Safe Speed Forums

Electric Handbrake Alert
I would like it to be known that electric handbrakes can fail without warning, thus causing potential danger.
Mine failed after being parked overnight.
The car moved and caused damage, to itself and whatever was in it's path, being stopped by a wall!!!
We are not taught to leave our cars in gear, but maybe this needs to be the case.

What sort of car was it, as a matter of interest?

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Yes, I'd be interested to know too. I have a car with one (which has been fine so far)!

X3 ed 'n' Mole.

I drove one recently. A hire car from work...

Spam, troll, nob-head, joker or for real?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Funnily enough the OP is online right now ... wonder if he/she will make an appearance

Edited to say he/she had left between me arriving and replying.

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

I suspect spam too but usualyl expect to find the username or post/parts of post duplicated elsewhere & found by a quick google.... but nothing so far.

electric-handbrake

(To explain some of the posts in this thread so far, some of the spam that we can have placed on the forum can look like very genuine ...!)

What damage occurred and to how many vehicles before hitting the wall - and from that do we assume that it was on a hill ?
What have various garage or insurance people suggested failed, or is this all very recent ?

I must say that I neigh always leave my car in gear, having learned to do so, as a deterrent from theft, some years ago and I have done so every since. It became a 'good habit' IMHO.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

The car was a Citroen C4 Picasso. The car has been tested and inspected and no fault could be found. It has also happened to others - google "Electric handbrakes: can you trust them" or http://cars.uk.msn.com/blog/inside-trac ... c4&_nwpt=1

I'm just trying to tell as many people as possible to make others aware of the possibility of this happening

So....for the avoidance of doubt:
you were parked on a slope ?
it was on when you left the vehicle ?
how did you know it was on ?
Was it still claiming to be on when you moved the vehicle after its little journey ?

Sounds very odd! I have a Peugeot 5008 (probably very similar to the C4) and I've not managed to make the electric handbrake malfunction (yet)! The noise it makes when it applies itself, changes with the amount of "work" it's doing when pulling the handbrake on. It seems to know when it's on a slope and applies it a bit harder (the tone of the motor gets a bit louder and it runs for longer). Personally, I'd prefer a traditional one (less to go wrong) but from a safety point of view, I've no issues. I can't even do a handbrake turn any more - that's how safe it is! My only other criticsm of it came when I (stupidly) stalled pulling out into a main road. I then turned the ignition off and back to crank it again, while the car was rolling, and, of course, as I turned the ignition off, the damned handbrake applied itself - much to the bemusement of the driver who was heading towards me)!

I drive my disabled cousin's adapted Kia people-carrier which has an electric hand brake and I hate it!

I press a switch and basically listen to the sound of an electric motor which, when I hear it stall, I know it's on.

For me it falls into the same mind-numbingly modern cheap shite which separates man from machine, as do the un-tactile distant indicator levers in common use.

It's called progress; I call it something else I won't say here..

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Hummm but that sounds like an issue to me ... I have not tried it but for that reason alone I'd not want it ... not that I plan to stall every time I pull out, nor (as I am sure you do too), to have other vehicles approaching with no or little safety margins either ...
But when we make a closer action that perhaps is ideal is it not sods law that that is when something unexpected also may happen ? - Just like you describe ... this can be the reality and when a handbrake is programmed to do 'it's pre-assigned' job which is not smart enough to previously imagine this problem happening it tells me (surely) that it has simply not been designed well enough in the first place !
I can really relate to the desire to be in total control all the time and if I really messed up on the road and needed to pull the handbrake and stop immediately I'd really want a handle never a button !
Do I assume that this whole system runs hand in hand too with ABS and so on so a controlled induced sidewards slide is impossible to create ? (or over-steer) ...

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Electric parking brake systems operate differently from just being an analog of a manual system. When the engine is running and hydraulic pressure is available in the ABS system, they work by applying the normal brakes to hold the car. When the engine is switched off with the parking brake "on" there is a changeover to a mechanical actuator brake as the hydraulic pressure falls.

