Applying Handbreak - Press Release button or Not

marlot

jimmo wrote: »

Maybe an old wives tale but it used to be said 3 to 5 clicks is good but 6 or more needs looking at and could fail the MOT.

Depends entirely on the car!

One of mine is right at about 7 clicks, the other at 3.

Geodark

never press mine - have it adjusted to 5 or 6 clicks.

Zandoni

I always press the button. I don't like the sound of ratchet and I'm sure it will cause more wear eventually if you don't.

System

EssexExile wrote: »

I drive an automatic, what's a parking brake?

hand brake.

Parking brake tends to be an Americanism

Car_54

It's not just Ford - almost all manufacturers now tell you NOT to press the button.

The official advice from the DVSA is - "Read your car's manual".

Joe_Horner

Strider590 wrote: »

My preferred method for applying handbrake is hold button, pull up, release button and then pull up one more notch.

I believe the reason your Ford manual says what it does, is basically them covering their backs should a problem ever occur.

Pretty much this.

Anyone with mechanical sympathy will know that running a ratchet over itself several thousand times a year will cause wear. Whether it'll matter or not in time you have the car doesn't change that it's happening.

Pressing the button also has an extra benefit - when you press it the ratchet pawl is moved more than when it's just clicking over the teeth. That helps to prevent the moment when you press the button and it stays pressed because it's all gummed up from accumulated crud that then needs half the interior stripped to clean out

So, press button, pull up, release button, extra little pull and a quick push down to be sure it's engaged (which you should be doing anyway). No wear and no risk of it not setting.

[Deleted User]

I always press the button when applying the parking brake, it was how I was told when learning to drive. I always leave car in gear too although I wasn't told to do that when learning to drive. Instructor used to bang on about making sure it was neutral.

alankearn

To save wearing my handbrake button I use two house bricks to chock the wheels when I park up.

Oldfatgrumpy

When applying a car's handbrake:
I always press the button, and keep my thumb over it until I'm confident that everything has worked and the car is secure. This habit was learned early in my driving career when parking on a 1-in-3 hill on a narrow back alley between buildings in Hastings in my first car, an old fragile crappy Mini in which steep hillstarts were a matter of luck and much clutch-smoke, given the limited power of its well-worn engine.
As I stopped, facing uphill, with my foot on the footbrake I pulled the handbrake on. The button on the end of the handle, and the spring behind it, pinged out and landed amongst the junk in the passenger footwell. The handbrake refused to engage and the car wouldn't hold on that slope by engine compression in reverse gear (I tried by relaxing the footbrake briefly and it rolled). I didn't trust myself to be capable of restarting the car in 1st gear with the clutch down, then rapidly transferring my right foot from brake (the only thing keeping the car static at this point) to the accelerator, revving up and releasing the clutch to drive on up the hill, and doing all this before the car rolled backwards into a wall, or into the fabled nun with a basket of kittens. Consequently I ended up holding my foot on the footbrake while contorting my upper body across to the other footwell, from where I managed to retrieve the errant parts, reassemble the mechanism, and apply the handbrake - which actually worked.

Retrogamer

arcon5 wrote: »

I can't be ar5ed either with pressing the button, pull up and jump out - no fannying around.
It'll not add any meaningful wear to the cable!

It won't affect wear on the cable, merely the ratchet mechanism for the lever itself.

I got moaned at years ago by my driving instructor for not doing it so once i learned to do it on my lessons, i kept doing it when i got my own cars.