a question about parking in gear

Think I might do the lottery then; I've never routinely left a car in gear in the 52 years I've been driving.

Chris

But the cost of insuring 100% against being an unlucky loser is nil - surely an offer you can't refuse!

Having your car roll away is not a lottery you'll ever want win.

I have seen it happen three times in my road.

Yebbut you do live in Essex! ;-)

The car park at my house slopes gently downwards from the garage block. An unrestrained car at the top would roll down, albeit slowly. It's not happened to my knowledge, and I've lived here for 39 years.

Of course, perhaps I'm the only one who *doesn't* leave their car in gear, but I somehow doubt it.

Chris

Oh I'll not deny that it's good practice, but not am I going to lose too much sleep over forgetting to do it sometimes.

I'll wager that most cars that DO roll with the handbrake on have got sufficiently dodgy hand brakes for the owners to be aware of the potential problem.

In other words, a good well engineered handbrake that has never slipped, probably never will. A slightly dodgy "non-reassuring" handbrake might.

Tim

Never happened it mine. Mind you, my road is flat. ;-)

Tim

In my level, gravel driveway, I usually leave the handbrake completely off (but with first or reverse gear selected). However, on the highway, it is an offence 'not to set the handbrake' (AIUI).

My road has a gentle but noticeable slope, enough to give yourself a bump start. One of the vehicles was mine, an auto that for some reason I failed to get in park properly, and like many auto drivers I did not put on the handbrake, several hours went by before I heard the bang, happily it only hit a telegraph pole. Another was a very new avensis manual diesel that a neighbour's brother parked, I heard the click as the brakes released ( rear disks) and it rolled into the back of a mondeo, breaking the bumper. Another was a temporary resident that could not understand why his car was half under his other car when he came out in the morning, I asked if he had been in the car since discovering it, I could see the handbrake was up, and we could push the car back, so I suggested leaving it in gear in future, he said that he expected to do that back home in Africa, but not here. I explained the disk brake releasing feature of some cars and he took it on board.

On 17/02/2016 12:34, Tim+ wrote: [...]

So why do people buy new cars at all? A good well engineered car that has never given problems (so far) probably never will...

Yeah, I once had a Fiat Croma around 1987 when it was new design. It was probably the first Fiat with all round Disk brakes, but the handbrake was notoriously weak only short time after any adjustment. Somehow Fiat got it wrong with handbrake on disks.

I would imagine that some special tricks are required; easier to lock up rear drum brakes.

The Fiat 125 (the real Fiat 125, not the Polski) from 1967 had discs all round. I don't recall any problem with the handbrake, but as I was living in NL when I had mine, it probably wouldn't have needed to park on hills.

Many cars with all round discs use a drum brake in the centre of the disc as a handbrake.

A drum brake shinks as it cools increasing the grip of handbrake shoes. A disc doing the same lessens the grip of pads as it cools.

Having driving manual up to ripe old age, I do enjoy that it's now an automatic. Wondering now what the fuss was about. Maybe I will know when it starts to go wrong?

A friend has a Disco (which I generally fettle) which went for a roll in a car park. Now these handbrakes are normally bloody good (14" diameter drum on the prop shaft) and are either off or hard on. When I first fettled it it locked solid on 2 clicks but in time it adjusted itself so that 2 clicks was just on the limit. And, for reasons I've never understood, this damn drum appears to be warped. With the shoes just touching on the adjuster you can feel it bite and release as it's rotated.

One morning it got left hurridly in a slopey space that she never normally parks in, left it in neutral when she normally leaves it in gear and left only on the 2 clicks. Thankfully nothing worse happened than £1300 worth of damage to a Cashcow[1]. The alternatives aren't worth thinking about.

Should have left it in gear ;-)

It's even more fun when you watch someone try to bump-start a diesel - clutch up, pushers hit the rear windscreen!

SteveW