyone hit it.
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Was anyone else brought up to push the button in to `save the ratchet". Then years and thousands of applications of the handbrake later, have the brake lever jump off, as it had been left right on the point of one of the rachtet teeth?
Happened to me. 5 seconds or so after an application, fortunately with me still in the cab.
I now apply it still with the button held in, but also just ease the lever up a little when applied to check. Of course always left in gear too.
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Parking in 1st or reverse depending on the slope. -- Fullchat
The slope direction is very important in choosing the gear. You really DON'T want your engine turning the wrong way!
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My son was in the SEAT with me the other day and asked why the handbrake was silent whilst the Skoda's always makes a clicking noise when mum pulls it on.....
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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My son was in the SEAT with me the other day and asked why the handbrake was silent whilst the Skoda's always makes a clicking noise when mum pulls it.
Wrenches it on if she's like my Olga!!
VBR...........MD
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Was anyone else brought up to push the button in to `save the ratchet".
Yep ~ me. It also prevents the awful rasping clicking noise you get if you don't do it.
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L\'escargot.
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Offspring don't understand though.
Please tell me what they DO understand??
VBR MD
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They understand that Dad's an obsessive who risks having the handbrake slip off in the name of unnecessary silence and imaginary mechanical sympathy, while Mum is a practical soul who uses machines as they were designed to be used.
Anyway that's the way they see it if they are girls, but only until they grow up if they are boys.
:oP
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I've had 3 cars where the handbrake is on the right of the driver's seat and my big boots often knock the release button. Leaving a car in gear is second nature. Erm, so is starting up with the foot on the clutch. One habit follows the other like night follows day ...
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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I've had 3 cars where the handbrake is on the right of the driver's seat
Having had one car like that I wish they were all like that. Starting off is a much smoother process ~ you can put the car in gear with the left hand and (more or less simultaneously) let the handbrake off with the right, instead of having to do the two things one after the other with the same hand.
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L\'escargot.
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I remember that when I passed my test in 1959 that the unoffical advice was to not put the hand brake very hard as the jamjar lid brake drums would cool down and distort on the shoes, not to leave it in gear unless on a very steep slope and always depress the clutch on starting both for to avoid gearbox drag and starting/setting off in gear which my Minor 1000 was quite capable of, even more alarming if using the starting handle.
Re the ratchet my dad taught me to depress it as he considered it more gentlemanly to avoid the ratchet noise and I still do this today - I used to have an AC Ace-Bristol (6 cyls 12 valves and 18 pushrods!) with a fly-off handbrake i.e. you had push the button in to hold it on and pull up the lever and just drop it to release, good for hand brake turns! Present car (Forester) has a normal handbrake and a useful hill start clutch so you don't need the handbrake starting on hills altho' it does take some getting used to.
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I don't use the handbrake very often but when I do I give it a good old yank without the ratchet because I like that sound.
Slightly off topic - I used to date a girl in Ashton-U-Lyne who lived in a cuddle sac and would regularly handbrake-turn my 1979 505 saloon in the street. I got quite good at it. A few weeks ago (some twenty-odd years later) I came to an unexpected road block on a quiet, damp road and tried to do it for old time's sake but couldn't for the life of me pull the handbrake hard enough to lock the wheels. I wonder if I'm getting old, handbrakes are getting weaker or cars are becoming too heavy.
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I wonder if I'm getting old handbrakes are getting weaker or cars are becoming too heavy.
Rear grip is better (Probably).
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Slightly off topic - I used to date a girl in Ashton-U-Lyne who lived in a cuddle sac
Glad I read that early in the day - would have been beer oon the keyboard after 19:00!!!!
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I always leave MY car parked in gear. However I never do this with the cars of the various ladies in my household, as they never take their cars out of gear when they start them and then curse me for the little jump their cars make.
I'm glad I do park in gear as my Panda 4x4 has rear discs and I often hear a slight creak from them after I park when the car creeps a little bit.
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I can never underrstand how someone can just get into a car and turn the key in the ignition without checking if it's in gear or at least depressing the clutch pedal. A friend's wife drove their BMW into the garage wall by just starting it up.
My brother lives on a busy road and was woken one morning by the police because his car had rolled off his drive, across the road and onto the drive opposite, luckilly with no damage. Not parked in gear, handbrake gave way.
I always park in gear and always start the engine with the clutch pedal depressed - in fact, my Passat won't start otherwise.
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I always leave my car in gear, but like Dr Chris, the Mrs RTB struggles with this so I try to leave her car on hand brake only.
Edited by Round The Bend on 25/11/2007 at 17:34
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"A friend's wife drove their BMW into the garage wall by just starting it up."
My sister did the same in her 205 GTi except she hit our front room bay window. She also crunched the whole nearside of my old man's 7-seater estate down one of our trees. 2 big insurance jobs without even exiting the property.
Women.
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Park brake on, engine off, first gear.
Asked my Dad why he did it that way. He'd driven his parents to a holiday and while carrying bags upstairs spotted Grandad's Riley moving downhill on its own. Reckoned his feet never touched the ground on way out of the guest house!!
Fact that on a two occasions he forgot the experience and had to recover his car from neighbour's garden further reinforced the advice.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 25/11/2007 at 20:29
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Isn't the handbrake lever a bit intrusive in a cuddle sac?
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