Umm i parked my car using the parking brake and while i was pulling the car out (parallel parked between 2 cars in nyc) I had the parking brake on. I probably moved a total of 4 feet back and forth at extremely slow speed (since i was pulling out of park) can this do any damage?

I ask because my parking brake seems to be weaker than before. When I park in my drive way, I usually engage Neutral while my foot is on the brake, then use the parking brake and let the car settle in on Neutral. Then I engage the actual Park on the transmission so that theres no loud thumps when I get it out of Park later... this always worked fine, except lastnight when I let the car settle on Neutral the car actually rolled back like a foot!!!.... didnt do that before....dunno if i actually damaged anything or if my parking brake just got weaker, not that the G has a strong parking brake to begin with.

 

DAMN, this happened to me a few times and I dont realize until I look at the cluster. Either my parking brake is worn or just sucks in general.

 

no damage done at those speeds and that little movement, u might just have wasted a bit of the shoes/brake pad material. If the brake is not holding the car as much as you like, you can get a mechanic or yourself to tighten the brake cable from the rear rotor hat, its a wheel behind the rubber cover tha needs to be turned with a small driver or special brake tool to tighten the cable and thus reduce the travel of the handle brake/foot parking brake and thus would hold the car more solidly.

If this fails then get some new shoes.

 

Thanks... looking for guides to tighten it up now. Hopefully its not the design of the parking brake it self thats weak

 

well typically the parking brake will keep the car from rolling downhill under it's own weight but if you're applying torque through the engine it's doubtful the parking brake will hold the car in place, i wouldn't necessarily tighten it....

 

quick question, when are you exactly supposed to use the parking brake? when parking on an incline? or always?

I only use it on incline so the car doesnt roll back when I park, but i've never know the right reason lol

 

Well, that kind of depends on what you consider weak.

First off, it's a good thing you refer to it as a "parking" brake and not an "emergency" brake, as many Toyota drivers learned (allegedly), a parking brake does very little to stop a car under power. The parking brake in most cars any more is a tiny little set of very thin brake shoes that rides inside a "drum" built into the hub of the rear rotors. Anyway, bottom line is that the parking brake is designed to HOLD a parked car, NOT to be able to hold the car stationary against engine power. You can over-power a parking brake with no more power than a Honda Civic offers; certainly a G could move out without much noticeable burden at all.

If you only moved 4 feet, I wouldn't even worry about it. Just apply it firmer to hold the same until your next brake job, then adjust or replace as necessary at that time.

.02

 

Parking brake prevents the loud thump you hear when u park on a hill... incline or decline. That thump happens when the transmission holds the entire weight of the car from rolling off... and rather than having the tranny do the entire work, if u use the parking brake the weight is held it instead.

When u r ready to park, step on ur brakes and hold it while u go into neutral mode.... then use the other foot to activate the parking brake... and then finally engage park in the tranny and then let ur foot off the brakes. This will ensure that ur parking brake is carrying the load and not ur tranny.