Quote:
Originally Posted by pcguru2000
I call it an e-brake or emergency brake because I only use it in emergency (the way you're supposed to)...
I never ever ever use it as a parking brake in socal. I have an automatic, plus turning your wheel onto the curb, plus putting the transmission in park is adequate for me. If I lived somewhere like San Francisco or in a location where people pushed your car to enlarge their parking space, it wouldn't make much difference. Plus if someone were to push your car with the auto tranny in park, having the e-brake pulled wouldn't make much difference in the damage to your tranny.
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So you're saying that the proper use of the handbrake is to NOT use it when parking? That is simply untrue. The Owner's Manual of your car refers to it as a PARKING Brake; not an EMERGENCY Brake. The Owner's Manual also has setting the parking brake as part of the normal process for parking both automatic, and manual transmission vehicles. Because that's what you are supposed to do.
If you want to use the parking prawl in your automatic transmission vehicle to hold the car still, that's your prerogative, but that is IMPROPER OPERATION of the vehicle, regardless of how common it is to do. Using the parking prawl to keep the vehicle from rolling, especially on hills, puts stress on the prawl, and on the shift linkage, both of which can break as a result (think back to those times when you've had to tug really hard at the shift lever to come out of park on a steep hill because the prawl was loaded with the weight of the vehicle.)
Your statement regarding a vehicle bumping you from behind is also false. A firmly set parking brake WILL help prevent damage to your transmission if your vehicle is hit while parked, because it will prevent the wheels from rotating too much. Otherwise, such an impact can potentially snap the parking prawl. Not only that, but IF the parking prawl is snapped by an impact, your vehicle could roll away. With the parking brake engaged, even if the impact is violent enough to snap the parking prawl, the vehicle won't roll afterward, which itself could prevent more damage to your vehicle, or other objects/people.
It is simply wrong to not use it as a parking brake. That's what it is called, and that's what it is there for.
End of rant.