Talk:Parking brake

message: The reason I added this new version of the definition to this technical term is because it gives it more depth. With this new definition you see how it works and what it does, but you also see how it came about and where it is really favored at. That is also why I added a link to the term for Drifting (automotive) as well. I hope that this contribution will be appreciated. Hopefully you all enjoy and look into Drifting as well because in my opinion those two work together hand in hand. Like surge and spice but when they come together everything is nice.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dreamwork455 (talk • contribs) 04:08, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Unfortunately, your edit has been reverted. It is understood that your edit has been made in good faith, however, it removed the essential lede and replaced it with an unsourced opinion. The title of the article and lede sentence have been long established as the parking brake, and a change of that magnitude must be first discussed. Please also ensure that an encyclopedic tone of voice is used when editing Wikipedia. Additionally, the topic of drifting has already been covered under the "Other uses" subheading. Your new in-depth description of the history of the parking brake may be added further in the article, however it is best to keep the lede concise. Refer to WP:LEAD for more information about ledes. Please feel free to expand this article after taking into account the above considerations.  Zacharycmango (talk) 04:00, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Reason why I'm adding what I added 

message: The article doesn't explain why a car can be stopped under control more easily with the footbrake than with the hand/emergency brake. It even states, near the bottom, that the two brake systems may use the "same mechanism". Why then, does a "handbrake turn" only occur with the handbrake? Surely readers should not be encouraged to try using the handbrake next time they need to slow down on a busy road in the rain at 70+ mph! 
:The handbrake or parking brake only operates the brakes on (typically) the rear wheels.  The reason a handbrake turn works is because locking up the rear brakes causes a vehicle to oversteer, or swing its rear out, whereas with the normal brake pedal, the front brakes do most of the work.  Additionally, the regular brakes are tuned to be much smoother and longer lasting under motion, whereas the parking brake is meant to only be used to hold a stationary car stationary, and stop a car in an emergency.  Neither situation requires the smoothness customers expect from standard brakes.  So in conclusion, the mechanism is basically the same, in some cars, but the purpose, design, and refinement are all different, and they (typically) act only on the rear wheels.  Dachande 15:02, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Difference between handbrake and footbrake 

message: im just curious because ive heard different sides of this argument, but does anyone actually know if its bad to turn your car off without turning on the parking break.  Some people say its bad for the transmission while others say its only really needed if you park on a hill. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.85.20.37 (talk) 21:35, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The reason to engage the parking brake in an automatic equipped car is not to prevent wear to the transmission. When you place the vehicle in park, release the foot brake and it rolls an inch or so then stops, that play was provided by your engine mounts. Allowing the vehicle to bounce off its mounts increases the wear they receive.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.83.129.146 (talk • contribs).
If parking wore out the motor mounts then they would fail under acceleration from a stop too.  There is much mor force put on the motor mounts from reving the engine than from parking.  The wear on the parking prawl is indeed the reason to set the parkingbrake before letting off the main brake.Z07 13:16, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parking with brake on vs brake off 

message: This is simply wrong: "GM's first attempt at front-wheel drive cars in the early 1980s"
Read about a 60's era car from GM with front wheel drive right here in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Eldorado —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Z07 (talk • contribs) 20:56, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  GM had front wheel drive cars in the 1960's 

