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Haven't found this with Vauxhalls (only 5% of my loads), but other makes i've experienced unplanned handbrake release when unloading car transporters a number of times.
The car has to be on fairly steep gradient to be fair, once you've started the engine the weight pushing against the handbrake can be enough to trigger release.
Simple cure, don't buy a new or used car of any make fitted with one of these non devices, they'll soon go back to proper trouble free handbrake design.
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Had a hired Meriva yesterday and I've had a serious problem with the electronic handbrake - as I've never used one of these things before its difficult to know if its my inexperience or a fault with the brake. In my first hour of driving the thing I parked facing down hill between two cars. When I wanted to leave, I was close to the one in front so needed to reverse to get out of the space. I followed what I thought was the correct procedure but when I took my foot off the foot brake to reverse, the car moved forward a couple of inches. I put my foot back on to the foot brake and tried again (and again and again). By the fourth attempt I was half an inch from the car in front and bailed out and rang the rescue service.
When faced with a two hour wait I thought I'd have one more go by leaving my foot firmly on the foot brake and seeing if I had enough juice to reverse on tick over. When I did this, I felt the car pull backwards slightly so quickly moved my foot to the throttle pedal and (phew) got out of the situation and cancelled the rescue.
I've been trying since then to understand this electronic brake and it seems totally erratic to me. I've studied the manual, but still can't rely on the thing and have been parking only in carparks and only on flat ground since.
One problem is that there is no indicator to tell you whether the electronic handbrake is on or off. The clunk of it going on isn't very loud and its very hard to tell if its on or off.
Another problem is that its either on or off with nothing graduated in between - its all or nothing and if you get it wrong you roll forward or back depending on the gradient. Hellish on T Junctions on a slope.
Frankly, this "feature" would make me feel that I'd never buy a car with it.No doubt its me being ingnorant of how it works, but should it be this difficult? In my view its a huge hazard as no doubt there are drivers thicker than me.
Tom
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I thought they worked via clutch and accelerator - no need for footbrake for such a manouver.
As soon as you put it in reverse and start releasing the clutch the auto handbrake should release - that's how the Audi's and Jags I've driven have worked.
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I reported this issue to Vauxhall last year. Their electric parking brake systems are fundamentally insecure and dangerous and not fit for purpose. I sold the Astra.
Edited by MikeTorque on 02/09/2011 at 23:36
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There has to be some way of releasing the EPB with the gearbox in neutral in the event of the car needing to be towed. How is this done if the car has lost all power?
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There has to be some way of releasing the EPB with the gearbox in neutral in the event of the car needing to be towed. How is this done if the car has lost all power?
Had C4 Picasso handbrake(s) stuck on before though the engine was running and operating as normal, in the tool bag is something that looks suspiciously like an IUD, you insert this tool through a cut out in the passenger footwell, it connects with the HB mechanism and you wind till it goes bang.
The handbrake is then broken and the car needs to go into the dealer for repair.
Brilliant design, i want one, preferably with the automated manual gearbox from hell..:-)
Edited by gordonbennet on 03/09/2011 at 01:59
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I gather it cuts the cable and leaves the owner with a bill for its replacement.
As you say a brilliant piece of design.
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This Tuesday, 28th August 2012, I eagerly took delivery of my new Motability Astra SRi 2L, by about 4-0pm I'd almost written it off no fewer than 3 times.
My wife will no longer get in the car and the 'parking brake' fails at just about every given opportunity, even by slightly 'breathing' on the accelerator pedal when not in gear. Might not be much of a problem on a test track/road, but in busy traffic/narrow forest hills its a $loody nightmare. Oh, and the stop start stops for no apparent reason; drivers behind do not appreciate. Another 'safety issue' is that when reversing on a slight incline with the brake on, it is released so fiercely that there is a real danger of damage to your and any other vehicle close by
I note that from 11th June 2012, Vauxhall had on its web site that the 'new' Astra's (for delivery from August 2012) that previously had 'electric parking brake' will now have a manual handbrake, if that's not an admission of an inherent fault I don't know what is?? Now pressing Motability to change the car, there is no way I'm being stuck with this heap of junk for the next 3 years. I did order the 'new' Astra as advertised on the Motability web site, now I find I'm being off loaded with surplus 'faulty stock' with all the inherent risks to life and limb.
