Hyundai handbrake failure

Paradigm

AdrianC wrote: »

No, Hyundai are not responsible for your son failing to apply the handbrake on fully...

It's always been important to put the handbrake on fully, but more so with cars with rear discs.

The problem with the above is that if the handbrake will only hold the car at the limit of it's travel, the very last click, it would fail an MOT test. A properly adjusted handbrake will hold the car with some travel left.
Dunno if that makes Hyundai responsible though

s_b

ive been run down twice in my life by clients starting the car that was in gear,these days no clients get given keys to start engines till im happy they are in control and have checked that the geery nob is in neutral
i always park cars on hills in gear handbrake on and wheels turned into the kerb but then i also read the highway code

OP'S FAULT ENTIRELY

Euphoria1z

by leaving the car in gear on an up/downhill, will this damage the gear box? my drive is a bit steep and I have to leave it in gear rather than just relying on the handbrake but I always worry whether this will damage the gearbox in the long run?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Beginning to see why electric parking brakes are getting more common, some people really need them.
They join the previously not needed automatic wipers and lights as ever more vital.

bigjl

I was always taught to leave a car in gear aswell as the handbrake. And angle the wheels so if both failed the car would only roll a few inches till the front wheel touched the kerb/roadside.

Just one point though drum brakes are also prone to expansion when hot, a young child was tragically killed when an LDV Ambulancd being used by School & Events was parked on a slight incline, handbrake filled applied and in Park.

But as the children were looking round it it was pulled out of Park and it rolled back a few feet and a child was killed.

That vehicle had a pull up switch to prevent this but it was worn as it was a decommissioned Ambulance. I think the person in charge was held responsible due to not fitting wedges behind the rear wheels, which as far as I am aware did not exist in the entire NHS Trust.

My children will be instructed to always put he car in gear aswell as apply the handbrake and also to consider angling the wheels aswell.

bigjl

Euphoria1z wrote: »

by leaving the car in gear on an up/downhill, will this damage the gear box? my drive is a bit steep and I have to leave it in gear rather than just relying on the handbrake but I always worry whether this will damage the gearbox in the long run?

I have certainly never heard of a case where it has in over 30 years.

I fully apply the handbrake and then release the clutch, as mentioned pushing the foot brake down fully helps to get the handbrake on fully (unless he car has seperate handbrake shoes inside the rear disc. Such as Grand Cherokees for example.

That system was safer for vehicles with all round discs as when the discs cooled the brakes would actually be be more in contact with the insides of the disc/drum

AdrianC

bigjl wrote: »

Just one point though drum brakes are also prone to expansion when hot

But, as with discs, they contract as they cool - which they do while parked.

The difference is that the contraction in discs slackens the clamping force of the parking brake, while the contraction in drums increases it.

bigjl

AdrianC wrote: »

But, as with discs, they contract as they cool - which they do while parked.

The difference is that the contraction in discs slackens the clamping force of the parking brake, while the contraction in drums increases it.

That would be true except that the shoes also shrink, and by more than the discs.

I understand your point but partly due to reading the official report on the incident I mentioned above I can state as fact that you can have failure, or more correctly partial failure, of a handbrake on a vehicle with rear drums.

There are lots of variables of course, such as how heavy the vehicle concerned is and how hard it has been driven prior to being parked or if the person parking the vehicle applied the handbrake with the foot brake depressed, as I was.

To say drum brakes don't suffer from this problem is quite simply incorrect.

For context here is a link to one of the early press reports.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/51332/Kids-ambulance-kills-tot.html

The vehicle was originally based at my Complex but was transferred to School and Events at Ilford a few months before the incident, you will note that they painted the bonnet yellow and put on a fresh livery to make it look like an X Reg vehicle.

And yes, the lock to stop it being knocked out of Park inadvertently was far from brilliant on that particular vehicle. I should know as I drove it hundreds of times over thousands of miles.

And there is no way that a child could get he handbrake of on an LDV Convoy, even some road staff struggled due to the position of the lever and how difficult it was to get the release button depressed.

But there is no way a large Ambulance Trust is going to take the blame.