[vivekkp]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Scare of a lifetime !

Hi, Did you take a look at the instrument cluster after you engaged the parking brake? What was the info displayed? Did it show that the parking brake is engaged?

Regards
Vivek

[nishsingh]

Originally Posted by sgmuser

One another advantage of Automatic transmission vehicle is that, you can put it in P mode and that is it. As an additional safety, I do the hand brake as well. But it is not required.

Actually, engaging the handbrake in addition to parking is required and is the ideal procedure.

My car manual mentions that when parking the car on an incline, not engaging the handbrake puts unnecessary pressure on the parking pin, and the weight of the vehicle may make it difficult to shift out of the "P" mode if the handbrake is not engaged.

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by vivekkp

Hi, Did you take a look at the instrument cluster after you engaged the parking brake? What was the info displayed? Did it show that the parking brake is engaged?

Regards
Vivek

Yes it did. In fact the brake held good for a good 8 seconds before giving away. However I wouldn’t consider this a vehicle issue, but rather I not engaging the handbrake to the maximum, especially considering I was on an incline. I should have engaged it more.

Btw all great comments and suggestions so far.

[KGS]

Glad to know all the occupants and car both are safe.

I have also noticed something similar in my car. I was trying to understand the handbrake effectiveness on a slope, so I safely parked it on an incline in Neutral and used handbrake. It was not sufficient to stop the car on that incline.

However when I used P mode of car along with Handbrake, it was perfectly standstill and there was no movement in car.

So my suggestion is always park with P mode of an automatic car. It will not fail you.

I am bit curious on point 2 of OP. As per my experience, car's ignition can remain on to operate AC or other features even if we are parking in P mode. then why you tried to park in Neutral ? I am missing anything here ?

[abirnale]

This specific car is having Manual Transmission and not automatic IIRC. So neutral and handbrake is the only way to park and keep running the engine for AC.

[Raghu M]

Regarding the hand brake issue, I don't think it has anything to do with M&M. My 3OO behaves similarly. The sheer weight of the car is huge, so you need to engage the handbrake to a higher degree and also keep the gear engaged while turning off the ignition. Turn the front wheels to the maximum degree left/right and then park the car (only on incline).

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Scare of a lifetime !
[/list]

Did the two of you who got out, get out from the front row ? and there were people in the 3rd row ? Most likely, the weight balance on the car shifted towards the rear and made the job of the "lightly engaged" handbrake, harder. The lever arm of the shifted center of gravity increased the rearwards moment on on the rear wheel whilst the braking moment that acts forwards on the same wheels, remained the same. It was borderline 'just balanced' when you both were inside the car, and the moment the front occupants alighted from the car, the balance shifted.

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

Did the two of you who got out, get out from the front row ? and there were people in the 3rd row ? Most likely, the weight balance on the car shifted towards the rear and made the job of the "lightly engaged" handbrake, harder. The lever arm of the shifted center of gravity increased the rearwards moment on on the rear wheel whilst the braking moment that acts forwards on the same wheels, remained the same. It was borderline 'just balanced' when you both were inside the car, and the moment the front occupants alighted from the car, the balance shifted.

Thank you @venkyhere. My exact same thoughts as well. You put it out so eloquently.

[vivekkp]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Yes it did. In fact the brake held good for a good 8 seconds before giving away. However I wouldn’t consider this a vehicle issue, but rather I not engaging the handbrake to the maximum, especially considering I was on an incline. I should have engaged it more.

Btw all great comments and suggestions so far.

Hi Mudhalaipatti,

I am sorry to hear about this. This looks like a bug in the controls software. Only if the park brake is fully engaged is it allowed to show the park brake illumination in the instrument cluster. If you disengage the park brake then this should go away after few seconds(But if it still remains on then it indicates a fault in the system).

What is surprising is that this is a ASIL relevant software and still these issues are prevalent

Regards
Vivek

[IP_Man]

I'm glad that you and your family came out safe from this dread situation.

