[Mudhalaipatti]

I have clocked 4500 km so far and just a couple of highway runs. Almost all of these have been city rides and the ride is just awesome.

FE in the city has improved. The recent highway run gave me a FE of 11.6 kmpl, which is the highest so far. MID is now showing upwards of 12 kmpl which is again something new. I'll update the FE next time when I fill the tank. As expected the FE keeps inching up.

Software niggles still persists.

And now.........

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. There was an upward incline to the entrance and so parked the car, engaged the hand brake, waited for a few seconds and stepped out of the car. Took four steps, away from the car. In my peripheral vision the tip of the front bumper moves back faster than I would expect. I turn back and to my horror, the vehicle is sliding backwards on to the highway (this is just a two lane highway and it's a fairy busy highway). I scrambled, managed to open the handle and the door, flung myself in to the car to reach the handbrake and pull it back with all my force, at the same time, trying to wriggle myself in (I was tummy in seat position) And then managed to press the brake. The vehicle comes to a stop barely inches away from the middle of the lane. Fortunately there was just a lorry on one lane and he managed to swerve to the other lane to avoid me.

My whole family was in the car and it was just me and my in-law who stepped out. After I bring the car back up, I can't talk. My heart is beating so fast, words barely come out of my mouth. I sit there for 5 minutes before regaining my senses and contemplate as to what went wrong.

1. Bring the car to a standstill on an incline.
2. Since the family is inside and it's midday with the sun beating down, have to keep the car running and so park the car in neutral.
3. Engage the handbrake. It's at the usual handbrake position.
4. Keep my foot on the brake for a few second, while I'm taking order for snacks from the backbenchers.
5. Then take my foot off the break for a good 3 seconds, while I finalise the order. The vehicle is standing still.
6. I open the door, step out - 2 Seconds.
7. Take 4 steps - 3 seconds.

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.

Just to give you an idea of the level of Hand Brake engagement/position, here is the comparison with my wallet to provide some spatial context.



Here is where I think the "Park" function in automatic is great.

And my rant with the door handles continues. It was sheer agony with the extra step to open the handle in this situation. Fortunately I opened the handle, while the vehicle was rolling back.
Had I fumbled for a second, I can't imagine the fall out. Get your act together Mahindra !!!

A few other observations from the passengers

• The second row middle seat is the most uncomfortable. Especially with the hard back and the bump in the floor. 500 was great in this regard. I barely use the cup holder tucked in to the second row seat and so this setup is proving to be a huge discomfort.
  
• The last row seats are not so uncomfortable, if the seats are reclined back to the full. In fact, the Almighty's favourite is that last row, when she has to shut eyes.
  
• There seems to be some problem with the back speakers. The volume of music in the 3rd row is feeble. Got to check during my next service visit.
  
• AC is becoming a nemesis for this vehicle. While the driver and the front row gets a lot of love, the second row middle seat gets all the AC. The middle AC vent setup freezes the 2nd row middle seat passengers, but the rest on this row don't get as much AC, as the reach of the air is far less. I like the AC in 500 much better than the 700.

[sunikkat]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

My whole family was in the car and it was just me and my in-law who stepped out. After I bring the car back up, I can't talk. My heart is beating so fast, words barely come out of my mouth. I sit there for 5 minutes before regaining my senses and contemplate as to what went wrong.[/list]

Glad you and your family are safe.

Basic rule, never ever park your car in an incline when people are still in the car. It is too much a risk to take thinking the car technology will keep it safe.

Call me old school but I try as much to avoid parking on inclines. And if at all I have to, I engage the hand brake, slot in gear for manual and P for auto and depending on situation even keep a block or stone to the tyre. People can call I am paranoid, but for me it is being defensive.

[pd1108]

Glad to know that all of you are safe. Here is a tip: whenever you park the car on an incline, always turn the wheel completely. In the event of a rollback/forward, it will go in a circle and stop. Many years back, a police officer told this to me in the US. This trick has never failed me

[mac187]

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.
[/list]

Thank your stars that a potential disaster was averted and take the learning from the incident. From your statement its clear that the handbrake was partially engaged. Thankfully, the car didn't roll back freely. I always park with handbrake + gear combo, incline or flat road or overnight parking. With this you can be sure that the car will not move.

I have driven automatics and feel uneasy flicking a small button for a handbrake. I do know that Park + eHandbrake is safe. Call me old school, but I just can't shake off the feeling after stepping away from the vehicle.

[PearlJam]

Glad that you could avoid a disaster and having the good presence of mind to not panic during the incident.

Somehow, I would never trust the parking brake with my life, though I've never had a bad experience till now. I always try to avoid parking on steeper slopes whenever possible, and I don't mind walking the extra distance for that. Whenever possible, I try to put an appropriate shaped brick/stone under the rear wheels. Might look odd, but I don't care!

A good wheel stopper is probably worth it's weight in gold. Like this one:

https://www.amazon.in/Rubber-Wheel-C.../dp/B08GCCRJJ3

[wild child]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

I have clocked 4500 km so far and just a couple of highway runs. Almost all of these have been city rides

Hi Mudhalaipatti.

Glad to know that you were able to stop the car just in time.

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

The braking in high speed cars is mostly front biased, having a braking ratio of 80:20 approx. This is done keeping weight transfer in mind where the front will have to do most of the work while killing speed.

In your situation, due to the very low mileage, looks like the rear brake pads weren't bedded fully resulting in lesser pad to rotor contact.

This, coupled with the incline has made matters worse. The limiting friction at the wheels was "limited" and resulted in the roll off.

