Pulling the Parking Brake Whilst Moving 

Not all handbrakes are rear wheels. My C5 had front wheel drive, front wheel steering, and a front whee handbrake…

Yes! Never thought of that scenario. Now this new function makes even more sense and practability (& unlike the traditional ratchet handbrake the rear brake lights will show alerting motorists behind for added safety)

Operates the same on MG's, again only in case of main brake failure....

And for cars with centrally positioned parking brake switches, this would also be ideal for driving instructors! 🤓

@@RiverMersey And small children who say, "What does this do, daddy?"..............😆

@@HogwartsBasement less faults? Mechanical handbrakes involve a lever, ratchet and a cable… very very little to go wrong. If your car is maintained it’ll never have an issue, most people will stretch their cable over time, it just needs adjustment to remedy that. I’ll always prefer a manual handbrake, an electronic handbrake is just unnecessary tbh (yes I’ve owned cars fitted with electronic handbrakes)

@@HogwartsBasement You what? They fail all the time and costs hundreds to fix. People with broken down cars have to have specialist tow trucks to take their car to the workshop because the electric parking brake cannot be operated if the engine cannot start.

Its not full C and U regs now - is it not Type Approval (and I think much the same about some of the new style flashing LED indicators not being compliant with flash speed)

@@highpath4776 The flash speed on LED indicators is exactly the same as it is on halogen bulbs the difference is they have no warm up time so immediatly go to full brightness it gives the illusion of flashing quicker. LED lights in general are far better in every possible on cars so I'm all for them. The parking brake should be mechanical and not electronic the whole point of it is that it can be controlled without electric, fluid or computers etc its suppossed to work no matter what which is why it should be mechanical.

Of course it had to be a Land Rover they are the most common vehicles for this kind of issue.

@@gravemind6536 Depends on the vehicle and how it does indicators. On vehicles with a traditional flasher relay, the power draw on LEDs is genuinely so much lower that the relay operates faster. Might not be an issue with cars that control flashing with the ECU.

It should be possible to release the electric handbrake with your foot on the brake by pressing down on the switch. My car is similar in that the electric handbrake won't automatically disengage unless the driver's seatbelt is on, but you can still manually disengage it.

I mean most new cars automatically lock the doors when you start driving so I fail to see this as a problem

@@brianfunt2619 yes and no. As you say, "when you start driving". But if the bad guy catches you just after you got into your car (eg after loading your shopping into your car) then that mechanism won't have kicked in yet.

How do you drive if you have cargo sticking out of your boot? Say if you bought planks.

on my car I can disconnect the wire to the rear lights easy !!

@@highpath4776 Yeah, was just gonna say that it would be way easier just to dc the brake lights or hook them up to a button for the driver to use seems way less complicated than installing a whole new handbrake.

You might want to find out if the car you are training in actually works like this.

@@lolzlolz102 Of course. I did and it does. It barely gets a mention in the manual but it is a feature. I've also tried it out.

But that’s the point. You shouldn’t be doing it, intentionally.

@@damedusa5107 unless you're into amateur motorsport...

@@JosephAgrane well I doubt you would want to be doing that in an electric car anyway.

@@damedusa5107 Nobody mentioned electric cars.

@@eternaloptimist2840 yer you’re right

My older vehicle had the electronic handbrake that would gently apply more pressure the longer the switch was held up for. Useful for controlling speed downhill without putting the brake lights on and that way if I did need to slow down rather than control speed the vehicles behind would see brake lights and hopefully apply their brakes as well. At the lower speeds,

Same with Kia Niro

It always has to be a Royce !

Happened to me too (but no roller nearby!) ... without the handbrake I'd have had a serious accident, but in fact I brought the car 5m to a garage using gears and handbrake to control the speed.

I have an American car with an automatic gearbox, and I use the "E-brake" whenever I park. I apply it with the regular brake on, just before putting the gearbox into park, to help reduce the jolt and reduce wear on the parking pawl.

Electronic hand brakes don't work on all four wheels, just the rear as per a regular mechanical handbrake. However above a certain speed it will use the ABS system to apply regular foot brake to all four wheels. The hand brake mechanism still works with the engine off but ignition on. The ABS system will vary from car to car as it depends on a lot of factors.

