Parking Break - a l w a y s

[YodaBird]

I was told from a driving instructor to always put your parking brake on even on flat roads, because the pin could break ?

[yarisugi]

Probably talking about the pin that holds your parking lever in place.
Example: If Dean Winters, the Allstate Mayhem Guy, bumps into your unattended car,
that bump may break the "pin" that's keeping your car in park. If you don't have the parking
brake engaged, your car will roll away into the unknown. Then you'll have to file a police report
for a missing Yaris only to find out that it rolled into a nearby ditch. Then you'd have to call
the insurance company to make a claim. Then your agent is going to ask you, "did you use your parking brake?".
When you pause for a second, the agent is going to know you're about to tell a lie and say, "yes, I did", when you actually didn't.
Then you will get nothing except a larger insurance premium payment the next time.
But if you had State Farm to combat Allstate, you'd yell out, "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" and all would be solved.
All this just could be avoided by pulling up your handbrake on a flat road.

[Yarflana]

Doesn't more frequent use of the parking brake deform the drums due to the constant pressure while at rest?

[CTScott]

This is specifically for automatic transmissions and the pin is the "parking pawl", which provides a mechanical stop for the transmission when the car is in park.

As a force of habit I always set the parking brake with my automatic transmission vehicles (even in my garage). I started doing so about 20 years ago after I once had the parking pawl get stuck because I did not engage the brake and had the full weight of the vehicle on the pawl. I had to have a group of people push uphill, on the back of the car, until I was finally able to shifty the car out of park.

Setting the emergency brake frequently will not hurt the drums or the rear brake shoes, but it will stretch the ebrake cable more quickly, so you need to tighten it more often.

[Yarflana]

On the p-brake effect regarding the drums...thanks Scott.

[hw6515]

Originally Posted by yarisugi

Probably talking about the pin that holds your parking lever in place.
Example: If Dean Winters, the Allstate Mayhem Guy, bumps into your unattended car,
that bump may break the "pin" that's keeping your car in park. If you don't have the parking
brake engaged, your car will roll away into the unknown. Then you'll have to file a police report
for a missing Yaris only to find out that it rolled into a nearby ditch. Then you'd have to call
the insurance company to make a claim. Then your agent is going to ask you, "did you use your parking brake?".
When you pause for a second, the agent is going to know you're about to tell a lie and say, "yes, I did", when you actually didn't.
Then you will get nothing except a larger insurance premium payment the next time.
But if you had State Farm to combat Allstate, you'd yell out, "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there" and all would be solved.
All this just could be avoided by pulling up your handbrake on a flat road.

[YodaBird]

When do I set the parking break, after the car is in park or before I put the car in park ?

Parking Break is always going to be used from now on. The instructor also told me I can save alot on repairs on the car with that tip, and I'm all for saving dough, heck I love me my coupons :)

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by YodaBird

When do I set the parking break, after the car is in park or before I put the car in park ?

Parking Break is always going to be used from now on. The instructor also told me I can save alot on repairs on the car with that tip, and I'm all for saving dough, heck I love me my coupons :)

Before, so the load in on the brakes rather than the pawl.

[YodaBird]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Before, so the load in on the brakes rather than the pawl.

Thanks.
Parking Break > Park, thanks :)