NobodyHere

Now that I have found the emergency brake, wondering why I wouldn't always have it set to auto. Since there is no way to drive with the brake on, as it disengages automatically, I'm not seeing a downside to leaving it on auto all the time. Am I missing something?

Only thing I could come up with is to not use the emergency brake if the car was parked for a long time on a flat surface.

Sosodef79

iTrader: (1)

I have mine on auto, love it .

SW17LS

No downside in normal use.

One thing most American drivers don't realize is it isn't an "emergency brake", it's a "parking brake". The parking brake should be used every time the vehicle is parked, whether it's automotive or not. Believe it or not, automatic transmissions are not designed to hold the car in place using just the parking prawl.

MidasTouch

yah, great feature, love it.

NobodyHere

True, plus most times I pull the car into the garage, then put the car in park, the car drifts back. Sometimes it drifts enough that I have to pull forward. The emergency/parking brake solves that annoyance.

jkeifer3

One reason you may not want to have it set is if the car's been driven through water, slush, wet snow, etc., that possibly gets water into the parking brake mechanism. The car then gets a deep cold soak overnight possibly freezing the parking brake so that it won't release properly.

As this has happened to me in the past, I am always careful to not set the emergency brake if there is the potential for a hard freeze and the car's been driven through slush and snow.

The design of the GS parking brake system may eliminate this possibility but I am not sure.

FishBike

I think the manual mentions avoiding the use of the parking brake in cold temperatures because of the possibility of it freezing up. But so does the manual for every other car I've had. I always set the parking brake in the others, out of habit, and the last time I had the brake actually freeze up was in my P-O-S 1990 Lumina. I have my 4GS parking brake set on auto. I guess we'll see if that causes any problems in the next, oh, 10 years or so.

1BlinkGone

If people knew what little was keeping their car in place just by putting it in "park", they'd be mortified. That little pawl is just a small portion of metal that can be easily sheared. EASILY... and they do shear.

Parking brake all the way. that's the only way to do it safely and not just rely on "park". I haven't used it myself, but the automatic parking brake function sounds like a no-brainer.

richard203

iTrader: (1)

i was wondering how do u manually active the parking brake?

NobodyHere

There are two buttons to the lower right of the steering wheel. Top one is auto, bottom one is to activate it manually.

sarmyth

Another use: If you want to listen to your stereo with your car parked, you have to turn it off in neutral to keep the power on then manually set the brake.

I have never tried killing the car in neutral and then shifting to park to see if it would set the parking brake automatically. Something to investigate.

NobodyHere

Not sure I understand your first statement. As I recall, when set to auto, the parking brake comes on the moment the car is put in park. So it is engaged before the car is shut off.

SW17LS

No you don't. Just cycle the engine to radio mode (push the start button without your foot on the brake)

yardie876

I do this all the time. When shutting the car off in neutral, putting the car in park does not engage the parking brake.

Afrosheen

What this guy said. Keep in mind the radio eats huge gobs of power. I left it on while waxing the hood (only the hood) one day and it went into OMGEMERGENCY SHUTDOWN mode after about 20 minutes.