To summarize, bedded or unbedded brakes, never park a fully laden vehicle in nose up / nose down condition using only your parking brake. Rather,turn off the engine, engage the opposite gear ( first gear when in nose up condition and reverse gear when in nose down condition. Also, keep the front wheels pointed towards the curb / hill. In case the vehicle rolls, the steered axle will ensure that the vehicle is stopped with minimum damage.

Cheers!

[mikem]

Curbing the steering/wheel is the LAW in San Franciso. I've always turned the steering and curbed the wheel whenever parked on a slope/incline. Your experience just rubs it into my head even more! Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by pd1108

Glad to know that all of you are safe. Here is a tip: whenever you park the car on an incline, always turn the wheel completely. In the event of a rollback/forward, it will go in a circle and stop. Many years back, a police officer told this to me in the US. This trick has never failed me

[sidharthg]

Originally Posted by mikem

Attachment 2277180

Curbing the steering/wheel is the LAW in San Franciso. I've always turned the steering and curbed the wheel whenever parked on a slope/incline. Your experience just rubs it into my head even more! Thanks for sharing.

Wow! This is a very interesting safety thing to do. So simple yet so effective, I think such smart laws should be blindly copied here.

Would be interesting to read more such smart laws from other BHPians spread across the world, it would definitely make our driving safer.

[Naetik30]

Initially I thought it was a problem with the XUV700. But on rereading the post, it is kind of clear that the fault was with the driver. Even though the words in the post do not mention that the parking brake was not engaged completely, the pics make that clear.
So not really a problem with the car in my opinion. It is just simple gravity on a two ton truck at work.

'And about parking with wheel turned against the curb' thing - that is on the drivers handbook that everyone with a US drivers license would be familiar with.

[ScorpWarp]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

1. Bring the car to a standstill on an incline.
2. Since the family is inside and it's midday with the sun beating down, have to keep the car running and so park the car in neutral.
3. Engage the handbrake. It's at the usual handbrake position.
4. Keep my foot on the brake for a few second, while I'm taking order for snacks from the backbenchers.
5. Then take my foot off the break for a good 3 seconds, while I finalise the order. The vehicle is standing still.
6. I open the door, step out - 2 Seconds.
7. Take 4 steps - 3 seconds.

Glad that everyone is ok and you could engage the brake in time. When parking on slope using handbrake I always put the car in gear instead of neutral, if uphill then engage first or if downhill then engage reverse. Obviously engine has to be switched off.

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by Mudhalaipatti

Scare of a lifetime !

Glad that everything got in your control soon. My car parking is on an incline as there is rainwater ingress in my campus which had damaged quite a bit of things 2 years back. Whenever my car is parked on an incline, the handbrake is engaged and the opposite gear is engaged, reverse when front faces down the incline or 1st when back faces incline. Wagon R hasn't rolled down the incline even with only handbrakes engaged but Brezza has rolled down twice even with handbrake and gear engaged, no damages or injuries both the times. The handbrakes don't hold the car well when on an incline, especially when the car is heavy. I've always complained about handbrakes of Brezza. Now I put a brick when I park my car.

A few points to note when parking on an incline which I follow -

• Turn the wheels to hit the kerb.
• Pull the handbrakes to maximum.
• Engage the gear.
• And until and unless it's an emergency, never let any passenger remain in the vehicle.
• If it needs to be parked with passenger/s, find a brick/stone and place it behind the tyre.
• If you can't do any of these, find a flat parking space.

[sgmuser]

Glad you acted fast and stopped the movement of the car and no cars on the road as well.

This is scary to read. 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. Habitually, we always put it in P if we want to park/stop the Automatic car. I never keep it in N as we do in a manual. In signal as well, I have a habit of going to P just to avoid that movement of car in D mode. In manual, we need to be conscious to put it in N and then handbrake, if we park. I can not imagine how difficult to manage these situations in hilly regions. Automatic is God Send for me. Another way, I practice in manual is that I put it in neutral, stop the engine and put it back in a gear.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by pd1108

Many years back, a police officer told this to me in the US. This trick has never failed me

Originally Posted by mikem

Curbing the steering/wheel is the LAW in San Franciso.

Very useful information. This will work if there is a Kerb on the edge of the road which is around 15 cms height. Unfortunately, India does not have a standard and uniform convention even at the hill stations.

[Pkumarblore]

Hi,
Glad to know you are all safe and there was no untoward incident due to this.

I am old school, so I always engage the car in 1st gear if its an MT along with the hand brakes while parking. I do it even now on my Ford Figo TDCi MT.

In your case it seems to be a case of not pulling up the hand brake lever completely up till you feel the tightness. This happened to me recently in my Figo. Me and my wife sat in the car which was parked on a slope. I started the car and was about to move when I suddenly realized I had forgotten my phones. I immediately killed the engine, engaged the hand brake(the car was in neutral) and got down and moved a couple of steps, when I realized that the car started moving forward slowly. My wife shouted and I somehow managed to get inside quickly since luckily I had left the door open and pulled up the hand brake lever with all my strength. The car stopped. I realized that I had not pulled up the lever completely up. Had I left the car in 1st gear after killing the engine, I am sure the wheels would not have rolled forward. It was scary for a moment though.

For sometime after that, my wife refused to sit in the car alone while parked. I had to re-assure her.

[BeingHuman]

Similar thing happened in my Tata Nexon AMT. Parked on a down slope in Ooty with engine running and gear in Neutral and handbrake fully engaged. Vehicle started to accelerate and inch forward like in hill assist mode.Luckily I was able to get in and switch off engine. The voice/visual prompt wanted me to disengage handbrake which made no sense. There is no option to put gear in P position in AMT(most?) transmission.