Runaway Mini!

[Pica-Pica]

emicen said:

Pica-Pica said:

No one has really answered my question if this is a drum-in-hat set-up. That is separate parking brake shoes, and service (foot) brake is fluid operated calipers.

Except I did in the post immediately before that one.

They are NOT drum-in-hat, the handbrake cable actuates the rear pads, there are no separate shoes.

OK, simultaneous posts (time stamp is not always true!), your post was not up when I posted!

[hondansx]

Mr2Mike said:

RicksAlfas said:

Every time we have a thread like this, I can't understand why people don't park in gear.

Bizarre isn't it? Takes literally fractions of a second to do.

Not really bizarre. When I've mentioned it to regular people not into cars, they have no idea what i'm talking about. It's certainly not taught in driving lessons either.

In fact, my girlfriend refuses to do it despite me showing the leave it in gear 'trick', because the car moved fractionally after I demonstrated.

[grumpy52]

The modern flappy paddle gearbox cars are prone to this .
They default to neutral or have to be in neutral to switch off or remove the ignition key , add this to cable actuated disk handbrakes and when the brakes cool after a long run there is little or no braking effort applied .
I have had to recover several that have rolled away after the brakes have cooled including one that resulted in a brick garage having to be rebuilt and a couple that have flattened lamp posts .

[cuprabob]

grumpy52 said:

The modern flappy paddle gearbox cars are prone to this .
They default to neutral or have to be in neutral to switch off or remove the ignition key , add this to cable actuated disk handbrakes and when the brakes cool after a long run there is little or no braking effort applied .
I have had to recover several that have rolled away after the brakes have cooled including one that resulted in a brick garage having to be rebuilt and a couple that have flattened lamp posts .

In my experience with cars with flappy paddles the key only comes out when the car is in "Park" and there is a lock on the transmission that prevents the car rolling irrespective if the handbrake is applied or not. Other manufacturers may be different though.

[MDMetal]

hondansx said:

Mr2Mike said:

RicksAlfas said:

Every time we have a thread like this, I can't understand why people don't park in gear.

Bizarre isn't it? Takes literally fractions of a second to do.

Not really bizarre. When I've mentioned it to regular people not into cars, they have no idea what i'm talking about. It's certainly not taught in driving lessons either.

In fact, my girlfriend refuses to do it despite me showing the leave it in gear 'trick', because the car moved fractionally after I demonstrated.

Pretty sure it was in my little highway code/driving booklet when I learnt! If your lucky to own a car with a hand brake like the 350z you learn to park in gear on any surface as it's stupidly weak even after rebuilding. My missus always moans if I leave her car in gear as she always stalls it when she starts. But then she thinks holding the clutch pedal fully down wears it out some how.

[JuniorD]

Not exactly related to Minis and a failing handbrake, but there was a tragic case of a roll-away car in Belfast a couple of years ago where a 2 year old was killed on the pavement after a driver had only applied 2 notches of handbrake.Sobering to read of the possible worst consequences of such a failing.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ir...

[Mr2Mike]

MDMetal said:

Pretty sure it was in my little highway code/driving booklet when I learnt! If your lucky to own a car with a hand brake like the 350z you learn to park in gear on any surface as it's stupidly weak even after rebuilding.

I spent a small fortune rebuilding the rear brakes on my EP3 Civic. I bought and fitted new disks, pads, calipers and cables and managed to improve the handbrake from completely useless to almost useless

My drive is on quite a slope, so it got parked in gear and I chocked the front wheels!

[Martin350]

A lot of people seem to be down on the shoe in hat type of handbrakes.

I've never found them to be a problem as long as they are set up and adjusted correctly.

I do still leave cars in gear as a habit though, belt and braces and all that!

[grumpy52]

cuprabob said:

grumpy52 said:

The modern flappy paddle gearbox cars are prone to this .
They default to neutral or have to be in neutral to switch off or remove the ignition key , add this to cable actuated disk handbrakes and when the brakes cool after a long run there is little or no braking effort applied .
I have had to recover several that have rolled away after the brakes have cooled including one that resulted in a brick garage having to be rebuilt and a couple that have flattened lamp posts .

In my experience with cars with flappy paddles the key only comes out when the car is in "Park" and there is a lock on the transmission that prevents the car rolling irrespective if the handbrake is applied or not. Other manufacturers may be different though.

More auto than clutchless manuals have the full auto option .
But thinking back all the ones I recovered were selespeed Alfas so it may be a peculiarity of this make .
I tend to park in gear if in a manual and on a hill .

[Pica-Pica]

grumpy52 said:

The modern flappy paddle gearbox cars are prone to this .
They default to neutral or have to be in neutral to switch off or remove the ignition key , add this to cable actuated disk handbrakes and when the brakes cool after a long run there is little or no braking effort applied .
I have had to recover several that have rolled away after the brakes have cooled including one that resulted in a brick garage having to be rebuilt and a couple that have flattened lamp posts .

No, not all are. Mine defaults to park (locked transmission) when switched off
Parking cable operated drum shoes inside a disc are better (especially with park mode on auto trans)

[4x4Tyke]

hucumber said:

This morning I pulled up outside a customer's house in the work truck and was sitting quietly drinking coffee while my boss went to pick up some equipment. All of a sudden for no reason the alarm on the lady's 12 plate Mini started going off, and almost instantaneously the car rolled off down the drive and crashed into the garage wall! It was in neutral with the handbrake on, not an electric handbrake either as far as I could tell so seemingly no reason why it would disengage when the alarm goes off? Amazingly the car only suffered minor scuffs, while the whole wall cracked and bowed in which will require the whole front of the garage to be rebuilt. Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

Was your 'work truck' idling?

I've notices a lot of trucks cause very deep vibrations when idling, might be enough to help an loose handbrake to slip.