If I may, I can see the points you make however I disbelieve this applies solely to vehicles fitted with these sorts of handbrakes. Hazard lights and gentle application of the stick will get the job done also. I have never liked electronic handbrakes, they always just seem a bit dim-witted to me. I know for a fact a Renault will disengage the handbrake if you try and pull away with it engaged, which is something my father (employee of Renault since 2012) cannot fathom. The handbrake is meant to hold the car indefinitely, not until it thinks you're finished with it. Furthermore, I agree with your question. Say a cars alternator dies and it drains the battery. Will you be able to engage the handbrake? I don't know, and I would rather not find out. Electrification can be great, but personally certain controls should ALWAYS be analog. I just cannot trust a module to not malfunction. It's like Day-Time running lights. A great idea until you realise some cars will not light up the rear, and the lights projecting out the front are enough to trick the driver into thinking they have their lights on.

@@darrylmac6150 Can only tell you my experience (Audis). There is no way to disengage the handbrake if the car has no electrical power aside from pulling off the calliper connection and applying 12v to open the caliper. But if you have a 12v source nearby you'd be much, much better off to jump the battery & disengage it the normal way. That being said hill assist has generally superseded the use of electronic handbrake when stationary for short periods. The handbrake will still disengage if your seatbelt is worn & you set off but I think most people just use hill assist rather than the handbrake (I do anyway).

@@darrylmac6150 Thank You for your very comprehensive reply. Yes, I also am not a big fan of electronic handbrakes, for several reasons. The one advantage I see is that they free up centre console space for extra storage but that's about it for me. I don't like the fact that they are either fully on On or Off and prefer the gradual progression of a traditional handbrake. Particularly useful when manouvring in a tight space on a hill where I often balance gas, clutch and gradual handbrake application to really fine tune my movements against the natural slope of a hill. With an electronic handbrake, I totally lose that ability. I'm thinking of situations such as reverse parallel parking in a tight space between two other cars and you're facing a steep downhill stretch of road. Similarly, any kind of forward movement in a tight space facing a steep uphill. Also, whenever I've driven a rental car with electronic handbrake, when moving off again I always felt a slight clonk and not as smooth as releasing a traditional handbrake. Incidentally whenever I apply a traditional handbrake, I do so "quietly" without the "ratchet rasp" of the handbrake pawl. Totally agree with your comparison of daytime running lights. A great idea in theory but less than ideal in it's execution for the very reasons you mention and which we've all (just about!) seen on the roads.

my car specifically says the parking brake button will trigger the brakes as long as there is power in the battery. however, it is on the door side of the steering column, so a passenger would have to reach past the steering column to press it.

While it can be a safety feature, I still feel uneasy with them. It's just another thing to break, another electrical circuit you have to worry about. Imagine your alternator goes bad and your car runs out of juice, will the handbrake still work? Definitely not something I'd like to find out

@@darrylmac6150 Yeah, I can definitely see where you are coming from. I think if an e-brake (and in this case E is for electronic) was engaged before the battery died it wouldn't come off, but you wouldn't be able to turn it off. Which means you can't roll the car if you are away from the civilisation. I wonder if there is a mechanical backup, like loosening a bolt with a ranch. But that would probably require to take all four wheels off? There are definitely advantages to having a classic handbrake.

You could say that about anything though - an irrational passenger can grab the gear stick, wheel, driver's hair, open the door, or yank the hand brake...

@@tinnagigja3723 of course, absolutely correct.

Would be a great way to do a runner from a cab if you want to avoid paying...

Has a passenger pull up my handbrake once as we went around a corner ... total loss of conyrol!

And some cars also have a "pre-crash safety system" - to use the Toyota manual term, which can do an automatic brake application to prevent, or mitigate, a front collision. In the one I have (a Yaris), you can switch if off manually, but it always enables itself when switching on the power. There is a long list of times when it should be switched off, such as when using the "compact spare tyre".

This is the problem people aren’t taught how to actually drive anymore they’re taught to pass

yes get rid of all the electronic aids and learn how to realy drive a car

@@ivorjones6618 Couldn’t agree more, all the automatic features make drivers lazy and a lazy driver is an easily distracted driver. They make it too easy to use your phone, eat, drink, and many other things whilst driving. It has gotten to the point all you need is one hand, and that’s definitely not a good thing.

