Car left in gear and turned on - handbrake screwed!

abbas5001

Hey all,

My dad had the car and parked it up but left it in gear (every so often he does this, its infuriating!) Anyway i switch the engine on and the car of course jolts foreard (my fault should have checked brake, gears etc to make sure everything was ok). I look down and the handbrake is about 4/5ths of the way down, so i want to secure the car and secure the handbrake but it won't go up, i can only get it a little bit further up with force.

So my question is did i cause the handbrake to get mashed up cos i started the engine while the car was in gear? (I hope not!)

Any advice would be well appreciated!

DaveF327

Moving the car with the handbrake on certainly won't do it any good, but such a short movement sounds unlikely to totally ruin it. If the handbrake is only 4/5 of the way down, I can see no reason why it won't go higher. Try with two hands. When you do pull it any further, does it actually hold the car on a hill?

hewhoisnotintheknow

DaveF327 wrote: »

Moving the car with the handbrake on certainly won't do it any good, but such a short movement sounds unlikely to totally ruin it. If the handbrake is only 4/5 of the way down, I can see no reason why it won't go higher. Try with two hands. When you do pull it any further, does it actually hold the car on a hill?

sounds like it was on its way out, my handbrake gets loads of stick and is fine!

photome

Not sure about handbrake, I cant see that what you have done would have caused a problem.

I ALWAYS leave my car in gear though

thescouselander

photome wrote: »

Not sure about handbrake, I cant see that what you have done would have caused a problem.

I ALWAYS leave my car in gear though

I alway leave my car in gear too - just as well cos the hand brake on my car is rubbish.

SUESMITH_2

i always leave mine in gear - too many cars with rubbish hand brakes lol

did your handbrake need adjusting?

mcjordi

try adjusting the handbrake first..
unlikley to have !!!!!!ed it up !

Rallydriver

There are a few cars that using the handbrake while the car is moving can have a detrimental affect. Some proper off-roaders where the handbrake works on the transmission and on some four wheel drive cars (subarus, evos) it can damage the centre differential.

Handbraking most cars does no more than increase tyre wear (and make you look like a hooligan).