OT Daily Drive E-Brake

Bill Berckman · 2005-04-03T14:26:23+00:00

My Emergency brake on my Daily Driver 95 Escort Wagon was not holdingthe car and needed some adjustment. Car is a 5 Speed, so I need it towarm the car up because my driveway has a very minimal incline. I takethe car to Meineke Muffler & Brake Shop to have the adjustment made.The car has over 100K on it, so they said that the cables needed to bereplaced. For some reason they said this car uses Three cables. I goto get it fixed, and they said that I need back brake pads or the ebrake probably won't work because they are pretty worn. It had been along time since I replace the back brakes, so I went ahead and got thatdone too.Got the car back and it worked for a couple of weeks, and it started toroll back in the driveway again with the e-brake fully on. I took itback to Meineke, and they said that you are not suppoed to use thee-brake to hold a car on a hill. They tried to claim that my drivewaywas practically a 90 degree angle even though one of the techs drove bymy house to look at it and saw that it was not much of a hill. Theysaid that Ford says that you are supposed to use reverse as your ebrake, and not use the actual emergency brake to hold the car. Theysaid that by using it to hold the car in the driveway that I am atfault and must have stretched the new cables and ruined, so tough luck. I told them I wanted at least a partial refund because I came to themand paid hard earned money to get a problem fixed and I still have thesame problem. They said a big NO on that. They told me that I shouldtake it to Ford (and pay myself) and have them look at it and see ifanything was done improperly. They also said that this problem must bea defect on this particular car, and it is not their fault. I e mailedMeineke Corporate, and got a response back that was expected which wasNONE. It is not a big enough amount of money to incur the expense ofsuing over and I can't really take off work to go to small claimscourt, but the arrogance of this organization...

S

Shag 21 years ago

Yeah. I do. They call it a "hand brake." Thanks for bringing that up. I just got my manual out of the garage and now it's right in front of me. On page 31 it says "When parking on a sttep slope, set the handbrake to stop the car rolling. As a precautionary measure, it is advisable to engage first or reverse gear in additon to the handbrake." They also mention the "hand brake" in the "Cold Weather Hints" section on page 33. It says (for cold weather) "The brakes of all automobiles are more or less exposed to splashing water which in winter is apt to freeze in the brake drums. Therefore, when parking your car, do not set the hand brake, but engage first or reverse gear." In other words, when it's cold enough to freeze water outside, don't use the hand/parking brake like you normally would. Now I suppose you'll either ignore this post since it doesn't agree with you even though it was you who asked if anyone had an original manual, or you'll piss and moan and try to squirm your way out of it yet again without admitting you're wrong. Which will it be this time, JJ? Ignore me or piss and moan? My scanner is broken but if you call me a liar then I'll go to the trouble of bringing this manual to work with me and scanning it in there.

Vote

T

Tim Rogers 21 years ago

................I'm older than you so read this carefully Bill (grin): In the forties and fifties, Pontiac and Oldsmobile and Cadillac used the Hydramatic. Chevys and maybe some Pontiacs(?) used a two speed variation of the Hydramatic that was called the Powerglide. Buick used the Dynaflow which was similar but had a sloppier feel to it.......especially when accelerating hard.

...........You're right about them not having park on the gear selector but when then the engine was off, reverse was used to lock-up the tranny which was just like park in the modern trannys. This lock-up feature while in reverse was just as effective as what we now know of as 'park'. The plumbing inside those early automatics was configured to unlock the reverse lock-up feature when the engine was spinning the torque converter.

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

Just to run it into the ground a little more I went out to my Honda and got the owner's manual for it. On page 82 it discusses the "parking brake." It discusses how to apply it and release it. It doesn't even bother saying exactly what it's for. I'm sure that is because most people can figure it out. Or... maybe not... It does say "Driving the vehicle with the parking brake applied can damage the rear brakes and axles." Hmm... Page 114. "Service Station Procedures" 1- Park the vehicle and set the parking brake. etc, etc. Wow, I never read this manual before. They talk a lot about the parking brake. Page 131- "Automatic Transmission, Parking." "Parking- Always use the parking brake when you park your vehicle. Make sure the parking brake is set firmly or your vehicle may roll if it is on an incline." Later on that same page- "Make sure the parking brake is fully released before driving away." I'm suprised they had to spell it out so much what that brake is for. Take heart, JJ!!! Apparently there are LOTS of people who are stupid as hell. Just like you! :-D

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

Vote

H

Howard Rose 21 years ago

We call it a hand brake here in the UK. My 1966 and 1961 VW Owners manuals both call it a hand brake too.

-- Howard Rose

1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe 1962 Austin Mini Deluxe 1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe

formatting link

(cars on website)

Vote

D

David 21 years ago

EMERGENCY BRAKE

A braking system that acts independently of the main hydraulic system and can slow or stop the car in the event that the primary system fails. It can also be used to keep the car from rolling on unleveled ground. Also called the "parking" or "hand" brake.

from

formatting link

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

slow or stop the car in the event that the

unleveled ground. Also called the "parking" or

I think everyone here "gets it" except ol' JJ. He's a little slow, but still fun to laugh at sometimes. :)

Vote

T

tricky 21 years ago

Hey Shag - Why you got a Honda ! ? @ & * ???? ;-)

Rich

Shag wrote:

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

I needed something reliable to drive to Georgia to pick up my next VW with. ;-)

Vote

P

P.J. Berg 21 years ago

What a crock of s**te!! Not supposed to use the emergency brake to hold a car on an incline?! Thats why it is there!!!!!

J.

Vote

P

P.J. Berg 21 years ago

Wrong! In rest of the world(More or less :o) ) It is referred to as a Parking brake.

J.

Vote

J

Joey Tribiani 21 years ago

careful PJ, if JJS doesn't agree with you he will cry and killfile you....

Vote

P

P.J. Berg 21 years ago

The common term in Scandinavia also translates to Handbrake.. But it is understood to be a Parking brake...

J.

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

Not in JJ's world. :-)

Vote

H

Howard Rose 21 years ago

Same here... I have never anyone here call it an "emergency brake" over here. I remember being confused when reading the Muir book when I was looking for the hand/parking brake adjustments!

-- Howard Rose

1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe 1962 Austin Mini Deluxe 1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe

formatting link

(cars on website)

Vote

J

jjs 21 years ago

So what do you do in an emergency? Freak out and bail because of a definition?

Vote

J

jjs 21 years ago

So WTF do you do if your hydraulic system went away? Just ride into the next Big Thing to stop you because regardless that it's an emergency, that thing is just for Parking?

Don't f*ck with semantics. It doesn't become you.

Vote

S

Shag 21 years ago

Not sure what they do, but I sure as hell don't normally pull up on a lever that locks my back wheels up. Is that what you do? You see an emergency of some sort so you pull up on the parking brake with all of your might causing your back wheels to lock up and drastically reduce the control you have over your car? Yeah... You probably do. :-) This/you is/are just stupid.

Vote