[jigar1791@gmail]

After about 10 years' worth of driving (and putting the car to stationary), I'm still curious to understand what is the ideal approach to park your car (with/without handbrake engaged).

I have figured, and I follow these -

1. While parking within the society premises (flat concrete road), I slot in the 2nd gear, and do not engage the handbrake

2. While parking in unknown areas (malls, restos etc), I engage the 2nd gear + hand-brake combination

3. While parking on slant approaches, I engage the 1st gear + hand-brake combination.


Long ago, I had heard from a friendly mechanic who used to service our Esteem, it's better to put the car in the 2nd gear and not to engage the hand-brake unless necessary. His logic was the tyre's life increases (marginally) when you do not let the hand-brake's friction rub with the hot rubber.
How true is this, I do not have any conclusive data/analysis, though I still follow his advise religiously when I park on flat surfaces in known areas.

Opening up a poll to check what fellow bhpians follow as a standard practice while parking their cars. A brief justification on why 1 follows what, will help logically conclude the poll

[Jeroen]

You use the term hand brake, but you might want to check the owners manual and you will find it is most often called a parking brake. Because that is its purpose, nothing else.

There is only a few reasons when not to apply the parking brake:

When you park in freezing conditions, because the parking brake might freeze solid. Or when you leave your car parked for prolonged times, best put it in gear as the parking brakes might get stuck. There might be situation on very steep inclines where you might have to engage the parking brake and a gear as well. But on any gentle incline the parking brake, when pulled tightly should provide more than sufficient holding power. If they don’t you might want to get them checked!

Other wise, you can use your parking brake to your hearts content.
Leaving a car parked in gear does not serve any purpose other than under the two condition I described earlier.

The argument of your mechanic doesn’t make sense to me at all. Nothing rubs against the tyres, you wheel rim is mounted on what is essentially the brake drum. The brake mechanism itself is all inside the drum. You can’t even see it.

There are two variants of parking brake mechanism. Either a drum brake, which could be on top of the disc brake or make use of the same as your regular brake. Or on disc brake your parking brake is activated by mechanically pushing the brake pistons out, identical to how your brake pedal does it hydraulically. The latter version is much less susceptible to getting stuck or freezing.

Good luck and happy parking!

Jeroen

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by jigar1791@gmail

His logic was the tyre's life increases (marginally) when you do not let the hand-brake's friction rub with the hot rubber.

Not sure why the brake liners would come in contact with hot rubber. AFAIK engaging the hand brake aplies the rear wheel brakes. As most cars in India have drum brakes in rear, the brake liner gets pressed to the drum.

On flat surfaces, I use hand brake only. On slopes, if it slopes to the rear, I use hand brake and first gear. If it slopes to front, I use hand brake and reverse.

But one must be careful if using gears when parking, as you need to go back to neutral before turning the engine on. I have developed a habit of using clutch every time when I crank the engine (irrespective of whether a gear is engaged or not) hence I never have had surprises.

[Kosfactor]

Other than the exceptions mentioned in Jeroen`s post - Always apply parking brake \ handbrake.

If your vehicle has an AT as well as push button start - Its better to straighten your wheels, apply parking brake first > Move the transmission selector to park and turn off the engine.

So why parking brake?

Its not always that people are in their sharpest state of mind while getting into the driver`s seat - could happen to anyone. So if the vehicle is in gear and parked in an incline, as soon as the driver instinctively depresses the clutch pedal - it would start to roll, there may not be enough reserve in the brake booster mechanism to provide adequate stopping power and all the panic and chaos to follow - till the vehicle crashes into something and stops!

@OP - Second gear is what we use for a push start , use first or reverse while parking.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by jigar1791@gmail

1. While parking within the society premises (flat concrete road), I slot in the 2nd gear, and do not engage the handbrake

2. While parking in unknown areas (malls, restos etc), I engage the 2nd gear + hand-brake combination

3. While parking on slant approaches, I engage the 1st gear + hand-brake combination.

Why this fascination with 2nd gear? Why not 1st gear?
You may need to recollect why we put the vehicle in gear while parking - it is because when engine is shut off, it is extremely difficult to make the crank rotate. The lower the gear, the harder it is do so.

