Yet more "I'm getting too old"

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cuffs054

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Does anyone have a vehicle with 'Electronic Parking Brake'? I'm not sure I understand how it works. Will it set/unset if the battery is dead? How 'hard' does it hold? I'm assuming you can't use it in an emergency(?) Does it have anything to do with the hydro system for the regular brakes? And in a totally other realm; we had a '61 New Yorker with the fabboo globe like driver cluster and great lighting that had the turn signal lever mounted below the push button tranny selector. How did it cancel after a turn? And rambling on; saw a Perry Mason rerun the other night where the bad guy drilled a hole in the master cylinder and caused the Lincoln Continental to crash. I'd forgotten about 'single circuit' brakes.
 
"I'm getting too old"

No, you're not.

Never trust gimmicky gadgets!

I have driven a car with one of these 'electric window flip switches' instead of the dedicated handbrake lever between the seats. I did not feel safe driving that car (I think it was a Vauxhall). Apparently, an electric motor (surprise, surprise) reels in the brake cable and releases it accordingly. Hill starts: supposedly there is a second or two of grace before the electro hand brake releases. I still didn't trust it.

I was told by a mechanic, of a different system on one of the Volkswagen cars (maybe the Passat?) which had an electric motor on each brake caliper. If a caliper seized on, the whole caliper had to be replaced at great expense. Motors alone were not available as spare parts.

Absolute nuts. We're employing solutions where there's no problem in the first place.
 
My Audi has an electric handbrake, I don’t really know how it works.. I know how to use the functions in my car but that’s pretty much it lol
 
MrAlex

This might explain it a little...

I can see the point in terms of computer controlled emergency braking.

However, having both the footbrake and the handbrake going through the same electronic systems, sounds suspiciously like placing all of your eggs in one basket.

I'll stick to separate distinct systems thank you.

http://https//www.audi.co.uk/glossary/e/electromechanical-parking-brake.html
 
My current Chevy Malibu has that little button for the emergency brake. So much easier with a proper pull up hand brake.
 
first of all remember, anything electrical in a vehicle, something like a sensor, or mainly a FUSE blows out, THERE IS NO BRAKE!!!...regular or emergency....and if your battery dies, well then it sucks to be you.....

I had a 1993 Taurus SHO, the master cylinder had a sensor underneath that blew out on me, as with any nightmare, the second I was over the hump of Rt40 Summit Mountain, steep incline downhill, went to push the brake, and it went to the floor......lucky for this vehicle, the emergency foot brake operates like a regular brake pedal.....scary and rough, but made it to the bottom safely.....nothing will scare you more than pushing on the brake, and nothing happens.....

any vehicle with pedals that adjust for the driver are electrically controlled.....again, you blow a fuse, and no accelerator or brake....

fortunate for my SUV's, they all have a cable driven hand brake....
 
old Chrysler brake

No doubt that the Mopar brake that locked up the driveline was great for parking but it couldn't be used as an emergency brake. My parents were Pontiac people for 30 years back then, but I had relatives who swore by Mopar. One aunt and uncle had an early 60's New Yorker with that 'Astra Dome' dash with 'panelescent' lighting and the turn signal on the dashboard. That was back when all the cars weren't so cookie-cutter.
 
I never liked the idea of a electronic parking brake! If that button were to break, you wouldn't be able to use the parking brake! A prime example of why I prefer older cars, they don't have as many electronics to brake down.
 
I love the creature comforts of my 2014 Ford Fusion, but have to agree that the electronic "parking brake" (no mention of its usefulness in emergency situations) is a bit unsettling.

In college, the brakes went out on my 1969 Olds Delta 88. I drove it around Moorhead, MN for two weeks using only the emergency brake. I could make 3 or 4 in-city stops with it, then had to pull over and let the brake recover for a couple of minutes before continuing on. Drove it home the same way (140 miles) so my stepfather could fix it.

Insanely unsafe, I know; but typical behavior for a 19-year old male with perceived invincibility who thinks, "Oh, this will work just fine until it can be repaired!"
 
I never set the parking brake.

Had too many freeze up.
My '95 Taurus had rear disk brakes and I didn't even re connect it when I replaced the rotors and one caliper.
Some 70's full size Ford, Mercury, and Lincolns had no parking brake release. Were these the push to release pedal, or just a simple solenoid release?
I seem to recall my Colony Park company car in about 1990 not having one. It would hiss about two seconds when I put it in park.
 