Also the build quality is v poor, at least compared to the Hyundai i30 1.6 CDRi Ive just let go,
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The Vauhall Insignia I have just bought
(1 year old) has an EPB problem. Several people have said on this forum that the EPB wll only release at biting point. With my car this is not so, it rolls backwards/forwards before I have got biting point. You then have a choice. Your natural instinct is to jump on the brake before you smash into your garage door (well my drive slopes downwards anyway) or try to catch it on biting point.
Has Vauxhall admitted that some of these EPBs have a problem. I would have hoped that a 62 plate car would have had the problems sorted by the time the car was manufactured if it has been known about for so long.
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Haven't found this with Vauxhalls (only 5% of my loads), but other makes i've experienced unplanned handbrake release when unloading car transporters a number of times.
The car has to be on fairly steep gradient to be fair, once you've started the engine the weight pushing against the handbrake can be enough to trigger release.
Simple cure, don't buy a new or used car of any make fitted with one of these non devices, they'll soon go back to proper trouble free handbrake design.
"Proper trouble free handbrake design" Vauxhall couldn't even do that properly-remember Vectras from a few years ago? I personally witnessed a parked Vectra take off backwards down a hill, tried to stop it, succeded in setting the alarm off by rocking the car, fortunately it stopped without hitting anybody or anything. The owner came out of his house and I told him what had happened-he said it had just been back to the dealer that day to cure-guess what? You guessed it, the handbrake kept letting go when parked!-What's their current slogan? Put the fun back into driving-Hmmmm- muppets.
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If they can't get an electric handbrake right , imagine what they will get wrong with a hybrid..
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If they can't get an electric handbrake right , imagine what they will get wrong with a hybrid..
Well, not putting enough seats in it for a start.....
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like the Ampera, batteries catching fire a few weeks after a crash test.
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I'm testing the Yaris Hybrid tomorrow.
Far as I noticed it has the usual complement of seats. ??
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Update on my Motability Astra SRi with 'troublesome' electric parking brake, they have agreed to cancel the contact, costing me £250, but I should get a refund on the down payment I made. So, over a three year period I should be marginally better off financially as the weekly payments are now less than they were when I first signed,(and there is now no advance payment on the 'new' Astra) and a whole lot better off stress wise, and so will be my wife.
Away Saturday to order the Astra, but now the one with a manual handbrake :)
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The Vauxhall brochure shows the electric parking brake is still in use on the models SRi, SE and Elite models but not lower spec'd models. What did they say about the SRi ?
Can you confirm the SRi, SE and Elite model now come with a manual parking brake ?
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Link to the Vauxhall news page
http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/fleet/latest-news/2012/june/new-astra-august-introduction.html
In fairness to Vauxhall Motors they have agreed to reimburse the £250 cancellation fee paid to Motability. I'm now looking forward to collecting my new 2013 Astra SRi 2.0L automatic, with a manual hand brake. They also said that there had been 'isolated incidents' of EPB problems.
A work colleague of a friend awoke recently to find his new Audi A4 (with EPB) parked nose up in a dich across the road, a total write off.
Edited by Weary-one on 07/09/2012 at 00:31
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Thanks for the update. I've found the Vauxhall sales guys helpful but they have their hands somewhat tied when it comes to control of delivery. My Astra had the wrong tyres fitted on delivery but they rectified this but only after a wait whilst I found the correct tyres for them (yep they did try it on and say there would be about a 3 weeks delay in finding tyres ! (Not when I'm around, I sourced & got them fitted in 2 days at their expense).
The EPB incidents are not 'isolated incidents'. A lot of customers have complained but their complaints were never added to the Vauxhall report system as Vauxhall claimed it was a feature of the design. The so called 'isolated incidents' were the result of customers pushing very hard in getting the issues reported onto the Vauxhall system, me being one of them.
Weary-one - how do you find the seats in the SRi ? I found them a bit too low and rather hard on the bottom which caused numb bum syndrome (so to speak). Also the steering wheel height adjustment isn't sufficient. Be interested to hear how you found the rear view visibility as well as I found the car a pain to park due to limited visibility.
A really nice car to drive otherwise.
