VW automatic parking brake. etc

It quite noticeable on my BMW E39 if you come to a stop with the footbrake applied and keep it like that until the handbrake is applied.

It's because the suspension design has the pivot points other than at right angles to the body. So if the wheels are locked and the body attempts to move, the body goes either up or down slightily. Trailing arm suspension being the most noticeable. Release one pair of brakes and the body settles, so the car moves by a tiny amount.

What is more important? Suspension which grips well and is comfortable? Or a less efficient design which doesn't show your symptoms?

I'd agree with that one. Think it may be made worse by the use of limited power LEDs. The indicators on those cars are never that bright - easy to miss in the sun too.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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I have changed quite a few HB ratchets. Invariably on cars driven by people who insist on pressing the button (probably because they never

*really* press the button, and filed a little off the teeth every time they move the lever).

As I say, there are some designs of hand/parking brake, where it simply isn't possible to avoid the noise.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

On occasion I have moved an inconveniently parked car a few feet by lifting the rear a little, and pushing. Most drivers never apply the handbrake fully, nor put the (FWD) car in gear.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

However. it may well be.

Standard hill-starting technique on many old FWD cars is to hold the handbrake on and then let the clutch in till the car rises at the front and moves forward putting stress in all the suspension bushes.

Not sure how the CRV rear suspension is mounted, but its probably massive trailing arms with soft bushes and both inner and outer ends.

Those arms can move a fair bit releative to the body, fore and aft.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

In the multi-storey car park for Bangkok airport, people generally park with the handbrake off. This allows cars to be shunted back and forth by hand, in order to make the best possible use of the available space.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

I had quite a wait for it to be finished.

Reply to
charles

But plenty of rally people fitted 45w fog lights

Reply to
charles

My missus, who is Italian, says they do that in Italy a lot. Even now, she mostly uses first gear instead of the handbrake.

Reply to
Etaoin Shrdlu

I think it's convention in Paris for cars parked end-to-end alongside the roads to be left with the handbrake off and out of gear to allow a neighbouring car to nudge them backwards or forwards when parking. I wonder how many cars suffer damaged bumpers in the process: I'd be livid if someone nudged my car and dented/cracked the bumpers or even worse shunted me into the car behind damaging his car as well.

Reply to
NY

Badly.

(Solenoid operated brake under the control of the ECU.)

Reply to
Huge

Yes, there's no limit for off-road use - and I bet the normal on-road rules are suspended on specific stretches of road which are used for rallies while they are temporarily closed to normal traffic.

I presume nowadays there are equivalent definitions in terms of brightness in lumens because you could produce a hell of a bright light with a 21 W LED cluster :-)

Reply to
NY

I wasn't thinking of off-road use.

are there such bits of road? I know they get closed (road here) for cycles, but when I took part in rallies on the public roads, mere mortals used them as well.

Reply to
charles

I always leave a car in gear too. That way it's going nowhere. Brakes fail. Cables snap.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

I wonder how many people outside of the typographical industry will know the derivation of your name? Come to think of it, I wonder why the keys of a Linotype weren't arranged in the QWERTY layout used by typewriters so that Linotype operators could also use typewriters and vice versa (though union rules probably strictly prohibited any such cross-usage).

Reply to
NY

The only bit of on-road rally usage that I know of was a tiny country lane past our holiday cottage in Wensleydale, and we all received letters saying that the road would be closed for a few hours in the middle of the night, with marshalls posted at farm gateways etc to radio for permission to stop the race if emergency access was needed. That was in the 1970s.

I didn't know that rally car racing was ever allowed on roads that were open to other traffic. Avoiding a farmer who is pootling along at 20 in a Land Rover when you come over a blind summit with all four wheels off the ground must make life a bit more "interesting".

Reply to
NY

Very good idea. I leave the car in gear, if possible with the wheels pointed so the car will roll into the kerb rather than out into the road if the brakes fail, when parking on a steep hill.

But I think the whole point of leaving the handbrake off in Bankok, Paris and Italy is that the car is left moveable. There'd be no point doing this if you then locked the car solid by leaving it in gear. I've heard it said that some Parisians tend not to take kindly if they find an non-French car that has been left in gear and/or with the handbrake on, and will try to push it hard enough with their car to skid the foreign car's wheels along the road till they can make room to park.

I also tend to leave the car in gear (without the handbrake on) if I'm parking for a long time (many days/weeks) when going on holiday, to avoid the handbrake cable stretching or the pads sticking to the discs. Likewise in very cold weather when they might freeze on. But I always leave a big piece of A4 on the seat to remind me "left in gear" just in case I forget to do my normal "waggle the gear lever to prove it's in neutral" check before starting the engine.

Reply to
NY

Apparently the test is much the same:

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I once had a UAE driving licence. There was a more sensible eye test there.

Reply to
Michael Chare

Many cars these days have quite poor parking brakes. Which will only get worse as they get older. Very few are capable of locking the wheels at say

10 mph. At one time, many could.
Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I kerb it too.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Despite being diagnosed as (slightly) short sighted aged 12, I never needed glasses at school (nor college, nor Uni. In fact, according to my optician, my *distance* sight is better now than then :) ) despite having some prescribed.

I carried them with me for my test (1983), in case I found I couldn't read the plate the examiner chose - but I did. Easily. However, researching the subject, I did learn that if there is doubt, the examiner can get a measure and be more precise.

Bear in mind, regardless of any of that, it can be an offence to drive with inadequate vision. As I was told when diagnosed with glaucoma, and required to undergo a visual assessment (passed with no notes).

Reply to
Jethro_uk

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