Electric Parking brakes ...

DUTR

Some say they are inactive (the handbrake feature) above a certain speed, if this is the case how do they go about checking the effeciency at an MOT test?

gilbert_and_sullivan

The rollers turn slowly.

I'd be surprised if they are inactive at high speed, if thats right then cars so fitted won't have secondary brake, and i can't see that being allowed.

Not something i'm ever going to find out for mesen, i shall never own a car with one.

DUTR

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

The rollers turn slowly.

I'd be surprised if they are inactive at high speed, if thats right then cars so fitted won't have secondary brake, and i can't see that being allowed.

Not something i'm ever going to find out for mesen, i shall never own a car with one.

When I write inactive at higher speeds, I mean the actual manual switch functionality.
As for never owning a car with one, over time of changing cars, you may not have a choice

gilbert_and_sullivan

DUTR wrote: »

you may not have a choice

don't bank on it...;)

colino

There are a lot of questions over epb testing on cars. Although the NT has details of the peculiarities of each car on his screen, I'd bet the vast majority of NTs just don't bother. The epb doesn't deactivate at speed on most cars, instead the clever little sods switch on to abs/stability control mode so start activating the service brake as it thinks appropriate.
Add on the cars that have hill start, emergency brake assist, 4x4 etc., I bet a whole lot of cars are being "assessed" and passed without going out for a drive with the decelerometer, which many of them need.

shortchanged_2

Personally I think they are one of the most pointless additions to modern cars. Are people too lazy to pull up a handle these days?
Just some other piece of unnecessary gadgetry that is bound to be expensive to fix when it goes wrong.

DUTR

shortchanged wrote: »

Personally I think they are one of the most pointless additions to modern cars. Are people too lazy to pull up a handle these days?
Just some other piece of unnecessary gadgetry that is bound to be expensive to fix when it goes wrong.

Well, people forget to pull the handbrake on, so they have their benefits, besides they are operated manually if the user chooses, not all of them are operated automatically.

shortchanged_2

DUTR wrote: »

Well, people forget to pull the handbrake on, so they have their benefits,

Had a runaway car smash into the neighbours wall have we?

DUTR

shortchanged wrote: »

Had a runaway car smash into the neighbours wall have we?

Nearly but not quite, My Corrado was parked on a slope and creeped back into a new car , also my MK4 Golf creeped forward on a slope (both had the handbrake applied) tht was a slightly different matter though, the brakes lost friction once cooled.

oldhand

I have a new vw golf coming in september with an electric parking brake and when looking at it in the showroom I asked the salesman a question that came into my head,"what happens if a child in front passenger seat operates it at speed will it lock up the wheels and potentially cause an accident"??.
He said he had no idea to be honest as noone had ever asked but he would find out,Im still waiting on his call......

DUTR

oldhand wrote: »

I have a new vw golf coming in september with an electric parking brake and when looking at it in the showroom I asked the salesman a question that came into my head,"what happens if a child in front passenger seat operates it at speed will it lock up the wheels and potentially cause an accident"??.
He said he had no idea to be honest as noone had ever asked but he would find out,Im still waiting on his call......

I'm on another forum, someone posted that his 'mate' had operated the switch whilst the car was in motion and the guy is no longer his mate, another responder had pointed out that above a certain speed the button does not function. Some say you have to hold the button for a few seconds as a safety feature.