We are driving downtown Friday night for dinner when we run into traffic delays on a bridge due to an accident.

We're stopped for a couple minutes and the car is mid-span and stopped uphill, so I engage the trusty Hold button. We all chat and wait.

A few minutes later traffic is starting to move, but moments before we get underway, the car announces that it has engaged the automatic parking brake due to the inactivity. Quite arbitrary...putting it lightly!!!

In a panic, I am trying everything - depressing the brake, pounding the e-brake button, putting the car into neutral - and the e-brake will not release!!

Remember, here - traffic is now quickly and impatiently moving and I am forcing the car along. An alarm is squawking in my face...the brakes are starting to stink from the friction...the lady behind me flashes her lights and illegally pulls into the incoming lane and alongside me to scream that my brake lights are locked on (I think that's what she screamed, she was pretty pissed off)...a complete gong show.

My wife is shouting excerpts fom the owner's manual above the squawk of the alarm. "Depress the brake pedal firmly - then press the e-brake button!" Christ, how much more firmly can I depress it?!?!

Finally we get over the bridge and I stop in an emergency pull-out, kill and restart the car and mercifully the e-brake cancels itself. Minutes later my three passengers and I are valeting a stinky car, telling the valet guy not to ask.

Talk about a car being a little too smart for its own good. Hey, Lexus - how about we leave the driving to me??? That little surprise feature of engaging the E-brake after 3 minutes of of inactivity made for an embarassing and potentially dangerous situation.

 

There has to be an way to disengage that parking brake no? Hopefully an owner can shed some light on that because if in your situation there is no easy way to cancel that emergincy brake, I find that really stupid.

 

i think if i were in the situation, the first thing i would do before burning my brakes would be to turn off the engine and turn it back on. most things can be fixed that way.

by driving (uphill from what i got from your story) with your parking brake on, you might have caused a lot of wear to your brakes.

 

Just think of it like a Microsoft product, reboot the car if in doubt...

 

I use the Brake Hold feature sporadically as certain conditions such as the one you described give rise to problems as the stops can be lengthy at times, and that is when the Park Brake sets during long idle intervals. The disengagement of the Brake Hold when the Parking brake sets is simple, except the first time ever if you're not prepared. The Park Brake can always be manually released by "pulling" not depressing the Park Brake switch. This restores the Brake Hold to the previous setting so you can continue your Stop/Starts. Fortunately, I was in a parking lot when I found myself in a similar situation during my first month of ownership, so I was able to figure out how the system worked without some crazed driver smoking up my rear end.

Anyway, like I said previously there are times when that system sucks. I mostly activate it on streets that have a lot of traffic lights like Hastings or Kingsway. That's when it works the way it's supposed to. On highways or traffic jams, it's mostly a PITA.

Sorry to hear about the heavy brake wear, and yes those binders are powerfully set.

 

Your experience is similar to something strange that happened to me as well. I thought it was my fault at first, but after hearing your story:

I was just driving normally and suddenly the rear brakes "locked up," good thing there wasn't a car behind me. Then it released by it self - spooky. I didn't press the "hand brake" button. Anyone else encounter something like this?

 

From what I understand, you simply need to release the parking brake--activating the switch with your foot on the brake pedal at the same time. Otherwise the (electronic) parking brake will not release. Haven't had the need to do that (never used the Hold button long enough for it to happen). I'm sorry to hear that the incident was so bothersome, and I might have considered stopping the engine, etc. and using emergency flashers rather than forcing the car to move even with the brakes on, smoking etc. I hope there wasn't serious damage, but I would mention it at next service to get a look-over...

Yes, the 'Hold' system is an electronic convenience, and in the spirit of 'thinking for you' I guess they figured that if you are holding the brake long enough, the Auto brake does the job better, particularly if you are going to be stopped/car turns off etc. It's one of those take-it-or-leave-it bits, where you can just avoid using the 'Hold' system to begin with and not have the car intervene at all (yes it would perhaps be better if you had more options besides either-or).

These new electronic doodads slightly remind me of the incidents with the ES 350 and the floor mats, people got their accelerator stuck and kept pushing the brake, parking brake, change gear etc. (with burning brakes etc.) when all required was to push the Start/Stop button and hold it for the engine to stop.

 

as mentioned in this thread all it takes is to put the car gear into "park" and then back into "drive."

 

wow this is in vancouver too...makes me feel ashamed that so many impatient and angry drivers resides among us....but yeah there are some thing i'd rather do manually

 

I'm also not terribly thrilled that you need to really step on the gas to release the "hold". Slight lurch, but noticeable to the driver.

I only occasionally use the hold, and fortunately never have run into the auto parking brake phenomenon. I wouldn't have known what to do, but probably would have restarted the car / reboot scenario.

 

lol, seriously, if that's what you want, then why engage the brake hold? be fair now.

just put the car in park and then drive, simple enough

i never tried, but i thought you can pull (or push i forgot) on the parking brake button to release it

 

good point, lol

 

I'm sure your foot was on the brake, but if you didn't have your foot and tried releasing the e-brake, the car wouldn't let you do it b/c wouldn't it roll back?

I think on my previous GX, after releasing the brake on an uphill, it brakes for me after giving a warning beep.
I don't stop enough on a uphill to try it out or either that I'm too paranoid to have the car roll back and smack the guy in the back who likes to stop really close to me.

 

even though you should have restarted the car, lexus should have put some sort of direction on the instrument area, since they have that high resolution screen, or maybe on the nav. I think it should have said something like

"!!!PARKING BRAKE ENGAGED!!! Set car to park and then drive to release."

something like that. Or perhaps it should just automatically release, since it should know its harming the car.

 

I'm amazed at my 2008 LS 460. It's a technological marvel to me! So much improved over my awesome 2005 LS 430!
Maybe we should give Lexus more credit for their innovations. I know I'll be driving a Lexus for the rest of my life.
Just because we don't like something about the car -- or don't know how to use a feature, doesn't make it bad or stupid.
I love my car! My only gripe was the NAV lock out and now that's been solved by the PS Override kit.
What more could you ask for in this fabulous, state on the art masterpiece? I don't know.
I'll bet Lexus will come up with a new LS in the next few years and it will have new, very desireable features we can't even imagine now. We'll have to learn to use to use those items too.
All this and surperb reliability and longevity also!
You can always go back to Mercedes or BMW. I'll wave to you at the service shop as I drive by in my Lexus.
As far as automobiles go, "Made in Japan" is the world standard to me!