If you park your vehicle in 4th gear, it is easier to push / roll it (try it with your motorbike). Conversely, if you park your vehicle in 1st gear it is most difficult due to the higher gear ratio. Hence, 2nd gear actually offers disadvantage compared with 1st gear.

What I usually practice is setting the handbrake and putting the car in the lowest gear in the direction of gravitational roll - that means 1st gear on downhill and reverse gear on uphill - although I am unable to find logic for doing so.

Also, I have a habit of locking the wheels steered such that in case of movement due to gravitation, the vehicle will turn towards the kerb instead of open road.

[Mustang_Boss]

For me, Its always
- First gear/Reverse gear and then stop engine and then engage
- Parking brake

The gear ensures, the vehicle doesn't move, yet it allows some play if needed. The parking brake is secondary.

I have seen few incidents, where the parking brake failed and the vehicle rolled and hit the pavement recently at a coffee shop.

I think, this is what earlier manuals used to recommend, and this is correct technically.

[RedTerrano]

1st gear + Parking brake.
Always!

If the car is parked on a slope (car facing down), reverse gear instead of 1st.

[MT_Hyderabad]

I used to follow just hand brake on plain surfaces, however, when I had children, I changed it to the combination of gear + hand brake.

This helps in two ways.
Firstly, it goes in my muscle memory to do it everytime.
Secondly, children in the car can release the hand brake and it is always good to have double protection.

Someone will ask why you leave children unattended? No, I don't. I just let them enter the car(turned off) before I enter and by the time I enter, younger one already touched all the corners of the cabin.

[SS-Traveller]

Use the parking brake aka hand brake aka e-brake regularly. It keeps the mechanism from jamming due to no usage. Just don't apply it in sub-zero temperatures overnight, or to park long-term in the rainy season.

If, in addition, you want to keep an MT car engaged in a particular gear, that's fine too.

What are the instructions for parking an AMT car without P mode? In N or D mode?

[DicKy]

Normal parking
Gear into neutral (or Park for automatic) and engage the parking brake.

Moments when I don't trust the handbrake or it is not tightened or it is a slope
Engage the handbrake and gear into first or put it in reverse if it is a downhill slope.

Extended parking (weeks, especially old cars)
Gear into first and not engaging the parking brake.

Unknown vehicle, older than five years
Engage the handbrake and always gear into first.

[rr_zen]

Regular Parking: Parking Brake + Engage in 2nd gear

Extended Parking (more than 7-8 days): Only 2nd gear, no parking brake

Parking during rainy season: Only 2nd gear, no parking brake (as the disc brakes tend to get jammed a bit and the vehicle starts with a jerk even after releasing the hand brake)

One thing I religiously follow is the sequence which is to engage the hand brake when in neutral and then engage 2nd gear so that the strain is not on the gear.

[Briarean]

Once I stop the car, I will have the car on N (Neutral) and release my foot from the break for a second. Then I will engage the handbrake.

I do so to make sure that the weight of the car is entirely on the hand break. Once the handbrake is engaged, I put the car to P.

I think we should engage the handbrake first and then the gear. As @ rr_zen mentioned this sequence will not have any stain on the gear assembly.

[GeeTee TSI]

There could be stress on the drivetrain from inclines or even bump stops/speed bumps, which is best taken by the parking brake (brake being the keyword) than the gearbox. Further ATs do not leave any choice to the driver, it has to be P in the gear lever (and no R possible either).

That said, does the P slot in ATs correspond to first gear?

[Tokengrip]

Voted for gear with no parking brake. I think the terrain you park at plays a huge part in what you do. In a slope i would engage the parking brake.

My main argument is that in certain seasons or environments where say for instance there is a lot of rainfall there is a tendency for the parking brake to jam if the vehicle is not used for a few days.

My folks being based out of Coorg i have seen the mechanic called multiple times to release the handbrake. Facing even bigger issues now with the E brake which does not give you a choice with regard to its application.

[drift87]

In case you have parking at home and if you only use your car once or twice in a week, the best would be to engage the gears rather than parking brake. This is even more effective in case you wash your car at the parking lot, this may prevent the parking brakes from locking.