It sends me shiver up to the spine thinking of what happened to OP because I did exactly same several times for the photography breaks in my Ladakh trip. My car was also brand new, thank you God they worked perfectly.

Originally Posted by wild child

Going by the numbers on the clock, this appears to be a case of unbedded brakes.

Whatever number on the clock, hand brake must work perfectly from the day one. Manufacturer must see that in outgoing QC, that they are working perfectly. It is shear lack of negligence on the behalf of Mahindra.

Like I said before door handle two step opening process is very weird apart from looking ugly. This incidence of OP also brought out uselessness of them in emergency situation.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing, Mudhalaipatti! Moving your post out to a new thread so as to remind all of us about the best practices. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google.

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

And so the handbrake held good for a good 8 seconds before giving away. The silver lining was that the vehicle was not free rolling, but was rolling back with some resistance from the handbrake.

Wondering if it was the "hill hold" feature that held your car in place for a few seconds. The actual duration might have been elongated because of your partial handbrake engagement.

Glad that you & family are all okay . BMWs have this feature where the "P" position on the AT is automatically engaged when you open the driver's door. I think it should be made compulsory in all ATs. In MTs, they can probably engage the e-brake on door open.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Scare of a lifetime !

Over the weekend, did a highway run. While returning, around noon, wanted to get some tea and stopped by a roadside Cafe.

If I may ask, how steep was the incline? I have experienced this in my car as well - on a fully loaded car and steep ghat roads, the handbrake is unable to hold the car in place. Even when I engage the handbrake fully, the car creeps back very slowly. This car has disc brakes at the rear.


Not an apple to apple comparison but still sharing here. I have felt that the handbrake on cars with rear drum brakes have fared better, per my experience so far.

For example, my other car, which has drums at the rear, used to fare well in similar ghat sections. Although it is a much lighter car and shouldn't be compared directly.


PS: Next time, when parking at an incline where you can't put your car in gear, please wait and observe for a minute after you have parked. If the car has settled then it will remain settled.

[GTO]

^ Guess one advantage of an e-parking brake is that, it's either "on" or "off". There is no grey area or guessing work involved.

[Mudhalaipatti]

Originally Posted by GTO

Wondering if it was the "hill hold" feature that held your car in place for a few seconds. The actual duration might have ….

Thanks GTO. Yeah that’s also a possibility.

Originally Posted by ashis89

If I may ask, how steep was the incline? I have experienced this in my car as well - …….

PS: Next time, when parking at an incline where you can't put your car in gear, please wait and observe for a minute after you have parked. If the car has settled then it will remain settled.

Well it was not an incline comparable to ghats section. It was not a steep incline atall.

I clearly remember waiting for at least 3 or more seconds after I took my foot off the break and then proceeded to get out of the vehicle. As GTO had indicated, hill hold might have been active which held the vehicle during those initial few seconds which gave a false sense of security.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

I clearly remember waiting for at least 3 or more seconds after I took my foot off the break and then proceeded to get out of the vehicle. As GTO had indicated, hill hold might have been active which held the vehicle during those initial few seconds which gave a false sense of security.

Hi Mudhalaipatti - It is really scare and even more when the family is in the car. Good that all of you are safe including the car.

I am not getting the description of pictures engaging the hand brake clearly. Is the first picture (fully engaged) is your typical way of parking and second picture (partially engaged) shows the hand brake engaged on that day only?

Or the second picture shows the position after the car rolled over? If so, is there any reason why you engaged partially? Inadvertently or tired after a journey? I am just asking as this is another condition that I have to
mentally note while I drive.

I always used the handbrake to engage fully irrespective of flat surface or incline as you will hear the clicks (6 clicks in i10) when pushing the lever up. I also make sure that it cannot be pushed any further high up. The parking light in the display lights up even with partial engagement of handbrake.

On the hill hold, do you know what type of hill hold control is available in XUV700? Generally in manual transmission cars, it needs clutch to be depressed and gear engaged which is the typical way you will move forward in a incline to get it activated.