message: The fact is that millions of cars were and are built and operated safely with foot actuated parking brakes.  The case refferenced in this article does not show a difference between foot and hand actuated brakes in general as the author claims.  It shows that a single case of late design change resulted in a single brake lever that was not designed correctly.  In no way does this show a "difference between pedal and lever [actuators]"  A leg is in general much stronger than an arm.  Therefore, more force can be generated by the leg than the arm.
"The difference between pedal and lever for activation of parking brakes was highlighted when NHTSA sued General Motors Corporation over the safety of their X-car family, GM's first attempt at front-wheel drive cars in the early 1980s (United States v. General Motors, 841 F.2d 400 (D.C. Cir. 1988)). The cars were initially designed to be five passenger models, with bucket seats and lever actuated parking brakes. However, a decision was made late in the design cycle to broaden the cars' possible purchasing appeal by offering them with bench seats, as six seaters; this necessitated a change from parking brake lever mounted between the seats to parking brake pedal. The pedal, however, did not have enough leverage to apply sufficient pressure to the rear brakes to hold the car on an incline, and without enough time to redesign the braking system the decision was made simply to use brake linings with a higher coefficient of friction instead, to hold the car with the pressure that could be applied through the parking brake pedal. However, this in turn had an undesirable effect; the increase in friction of the rear brakes, along with the (unusual for GM up to this time) excess forward weight distribution of a front wheel drive car and possibly GM's inexperience at the time with front wheel cars, led to a tendency for the rear wheels to lock up under braking, which led to the rear of the car slewing sideways and loss of directional control and/or spinning. The Court of Appeals eventually ruled against NHTSA and for GM, however, on the grounds that NHTSA's case for performance failure was based only on circumstantial evidence.[1] The Center for Auto Safety includes the case as one of its Safety Research Reports.[2]" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Z07 (talk • contribs) 21:10, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  This entire paragraph is a red herring I'm taking it out 

message: The article makes note of jacking only in this blurb:
"It is however, particularly dangerous when used in combination with a bumper jack at the rear of the vehicle if wheel block wedges are not used; jacking one rear wheel up will allow the differential to operate and the vehicle can roll off of the jack. This can be particularly dangerous if the wheel has been removed."
Bumper jacks are not common at all in modern cars.  Can you please give one example of a car with a drive shaft brake and a bumper jack?  There are none unless someone has built himself a one off custom car.  In that case the builder will know more about it than you or I.
What if the car has a posi-traction rear end?  What if the car has the pinion gear welded?
What if it is a SAAB 900 with front wheel drive and front mounted parking brakes?  Then you can lift the rear of the car all day with the brake wheels still on the gournd.
This note only adds confusion about parking brakes.  I will delete this blurb and add in a note on jacking safely. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Z07 (talk • contribs) 21:30, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jacking 

message: The first instance of EPB was not the 2002 BMW, but the 2001 Lancia Thesis. 84.64.117.245 21:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  The First EPB System in a Production Vehicle 

message: "In cars with rear disc brakes, the emergency brake most often actuates the disc calipers (again, with much less force). However, there are examples of cars with rear disc brakes in which the emergency brake actuates a small drum brake housed within the hub assembly (e.g. the Mazda RX-5, its twin the Cosmo, and older Toyota Camrys and Celicas)."
In my experience, rear disc rotors are shaped like Panama Hats, the raised part covering the hub drum brake that is connected via a cable to the handbrake. I believe the Porsche 911, at least the early ones, had rear discs but separate inboard rear drums for the handbrake. Either way, having two completely separate braking systems make sense - i.e. in cases brake failure.
:Risk of brake failure is not a good enough reason to have separate systems. Most brake failures are hydraulic related and therefore have no effect on the cable actuated parking brake. The other option is friction material failure, which takes thousands of miles of degraded performance and horrendous noises to become complete failure.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.83.129.146 (talk • contribs).
I have little experience of modern American cars, maybe they do use the discs (I doubt it), but I think the author of the quoted paragraph is misled or extrapolating from limited experience. 220.244.238.174 00:00, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The preceeding paragraph is incorrect. GM also sells cars in Australia. I know of GM's brand Holden, and I'm pretty sure SAAB, Opel, and Vauxhall are sold there too.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.83.129.146 (talk • contribs).
GMH sell no American cars in Australia. No American-made SAABs are sold in Australia. Opel and Vauxhall models are badged as Holdens. Karldoh 12:45, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Handbrake with Rear Discs? 

