I have been lax in using the park brake for years but when my '96 Dodge began to be hard to get out of park (slightly uphill) I started using the park brake. I now have a '99 town car (just got it) that the brake pedal goes way down and so does the park brake. The pads are good. Probably the park brake hasn’t been used.
I always use the parking brake on my tiny little car. The only time I don’t use it is if I’m only going to be parking it for a few minutes to run into the store to grab a soda or something.
Not a big difference, but not using it is going to add wear to the transmission. Brake job $$ Transmission repair $$$$$$$ real life difference ¢.If you have rear drum brakes you must use the parking brake to keep them in adjustment. Otherwise the parking brake isn’t necessary but it is recommended for many reasons. Keeping it from freezing with rust, ensuring your car doesn’t roll on steep hills, keeping people from pushing your car around when it’s parked, not stressing the parking pawl in your A/T unnecessarily. As you can see, many reasons to use your parking brake. Reasons not to use it? Laziness and ignorance. You make the call.
It is still common practice in the Allegheny mountan area of PA to not set your parking brake (shoe brakes) in the winter time to avoid freeze-ups in the morning. When parking the car in the evening, moisture/slush collects between the brake shoe and the drum, and by morning, it’s frozen to the point where even the engine will not dislodge the ice. I know, I’ve experienced this with many calls from customers who couldn’t move their car. …Out came the blowtorch. It was a small town and I made house calls.
Banty. Good solution.
Does your vehicle have the rear brakes dependent on the parking brake system? I am not familiar with your vehicles.
19yo need to have a monetary (and labor) investment in their own vehicle or they never learn.
Thanks, nebin.
Well, that was part of the reason behind him combining his earnings with the proceeds of sale of the older two vehicles to get his own. But now that we’re talking about stretching out use of the 1997 Explorer, he’s thinking growing his savings and selling the Taurus in case it dies, or something on graduation. He’s even arranged some body work on the Taurus between a friend and himself (he can do the prime and paint). Which is good, because guess why the Taurus needs a little body work …
Tester — "On some rear disc brake systems in order to keep the rear brakes properly adjusted the parking brake needs to be operated on occation."Modern rear disc brakes have floating pistons similar to front brakes, and applying the parking brake occasionally only serves to take up slack in the parking brake mechanism caused by pad wear. Operational rear braking efficacy is not affected by use or non-use of the parking brake.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/rear-disc-brake-caliper-piston-tool-kit/p2004105.jcwx
This tool is what allows the rotation of the rear caliper piston back into the caliper when replacing the rear brake pads. That is, if the owner uses the parking brake.
Tester
I’ve used my parking brake a couple times in the 6 months I’ve had my car. The first couple times I used it I was going down the hill at 5MPH and I pulled it on and it didn’t engage. Finally I tried it two more times later and the brake engaged. Does it need to be adjusted ever or does it do that automatically?
From reading the comments here, since I have a rear drum brakes I should probably use my parking brake regularly, eh?
I admit I was worried the parking brake wasn’t working, lest I lose my regular brakes and have no way to stop. Also what people said about wearing the transmission is true. Any less wear on the transmission is a good idea, especially if you have a used car with one never replaced. Anything over 150k to 200 is in that danger zone.
On some cars (I don’t know about yours specifically), rear drum brakes are adjusted automatically, but only while braking in reverse. On some others, only the parking/emergency/backup/what-ever-you-like-to-call-it brake will adjust the shoes. Some are completely manual.
A lot of European cars are like these two designs. Some Toyota’s, Mini’s and Ford’s (like the old European style Escort) used these methods. Since it worked so well for so many years, I’m sure there are still models that work that way. So the youngster who uses reverse then drops it into drive will never have properly adjusted (backup? secondary? emergency?) brakes.
Some even had manual adjustments. Like the older Mini’s. Every couple months you were supposed to get underneath it and adjust the rear brakes. Tighten until they rubbed, then back off a half turn. I made a fair amount of money because not a lot of people knew that tiny fact.
My 1975 Civic had manually adjusted rear drums.
The mechanism had a tendency to get corroded and sticky, so if you adjusted them according to directions: tighten up then back off, it wouldn’t back off.
What fun!
When we were looking to replace the rear brakes(With disc brake pads) we found that they were drum brakes and they weren’t adjusted. We hand adjusted them a little.
(I have a 96’ honda accord)
The Honda rear brakes automatically adjust when you apply the parking brake.
chaissos — "On some cars ... rear drum [parking] brakes are adjusted automatically, but only while braking in reverse. On some others, only the parking ... brake will adjust the shoes.On older car models, those with four drum brakes, the parking brakes were adjusted by applying the brake when backing up. The same is true for those rear disc brakes that have a smaller auxiliary drum and separate parking brake shoes. Braking when backing up turned a star-wheel to spread the brake shoes.Some are completely manual.."
Newer rear drum brakes on cars with front disc brakes also have star wheels, but these star wheels are turned only when applying the parking brake, and not by backing up, as was the case in the older models.
Rear disc brakes without an auxiliary parking brake drum & shoe assembly employ an internal threaded rod that is mechanically actuated by the parking brake and presses on the inboard side of the piston, forcing it against the pad. The rod pushes against the inside of the piston through a threaded collar that rotates in one direction only. The rotation, over time, makes the effectual length of the rod longer, thereby taking up slack in the parking brake mechanism. The one-way threaded collar, sometimes call a spring clutch, is the modern equivalent of the star wheel. (The piston itself never rotates during braking operation — however, it must be rotated when replacing pads to drive the threaded collar back along the parking brake rod.)
Evidently you have a problem with some of what I said, but I can assure you, the cheaper Mini’s were manual in adjustment. And manual only. And I’m talking about the actual Mini car, not some version of a car that was smaller. The mini had front discs, too, btw. Owned one for about 3 years.
My policy is that is if I’m driving a vehicle with an automatic transmission, I don’t bother with the parking brake. Maybe I’m living a blessed life, but I have never seen a parking pawl fail, ever.
However when driving a vehicle with a manual tranmission, I always using the parking brake.
Use the parking brake occasionally to keep it from sticking. I don’t use it with automatic unless parked on a steep slope. I especially don’t use it in the winter after parking the car in a warm area. A frozen up parking brake is no fun.
An American who had done a stint in Canada noted two things: 1) Canadian are very reluctant to use their parking brake, and 2) they pour their beer slowly and without a head!
In MD, it’s always right to use the parking brake - it’s the law. You won’t get a ticket unless your car rolls away and hits something, but the police have no trouble determining fault. I saw this occur abut a year ago. A car rolled into another one in the parking lot at work. And the lot is hardly sloped. The offender was a BMW, and I don’t know if it was a manual or auto. It hit another BMW, of course.
Are we talking about Automatic transmission vehicles? If SO…its hardly if EVER actually needed… A manual is a different story… In that case its used on a “as needed” basis…