My X5 "whirrs" for a few seconds shortly after turning off the engine as the actuator operates. It may be that the problem is in this changeover period.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Steady there... not all electric park brake systems are the same, mechanically, functionally or in their level of intergration with other systems.

Thankfully most of the complaints I read online are for the cheaper mechanically (cable puller) & functionally (i.e. not so much) systems that from experience i sometimes wonder how they ever got signed off.

On the plus side, more room for cup holders.

In fairness to "it", they HAD thought of that situation! On many cars, if you stall, you can't move the key direct from the "run" position to the "crank" position once the key has been released from the crank position. That's been common for years, and is to stop people inadvertently trying to operate the starter when the engine is running (which makes expensive noises)! I just assumed that this car would work the same way (given that this all had to happen in a very short time!) so I instinctively moved the key to the "off" position and back, so that I could restart it. Unfortunately, it thought I was turning the engine off and whenever you do that, it applies its handbrake!

I subsequently tried a few deliberate stalls (well away from T junctions this time!) and found that it WAS possible to crank the engine from the "run" position without having to go to "off" first. So they had thought of it, they just hadn't told me! (...or maybe they had - must remember to read the handbook one day)!

What I DIDN'T try, was cranking the engine while it was running (didn't really want to risk breaking it)! I assume that it probably is NOT posisble and that there is a smarter way of doing it, rather than the simple mechanical interlock on the ignition barrel.



Yes indeed. ANY kind of sideways slide (controlled or otherwise!) is impossible!
If you press the switch that acts as the handbrake when the car is going at more than walking pace, it just ignores you and doesn't do anything. There is, however, an "emergency stop" facility so if you need to use the handbrake for an emergency top, you just press and hold the switch for a second or so. (just leave aside, for the moment, any comments you might have about having to wait a second in the sort of situation where you might be wanting to use the handbrake as an emergency stop)! Anyway, once it realises you're serious, it will use the handbrake (and whatever it can from the footbrake system) to stop the car as quicly as possible. IF it gets out of line, the ESC sorts it all out for you (quite effectively too, in my limited trials)!

Indeed. I have a centre console (refrigerated too!) cubby box big enough to put a small child in!

...and do I get a cup holder???

NO! Not a single one!!!

In fairness, the adapted vehicles tend to be fitted with pretty low-tech systems and they are oftem pretty rubbish (or is the the original system?) It's certainly not cheap, but often disbled drivers just cant use a conventional handbrake.

Un-tactile indicators? You want to get in my car mate! 22 years old and you think they're going to snap off before they finally latch! Eeee by 'eck, them were't days lad! Tha 'ad to be a real man if tha wanted to drive a motor car back then!

I think it was an adapted one, so would fall into the crappie low-tech. I personally wouldn’t bother using it but my cuz insists. It’s an automatic and while I don’t know what, or how, the park position does what it does I do know a heard of elephants wouldn’t budge the vehicle. Stupid thing takes about 30 seconds to fully operate too. So I don’t see any point in putting the handbrake on when the park postion welds it to the ground but I use it just to please her.

Ah ha! I think I can argue with you here Some years ago I wondered why numpties would pull into different lanes and after they moved they would indicate right, then left, then right again and left again. I was to find out why later when I first drove a modern car with these un-tactile indictors.

You go to cancel it and the cheep piece of crap turns from right to left, to and fro, until eventually you manage to get some magic spot that Penn and Teller wouldn't be able to find. During this time you nearly kill yourself because you’re in the middle lane of a motorway gawping at the 'idiot lights' for 20 seconds to see if the damn thing has cancelled!

How the fcuk that got past elf an’ safety I’ll never know! What say you Mole and ed? Do I make a good point and does everyone know to what I refer?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Do you think we'll ever get a sensible account of the park brake incident ?