General OH oh Bambis poorly! :'(

[RobinPJ]

Another good reason for leaving it in gear, wheels turned towards the pavement:

I once left my car parked in front of a tattoo'd funwit's house, and that bit of the public highway, with unrestricted parking, actually belonged to him of course (silly me).

Regrettably, I had left the wheels pointing out into the road, and only held by the handbrake. Mr T Funwit proceeded to push my car out into the road (using his car I believe), then called the police to say my car was causing an obstruction - as a result of which it was towed to the local pound.

Leaving it in gear, and/or turning the wheels the right way, would have saved me several hundred pounds.

 

[trphil]

Another valid point that seems to have been missed here, how hard do you put your handbrake on? Some people are not as strong as others and might not be able to get the handbrake on fully. On the other hand a car cannot be "a little bit in gear".

 

[DraigFlag87]

I've seen my car roll forwards after applying the hand brake before, it's not uncommon. It can happen on cars with disks as they get hot, then cool down, but it can also happen by slightly paranoid people who yank their handbrake all the way to the top on flat surfaces, stretching the cable (also happens to those who do a lot of hand brake turns!)

Basically i do 1 click on flat surface (i don't put it on when parked on my drive) but as others have said, if in doubt, just pop in in gear, better safe than squashed

 

[grimwau]

(also happens to those who do a lot of hand brake turns!)

I reckon that if you can do a handbrake turn then you can be confident that the handbrake is working efficiently.

 

[DraigFlag87]

I reckon that if you can do a handbrake turn then you can be confident that the handbrake is working efficiently.

Yes but it stretches the cable, meaning when you do put it on, it doesn't work as well.

 

[grimwau]

Yes but it stretches the cable, meaning when you do put it on, it doesn't work as well.

Unless your cables are made of rubber I can't see that having just done a handbrake turn the cable will have stretched that much that the next time you use it it is no longer any good.

Anyway, the fact that a cable stretches doesn't affect the brake efficiency at all unless it reaches maximum travel on the pawl before the shoes/pads are fully engaged.

Indeed, most handbrake problems are due to the fact that people mistake long handbrake travel with a stretched cable and then adjust the cable to compensate. Then later on when pads and shoes have worn down, the levers (the ones on the calipers or drums) are at the wrong angle to apply the maximum leverage, hence the poor efficiency.

The correct way to maintain handbrake efficiency is to always adjust (unless self adjusters are working correctly) the rear brakes with the cable either disconnected or fully slackened off and then readjust the cable afterwards.

On brakes that have worn down a fair amount if you disconnect the cable(s) and then adjust the rear brakes it is often the case that you cannot then re-attach the cable unless you slacken it off first.

 

[RobinPJ]

This thread was about leaving your car in gear as well as having the handbrake on.

Here is a good reason why you don't just rely on the car being in gear (and another reason to lock your doors - to stop bears stealing your car:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10753021

 

[Kez 1000 fire]

i have learnt now to leave my car in gear. Ive brought a new boot and bumper off ebay for £150. There in white but im sure it wont look too daft! Just got to pick them up at weekend and then itll be all happy driving again! thanks to all those who have put a response in this thread.

But to those that dont want a smashed car, id recomend leaving the car in gear.

P.s. Yeah the cars a 57 plate and should be able to hold the light weight car but i think Fiat are at fault and this should be looked into by them! If its happened to others especially! Also, i make sure all the time that my handbrake is fully on and i am quite strong for a girl so i new damm well the handbrake was on! I trusted my L reg Panda with the jandbrake but now with a new 57 reg car, i dont trust it at all! Too much technology on it now i think

 

[306maxi]

i have learnt now to leave my car in gear. Ive brought a new boot and bumper off ebay for £150. There in white but im sure it wont look too daft! Just got to pick them up at weekend and then itll be all happy driving again! thanks to all those who have put a response in this thread.

But to those that dont want a smashed car, id recomend leaving the car in gear.

P.s. Yeah the cars a 57 plate and should be able to hold the light weight car but i think Fiat are at fault and this should be looked into by them! If its happened to others especially! Also, i make sure all the time that my handbrake is fully on and i am quite strong for a girl so i new damm well the handbrake was on! I trusted my L reg Panda with the jandbrake but now with a new 57 reg car, i dont trust it at all! Too much technology on it now i think

Whilst I agree that a new car should be able to hold itself on its handbrake you are still at fault for fundamentally doing the wrong thing and not leaving it in gear as you always should when a car is parked.

 

[jrkitching]

I think the emphasis should be on understanding, not blame. I'm sure all of us have at some time done something which, with hindsight, we'd have done differently, and my sympathies are firmly on the side of the OP for having the courage to share their story in the hope that all of us can learn from this unfortunate experience.

The handbrake is designed to hold a car on a hill - but, as this thread confirms, they can and do sometimes fail. If they do, the consequences can be both costly and tragic - so it would seem prudent to take additional precautions, like leaving the car in gear and turning the steering towards the kerb.

This should be a learning and reinforcement exercise for us all, and the only real fool is the person who, having read this, leaves their car parked on a hill without taking additional precautions and returns to find it somewhere else.

 

[Kez 1000 fire]

ok i am a fool then???

I said i now leave my car in gear and therefore i now take precautions but when it is a newish car, you dont think about leaving the car in gear when theres a handbrake installed. As people have said before in this thread. We all have probably done this thing before as we are not told by Driving schools or whoever to leave the car in gear. Ive been driving 4 years and its never happened to me. Not even in the old cars ive had! So this is my first experience and ive learnt from it! Noone was around to be hurt by my accident as the road where my uncle lives is a very un used road! No one uses it! Or parks there car on it! So yes, i was lucky. But like ive said, ive learned my lesson and always put it in gear even on a flat road!

 

[Geddes]

but when it is a newish car, you dont think about leaving the car in gear when theres a handbrake installed.

It happens though. The Vectra had a recall for spontaneous handbrake release.
Vauxhall's first solution was to send me a sticker to attach to the sun visor telling me to apply the handbrake with that kckckckckckcck! that makes you wince.
Later they recalled it and fixed it properly

So yeah, leave it in gear and turn the front wheels while you're at it

 

[RobW]

you should look out for a white front bumper to match

would then be like the Seicento 2 tone
which had different bumpers and tailgate to the body

 

[jrkitching]

ok i am a fool then???

Not at all, far from it - you hadn't read this thread before it happened to you!

You have learned something from this which will make you a better driver for the rest of your life. I am sorry, though, that you damaged your car in learning this; but grateful that at least no one was injured.