@@hausmaster9801 yes I did my early driving in a series 1landrover in the 60s they had no brakes and steering was awful

the EPB is also independent of the hydraulic brakes. - but worth noting that if your engine fails at speed, the drivetrain in most automatics and all manuals will keep the engine turning and the brake booster working. the only thing that will cause a full engine stop at speed is a catastrophic mechanical fault, like dropping a valve into a cylinder. then braking will happen all by itself.

@@kenbrown2808 well your wheels would lock but you would then probably press the clutch and the handbrake would be usefull to be able to control the braking.

@@patrykrog8121 no, you'd be too busy hanging off your seat belt and keeping it somewhat straight to think about why the wheels stopped turning.

It's not electric, just good old petrol.

You should always park in gear and also turn the wheels to chock against the kerb . This failure occurs because as discs cool they contract and grip is lost . This has nothing to do with the method of actuation , although the elasticity in a steel cable will actually counter shrinkage to a degree , where an electric motor will not . Better engineered cars : Mercedes-Benz, Volvo , BMW have separate drums for this reason since as a drum contracts it tightens its grip .

Your discs are cleaned every time you use your brakes ; some cars : Mercedes , BMW , Volvo use separate drums for the parking brake because hot discs will contract as they cool thus not so suitable for use as a parking brake .

EPB failure on that generation of passats is commonplace

I think it is more for the situation where the foot brake has failed E.g loss of hydraulics, than an emergency outside the car.

I think this is the case for most cars. The park brake is usually only on the rear wheels and it's an electric motor that's used to actuate them. This is why it is a functional emergency brake: in the case of loss of braking fluid, for instance, the electric brake will still function.

The thing I wonder is, he says he keeps it held no just pressing it, now it may vary from car to car but I didn't hear Ashley's wheels lock/skid like they would of you just press it, I wonder that since it says specifically to hold it, that it recognises that as an emergency brake request not just a park request, so it them communicates with the abs module for rear wheel speed to quickly actuate the brake calipers or shoes without locking wheels to prevent skidding

I believe cars fitted with electronic handbrake, the brake calipers themselves have little electronic motors that wind out the piston inside the caliper. So when you are stopped and apply the handbrake it will just wind them out fully to lock your wheels and then in this emergency brake scenario it will more gradually wind them out to bring you to a more controlled sort of stop. I am obviously open to correction on this from anyone that might know more than me.

@@Mr.M1STER you are correct and I know on Honda's they are only on the rear but if the vehicle has automatic emergency braking for pedestrians or radar cruise then it already has full control of the brakes, hence when you apply the park brake switch while moving it'll just apply the foot brakes as if it was an automatic stop, then at the end it'll apply the park brake.

Yeah I know some cars can use the abs for all four but I wonder how it works if there is a brake line failure causing loss of fluid and pressure would it still try to pump all brakes or just default to the lever motor on the back

Did you hold it pressed? And check your manual. Some cars require you to press it 5 times or so instead of holding it pressed. Also, needless to say, make sure there is no one around you, especially behind you, when doing this. Also, most electronic parking brakes also engage a pawl inside the transmission, locking the gears in place. Make sure this is not the case with yours, as engaging that while moving will destroy your transmission.

My driving instructor was an ex rally driver too , Walter Figg , a brilliant instructor taught me how to drive properly 😉, not just pass the test.

Only do it on the test if it snows! 😉

@Lancashirelad Fair enough, meant to say "some".

That’s scary damn

I had a similar experience must now be over 40 years ago , in my 1957 Mercedes , when I braked for a red traffic light and the pedal went to the floor ( single circuit then so total failure ) ; dropped into first and pulled hard on the umbrella handbrake and stopped , just gently nudging the car in front , which was a Rolls-Royce ! Elderly gent in a camel hair coat got out ; there was no damage , so he just said ‘nice car you’ve got’ and drove off . Because that car had huge Alfin drums all round , the handbrake was really good , so I was able to drive home carefully using gears and handbrake . I kept that car for 34 years .