The Emergency Brake in an old Cadillac could not be locked in place with the car out of Park and the engine running. So It was a TRUE Emergency Brake you could use just like the regular brake pedal. I thought that was a great feature.
 
that true emergency brake was a great feature on the SHO....never seen one like it on any other car....

in PARK, you would press/set the emergency brake pedal.....you could manually release it with the hand pull, or shift into DRIVE, and it would release automatically....and while in DRIVE, it would operate just like a regular brake pedal....

yes, I had my rear brakes lock in place during a winter storm, so I wouldn't set it during the winter months, it was a 5speed manual, so I would leave it in gear, and turn the wheels toward the curb....

but in reality, manual shift or Automatic, you should set your emergency brake while parked.....and it should be applied while your foot is on the brake, just after you shifted to park......it relieves the lock on the transmission....

too many cars, especially Front Wheel Drive vehicles, parked on an incline, people find it hard to shift out of park while the vehicle is putting pressure on the drive train.....many times a tow truck had to pull the car backwards about 2 inches in order to shift it out of PARK....

I have seen people break their shift lever off trying to move it....
 
Parking Brake - Not Emergency Brake

In the "old days" before dual circuit hydraulic braking systems, the cable actuated brake COULD actually be used to stop the car in the event the hydraulic system failed - hence the name "emergency brake".

With the advent of dual circuit hydraulic braking systems, the cable actuated brake became the "parking brake" and was really only good for ensuring the car didn't roll away when parked. Automatic transmission equipped cars had the additional safety of locking up the transmission with the "parking pawl" (when transmission was shifted to the PARK position) but the parking brake was still additional insurance against the car rolling away on steep inclines when parked.

Electrically actuated parking brakes cannot even be activated when the car is in motion.
Most are automatically released when the accelerator is pressed.
My 2011 Nissan Leaf has one and it's never given me any troubles. There is a manual release in the cargo area in the event the electric actuator fails or cannot be used due to a dead battery or the like.

I am one that ALWAYS sets the parking brake when parking. Your vehicle is actually LESS likely to have a "parking brake freeze up" if the parking brake is used regularly.

SO - don't say "E-brake" or "emergency brake" in regards to modern cars. The "now" term is "parking brake".
 
I've always used parking brakes, and my parents did, too, starting in the 1970s. I think they started due to news stories about automatics slipping out of park or something like that.

 

In my case, I have had to use the brake for parking most of the cars I've had, since they have all (but one) been manual transmission cars.

 

Never had any problem with the brake acting up.

 

They pushed parking brakes in driver's training as well, even going as far as telling us to first shift into Drive, and then take the brake off.
 
I refuse to talk about those brakes...

I even HATE automatic transmission.

Among all the people I personally know here in the USA, only one individual (Kevin) knows how to drive a "proper" car with a "decent" manual transmission.

When i went to DMV in Santa Monica to get my DL, i had to take the driving test again. The inspector that tested me simply "heard" about manual transmissions but never saw a car with one. What? A DMV inspector!!!

My car is automatic because I simply couldn't find any manual car here in the US. (Except super expensive sports models completely out of my budget) I dream about driving a decent car again. Almost 2 years driving cars made for handicapped people.

My mom was a defensive and evasive driving instructor, teaching for years at the police academy and at a company that made armored cards for civilians (In Brazil is normal for upper middle class people to drive armored cars because of the violence, all my cars since late 90's were armored and I know what is somebody shooting at my window trying to steal my car or "flash kidnap" me to take me to an ATM and drain my account. I'd have a bullet in my brain if my car wasn't armored).

How can a driver do a drift or whatever other emergency maneuver (drifts are emergency maneuvers to save your life, not for kids show off) if the driver doesn't have full control of clutch, transmission or parking brake?

Second question: How can we apply the emergency brake it it's only a button? how to control the pressure and release it in a fraction of second? Does this electronic crap allow applying at high speed? If yes, isn't it much more dangerous being just a button?

I was involved in an minor accident years ago that I could have used an evasive maneuver to avoid but I couldn't because the emergency brake was on the foot (4th pedal, Ford Explorer).

To make me hate automatics even more, now they have a joystick or a dial like a washing machine (P, N, R, D, Rinse, Spin)

A bit over a month ago Darryl and I suffered a serious accident on the freeway. I was driving darryl's Rav4.

The parking brake allowed me to regain control over the car after being hit on the rear by a BMW at more than 100 miles per hour, then hitting the median, being hit again by the same BMW near my door, spinning like floor polisher and stop the car just inches before falling from the freeway. Without the "hand brake" we would be dead now.
 
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