At least it's good to hear Vauxhall have decided to bring back the good old manual hand brake, a case of old technology being more suitable for humans day to day real world usage.
I note the Vauxhall web link doesn't specifically make it clear if all Astra models will have a manual parking brake so it's worth double checking.
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Sorry Mike T, I missed this.
Yes the seats are hard and low, and do result in NBS. I also find that to get a comfortable sitting position (long legs) I then struggle to get full control of the clutch pedal ??
I too find rear visibility poor when parking, front visibility when parking isn't much better either, but I think this probably goes for all modern hatchbacks. Several years ago I had the Citroen ZX 1.9 TD Avantage which had great visibility.
In the Astra's favour I don't get the same hard calluses on the heel of my index fingers I had with the Hyundai because of the raised stitching on the leather covered steering wheel - yet. Particularly bad on a long journey.
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Sorry Mike T, I missed this.
Yes the seats are hard and low, and do result in NBS. I also find that to get a comfortable sitting position (long legs) I then struggle to get full control of the clutch pedal ??
I too find rear visibility poor when parking, front visibility when parking isn't much better either, but I think this probably goes for all modern hatchbacks. Several years ago I had the Citroen ZX 1.9 TD Avantage which had great visibility.
In the Astra's favour I don't get the same hard calluses on the heel of my index fingers I had with the Hyundai because of the raised stitching on the leather covered steering wheel - yet. Particularly bad on a long journey.
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Hertz gave me one a brand new one to drive with no instructions how it worked. 30 minutes later confronted by very steep hill start on narrow roads in tight traffic. Passenger was really scared at how to control the car in such in an unknown way. Managed to get past that and parked the car. Came back an hour later to find it had rolled back 6 feet and chocked with stones by passersby. Whoever though the electronic parking brake was a brilliant idea needs electric shock therapy. I will never get in a car with this system again. That Vauxhall got it past countless safety engineering reviews says something about their thoughtlessness for their users. The car's foibles completely ruined our holiday such was it's bizarre personality.
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The bad news is that reports this week on the forthcoming Mark VII Golf say that it too will be fitted with this completely unnecessary device. It'll lose them some sales, but VW are not known for listening to mere customers.
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That's disappointing. I suppose it was inevitable after the carbuncles appeared on the Passat.
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No one could have been more disappointed than me when the device appeared on Avensis, operated the opposite way to every car i've ever driven, the tourer of which i was most taken with, was.
Not to worry, there's dozens of cars not fitted with the thing to choose from, and with spare wheels too.
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I have an EPB on my S-Max automatic and one in a fleet Saab 9-5 manual. Both work perfectly as designed. Niether will release automatically unless: -
- Your seatbelt is on;
- The car is in gear; and
- There is some drive to the wheels, either by lifting the clutch on the Saab or tickling the throttle on the Ford.
If you want to move the car without the seatbelt on or in neutral, you need to have the footbrake fully depressed and then press the switch down.
Its great in traffic queues with an autobox as I leave the car in Drive, put the EPB on and take my feet away from the pedals. Very relaxing and no brakes lights blinding the guy behind me.
I wish all cars had the system. I miss it when in a rental car or my wife's A-Class and it frees up room in the cabin.
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Another 'problem' I've found is that the 'safety' headrest on the SRi does not adjust laterally. (front/backwards) Not sure whether Vauxhall simply ran out and fitted the static type but as I suffer from spinal stenosis, which the adjustable type I had on the Hyundai i30 used to greatly relieve, I do miss the support. Hopefully the next Astra I get at the end of this month will have the forward adjustable type.
Even after almost three weeks I'm still being caught out with the 'clutch/accelerator - gears in neutral - parking brake release' issue. Little wonder I panicked on the first day out when trying a hill start on a forest/mountain track..
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My son hired an Insignia with an EPB which after returning it without damage and when back at the hire shop released, sending the car into another.
These have to be the most idiotic invention ever.
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These have to be the most idiotic invention ever.
Agreed, but buyers have the power to stop this trend dead, more so used car buyers, if no one buys such rubbish used then very quickly they'll be untouchable new.
EPB is my line in the sand, together with automated manual or twin clutch gearboxes, i'm not having any of that tat on any car i buy at any time and thats it.
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