message: Added two references. Z07 13:04, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: references

message: I would like to see a more detailed description (and ideally a diagram) of exactly how a hand-brake actuates the primary brake.
Marquetry28 09:25, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  More Detail Required 

message: The article (titled 'hand brake') doesn't seem to use the two word form much, preferring 'handbrake' instead. However, it also it referred to as an e-brake, an emergency brake and a parking brake. Would it not make sense to use one term consistently throughout the article?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by O Cram (talk • contribs) 18:03, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Consistency? 

message: I think as many people said, this page requires more detail. Such as the difference between a foot brake and a hand brake,
and the mechanics of how a hand brake works.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.92.154.148 (talk) 23:10, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  More Detail Required 

message: Can you please provide a standard circuit diagram of how the hand brake(park brake) actuates the brakes on the rear wheels?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.136.14.9 (talk) 09:26, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Circut Diagram of the Hand Brake 

message: Would it not be more appropriate to use an image of a parking brake lever in situ rather than a disembodied one? ~Crazytales (talk) 21:06, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cromulency of lead image 

message: The lead has for some time read, "the parking brake, also calledhttp://www.tekstlab.uio.no/cambridge_survey/maps/81 hand brake, erroneously called emergency brake".   The qualifier "erroneously" has now been removed three times by Little Professor as "in common usage", "unsourced claim" and "No source there. don't break the WP:3RR rule". I thank him for bringing my ignorant attention to the radical novelty of 3RR.
As the (rather fascinating) linguistic first source indicates, "emergency brake" is indeed in common use (this isn't questioned) but only in North America (the home of the automatic transmission). In the rest of the English-speaking world, the term is almost universally "hand brake".
The question is though, is the hand brake useful as an emergency brake, or is it (as originally stated) a misnomer?  The second paragraph goes into this in some detail, although could use more references.
Further opinions would be welcome. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:43, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Terminology: "emergency brake" 

message: The parking brake should be used whenever the vehicle is parked. It is not an emergency brake, or "instead intended for use in case of mechanical failure where the regular footbrake is inoperable or compromised". That false apprehension is the cause of many accidents in the USA, and the failure of many people to use brakes when parked. The article is dangerously misleading.Royalcourtier (talk) 00:18, 4 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not an emergency device 

message: It would be good to add  to the article.
1)Used as an informal alternative to parking break, mostly from non-native English speakers.
2)The side brake on early cars was a supplement to the foot-operated brake, and was operated by a lever outside the driving compartment and worked via a cable. It worked both as a supplement (the long lever allowed more force than a pedal), as well as a device for restraining the car when it was not being driven.
very early cars, 1900-1910 vintage, some had the secondary brake on the outside of the body
Early on in the use of hydraulic brakes (highly failure-prone in the early years) a simple mechanical brake, operated by a cable, was called the emergency brake, operated by a lever or a pedal, again via a cable.. Once hydraulic brakes were improved and reliable, "emergency" was deemed too scary for the car buyer, so it was renamed the parking brake which is what it is usually called today. In cars where it is operated by a lever, it may be called the hand brake. 
3)There is a firm that offers a "passenger-side break" for driving schools. It's to enable the driving instructor to execute a panic stop if the situation requires
213.149.62.151 (talk) 01:37, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Side break 

message: *P position in an automatic transmission (does not lock the drive wheels. It locks the transmission by putting a pawl into its gears.; expression "put car in Park"; when engine is turned off this does the same job; frequently used alone)
*no handbrake lever (in Vauxhall Insignia), instead there is a button-like switch - press it and the brakes are applied to the rear wheels electronically; click it off and the brake is off.
*many parking/emergency brakes are entirely operated by foot 213.149.62.151 (talk) 01:47, 14 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  contemporary alternatives 

message: …that the parking brake acts only on the rear wheels.  Plenty of cars, such as the Saab mentioned up there ^^^^ somewhere and many FWD models from French manufacturers, have it acting on the front wheels. Mr Larrington (talk) 22:15, 7 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article seems to assume…