I have been told there is a correct way to set the emergency brake on a manual transmission car. I’ve asked a few people I know, and they all give different answers. Is there a straight dope for this?
- With the car parked, apply the service (regular foot) brake.
- Shift the transmission into 1st or reverse.
- If on a hill, turn the downhill side of the front wheels toward the curb. If there is no curb, turn the front wheels to the right.
- Apply the parking brake.
- Release the service brake.
- Exit the car.
The order of steps 2, 3, & 4 is not critical.
What do you mean by set? Do you just mean engaging the park brake?
A good way to do it is to just pull it on, don’t pull it on too hard or you may have trouble disengaging it.
I’m guessing that some people may think that it’ll save wear on the ratchet if you hold the button in while pulling it on. I’ve had several cars, some of them very very old. none of them have had any trouble at all with the hand brake ratchet.
Someone told me that in England the official way is to hold the button to save ratchet wear. The reason is that the law requires that you put on the hand brake at every traffic stop in case the guy behind you bangs into you. I imagine that like non hand-over-hand steering it is something people do to pass the test and promptly forget about it.
They have to engage the hand brake at every traffic stop!? WTF!
They lied to you, Hari. Well, not about it being a good idea to hold the button in (ignoring wear & tear, it also eliminates that annoying clicking sound when you put the hand brake on), but about it being the law to put the handbrake on at traffic lights. It’s not.
And lest you think I’m also speaking out of my ass, or teasing the foreigner, here’s a link to the UK highway code:
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk This link is no longer valid; try http://www.officespaceinlondon.net/london/london-resources.htm
It’s the driving handbook/condensed version of the UK driving laws for pedestrians, motorists, motrocyclists, cyclists & so on. If you try the A-Z contents, there’s various links for traffic lights & none mention handbrakes. There isn’t even an index entry for handbrakes, although you will find it mentioned in the parking on a hill section.
It is a technique frequently taught by driving instructors in the UK to apply the hand brake at traffic lights when they’re on red, as this allows you to sit with the clutch down & the car in first without rolling back or to sit at hold point whilst waiting for the light to change (the majority of the cars being manual or stick shift cars) & this allows a quicker getaway from the light as you don’t have to take your foot off the foot brake & then onto the gas, whilst allowing you to roll backwards if you are on a slope. This is the preferred technique for taking driving tests - the examiner needs you to be in control of the car at all times & allowing it to roll backwards, or to stall the car because you’re a relatively new driver & nervous on your test due to panicking whan the car starts to roll back as you transfer your foot from the brake to the accelerator pedal doesn’t count…
Naturally, once people have passed their tests & are vaguely confident, they just sit there with their foot on the brake & the other foot on the clutch, but until then they don’t.
Well, just a slight hijack into the area of UK driving, when I learned about 3 years ago, standard practice was to use the handbrake and put the car in neutral whilst waiting at lights, the reason being to save clutch wear, and to stop the car moving too far forwards if someone were to rear-end you. This does, of course lead to a much higher chance of the car being totalled as it means that a much greater portion of the energy in the crash goes into crushing the cars than moving them forwards.
It’s not a good idea to sit at traffic lights with the clutch disengaged. It can cause the clutch throwout bearing to wear out prematurely.
Using the regular car’s brakes engages all four wheels. The parking brake is MUCH less effective at keeping the car from moving.
The reason for using the regular brake pedal before setting the parking brake is that the hydraulics can apply much more pressure than the parking brake cable. As an analogy, it’s like pulling back a crossbow string with your legs or a lever, and holding it with just the little trigger.
Should you set the parking break before or after you turn the vehicle off?
I’ve seen plenty of them worn out here in Germany. The driving schools teach the folks to set the parking brake when stopped at a light on an incline - and then a lot of folks just forget the “on an incline” part or else don’t know “incline” from “mole hill”.
Not everyone does this, probably not a majority or even a large minority. Enough do do it though that I’ve seen the worn out ratchets.
Maybe. But I got 250k miles out of my last clutch while holding it depressed at every stoplight I encountered. So it looks like a case of YMMV.
And with that post, Xema wins the 2003 Use a Cliché in Its Literal Meaning Award! 
How about setting the parking brake on an automatic transmission? I’ve heard it’s best to pull up the brake before putting the transmission in Park, as opposed to after it’s in Park?
Any thoughts?
Sorry, I just have to nitpick here:
[QUOTE]
It is a technique frequently taught by driving instructors in the UK to apply the hand brake at traffic lights when they’re on red, as this allows you to sit with the clutch down & the car in first without rolling back or to sit at hold point whilst waiting for the light to change (the majority of the cars being manual or stick shift cars) & this allows a quicker getaway from the light… QUOTE]
As far as I remember the official procedure for the driving test was to take the car out of gear and engange the handbrake, the reasoning being that it was potentially dangerous to keep the clutch depressed and the car in gear with the engine running (and also bad for the clutch) and you had plenty of time to engage first and release the handbrake while the light was amber (yeah, I know…:rolleyes:) Certainly I don’t ever remember being encouraged by a driving instructor to keep the clutch depressed in order to be “first off the grid” when the lights changed. 
For the purposes of the test, releasing the handbrake is the last thing you’re supposed to do before moving away (after engaging 1st gear, releasing the clutch until biting point and checking your mirrors and blindspot). However, the hill start is (was?) a separate part of the British driving test (or was circa 1989). It involves balancing the handbrake and the clutch to prevent the car from rolling back. Before taking my test I remember being told that to roll back as much as one inch was a failable offence.
Sorry, my comments got into the middle of the two quotes (must use preview, must use preview)…
" as this allows you to sit with the clutch down & the car in first without rolling back or to sit at hold point whilst waiting for the light to change"
Why don’t they teach you to push in the brake at that time instead?
liirogue, the answer should be in your car manual too.
Doesn’t matter.
You heard right. If the parking brake holds, it prevents the car from rolling and putting stress on the transmission’s parking pawl. Otherwise, occasionally there can be enough stress on the pawl to make it very difficult to shift it out of park.