Electronic Parking Brakes

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Bimble

Bimbling along ...
[QUOTE 4756524, member: 45"]Again, you can just drive off whenever you want and the brake comes off.[/QUOTE]
Nope. It didn't. That's point, and why I turned it off. It stayed on for the full 3 seconds, regardless, with the car rigidly stuck in place until the timer ran out.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Ours is currently faulty though we are not sure if it's just the switch. Our mechanic ran some quick tests and reset it last week, and it seems to be behaving - he has asked us to see how it behaves this week but looking into the potential problems we found out that we could be in trouble if it does indeed go wrong!
 

T4tomo

Legendary Member
Its the muppets that sit at junctions with their foot on the break that boil my wee wee. Not in proper control, needlessly blinding the driver behind them (people have occasionally been ticketed for that aspect), damaging their brakes through repeated uneven cooling of the discs. Plums, the lot of them.

I seem to have become a very angry pensioner! :laugh:
I think you're about as likely to be blinded by a brake light as you are to have your arm broken by a swan!

I'm not a fan of electric parking brakes though......
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Yes the brake lights are annoying but unfortunately they come on when auto-hold is holding the car. I often engage the hand brake when there are cars behind me so as to turn the brake lights off. VAG cars have auto-hold, which is very good. You can override the engine stop/start and you can turn off auto-hold, which is useful when you are parking in a tight space for example and using your front and rear bumpers "Paris style".

With auto-hold, keys in pocket and the semi-automatic handbrake that comes on when I stab the ignition button, I can be out of my VW Passat like a true sales rep before that cyclist has even recovered, it gives me time to leg it through the park before they get up off the road and accuse me of knocking them off their bikes.
 

TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
I'm rapidly becoming averse to most automotive electronics. I've got friends who've had to get the recovery people out to sort the stuck-on electric handbrake, and my current bete noire is an intermittent glow plug sensor. It makes the Engine Light of Doom come on. I'd soon realise if the glow plug itself was faulty, as the car would be hard to start.
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Got this in the new Kia..its fine when you get used to it..

Also I'd think you have hill start Assist?
That is usually fitted with the leccy handbrake and a lot of standard HBs.
Brake holds for 2 seconds when releasing the foot brake..it detects rearward movement...
 

Joffey

Big Dosser
Location
Yorkshire
Its the muppets that sit at junctions with their foot on the break that boil my wee wee. Not in proper control, needlessly blinding the driver behind them (people have occasionally been ticketed for that aspect), damaging their brakes through repeated uneven cooling of the discs. Plums, the lot of them.

I seem to have become a very angry pensioner! :laugh:

Unless they are driving automatics possibly.
 

Smokin Joe

Legendary Member
In all the millions of times I must have applied the handbrake over the years I never once thought, "I wish there was an easier way of doing this".

Over complicated bollocks, and yet another way to write off a perfectly serviceable car when it reaches the stage where replacing the faulty gubbins that operate the thing comes to three time what the car is worth.
 
OP
OP
KneesUp

KneesUp

Guru
[QUOTE 4756508, member: 9609"]fourthly - it is supposed to be your emergency brake, so what are you supposed to do press the button lock the wheels and go further out of control

fifthly - if you brake down the brake comes on and you can't push or pull the car off the road. (I come across a woman in a prevoke that had broke down half way round a fast bend, me and another bloke tried to push her out of the way, but no chance with the parking brake on) seh had to get a break down truck with a lift.[/QUOTE]
I tried to put it on when the car was moving earlier to see what it did. It makes the noise like it's putting it on, and then doesn't - so as you say, that's not ideal. I've had to use the handbrake to stop a car when the brake line burst - it was a 2001 car, so not exactly a different era of motoring. With this car you can't.

The Golf I had it on (the previous hire car) did at least have a brake release - you pulled the small switch up for on, and pressed it for off. This (Vauxhall) version also has a switch that pulls up and pushes down but the push down bit does nothing. I expect they've just used a power window switch to save money, because Vauxhall are cheap like that. In this implementation you have to try and move off with the brake on, which is I expect no good for the brakes, clutch or tyres. Plus I've stalled it twice on steep hills. The VW version also came on automatically if you let the car roll backwards. The Vauxhall does not.

I fail to see what the advantage is supposed to be. Is it something to do with start-stop?
 
Top Bottom