I love the brake hold feature. Is there a way to turn this feature on automatically when the car starts or do you have to press the button every time after you start the car?

 

You have to activate it each time the vehicle is started.

 

And you have to reactivate it each time the car goes into Park.

 

I'm sure there is some legal (ie We don't want to get sued by not to bright folks misusing said feature) reason for that.

 

Are "brake hold assist" and "hill start control" two different things or one in the same? I ask because my 4RX has one or the other full-time. I have hills here and whatever it is it's always holding the vehicle till I gas up.

 

The brake hold function will keep the brakes on while activated, as long as you don't touch the gas. Basically, you can sit at a stop light or drive thru (etc) without keeping your foot on the brake while you wait.

For hill start assist, you push the brake pedal down extra hard until it is activated, then release the brake pedal. It will hold the brakes for about 3 seconds, or until you touch the gas, whichever comes first. It's intended for use starting out on a hill, to give your foot time to get from the brake pedal to the gas pedal without rolling backward.

 

Thanks for the info. That brake hold function-does it effectively activate the brake lights while it's in "hold"? That's a neat feature. To the original question by Kiboater, I cannot find any automatic override to the brake hold function in the manual so posts 1&2 seem accurate.

 

Yes, brake lights are on any time the hill start assist or brake hold functions are holding the brakes.

 

never knew these were features of the 4RX, I think it's pretty cool imo, is it standard on all RX's? or does it come with a package?

 

I got a chance to look over the manual and my window sticker, and I figure that the brake hold and hill start assist are both standard across all 4RXs.

 

I love the brake hold function too and I use it everyday.

I got a question though...

The 4RX don't have the physical hand brake nor "foot brake", how can I stop my car if the regular brake fails? I can imagine if I have a hand brake, then I could put the car in lower gears and/or neutral and then pull the hand brake. But what about no hand brake? Does that parking brake button (if not setting it to AUTO) do the same thing?

 

The electric switch on the center console (similar to a power window switch)
controls the electric motor that applies the regular parking brakes. It does not
seem to work while the car is moving so would not seem to be equal to an old
"emergency brake" but merely a parking brake.

 

Page 236 of our manual states:
"Pull and hold the parking brake switch if an emergency occurs and it is necessary to operate the parking brake while driving."

 

Thanks! Forgot that the owner manual exists

 

I keep mine at the desk so I myself don't forget