The highway code only requires you to apply the handbrake if leaving the vehicle.

However those whose motoring experience dates back to the 70s and 80s will know that mechanical handbrakes were usually inffective due to drum brakes at rear, rusty siezed up pivots etc. Putting the car in gear was just a standard operating procedure on anything but a level road!

But I've never heard of this thermal effect.

Have you?

Yes. Surprisingly, the highway code says you MUST apply the parking brake but says nothing about leaving it in gear or 'P' - which is what I do, only rarely using the parking brake so it lasts longer before needing repair or adjustment.

According to the muppet Policemen the Highway code tells you to leave it in gear and turn the wheels into or away from the kerb (they did not know).

Not read the Highway code since the early 70's when i passed my test to be honest, but who has?

I have. I looked up the section on parking, paras 238-252. I saw nothing about in gear and turned wheels (downhill into curb - it's the law on hills in San Francisco). Your policeman needs to do a little homework. A traffic policeman should have a copy on his person, or at least in the car.

But I've never heard of this thermal effect.

Have you?

Yes. Surprisingly, the highway code says you MUST apply the parking brake but says nothing about leaving it in gear or 'P' - which is what I do, only rarely using the parking brake so it lasts longer before needing repair or adjustment.

According to the muppet Policemen the Highway code tells you to leave it in gear and turn the wheels into or away from the kerb (they did not know).

Not read the Highway code since the early 70's when i passed my test to be honest, but who has?

Not sure why you're ragging on Plod for making a usefulsuggestion, as handbrakes (parking brakes) can occasionally fail, or as the OP's one did, not be set correctly and not work later on.

Putting the car in gear (opposite direction to down the hill) after switching off and also turning the wheels in/out so if all fails, the car just rolls to the kerb, is a useful tip, especially for older vehicles.

"Not read the Highway code since the early 70's when i passed my test to be honest, but who has?"

Predictably - I have. And the police officer you referred to as a muppet is partly correct.

Rule 252

Parking on hills. If you park on a hill you should:

• park close to the kerb and apply the handbrake firmly
• select a forward gear and turn your steering wheel away from the kerb when facing uphill
• select reverse gear and turn your steering wheel towards the kerb when facing downhill
• use ‘park’ if your car has an automatic gearbox.

I have actually seen a Vectra run away down a hill after being parked.

It slowly gained speed with me chasing it trying to get into the car to apply the handbrake but it slowly rolled to the bottom of the hill without hitting anybody or anything and was stopped by a kerb. I went to the house that seemed to own the car and banged on the door, The muppet who answered the door said it had just been to vauxhall dealer to sort out the handbrake as it was always doing it. I guess he hadn't read the Highway code either!

Edited by focussed on 17/04/2020 at 23:15

Stated in highway code para 252 - Parking on hills.· park close to the kerb and apply the handbrake firmly· select a forward gear and turn your steering wheel away from the kerb when facing uphill

Apologies for traducing policeman - I missed this very last para owing to boredom when I got to the last section 'Parking at night' - where this last advisory (no MUST) paragraph is!

· select a forward gear and turn your steering wheel away from the kerb when facing uphill

· select reverse gear and turn your steering wheel towards the kerb when facing downhill

Myself I'd recommend the opposite re manual gear selection - If facing uphill select reverse and if facing downhill select first, thus if you car rolls a bit, eg the bit of roll as you release the footbrake and the handbrake rear suspension takes up the slack, so the engine turns in the normal direction of operation. If not it can put cam chain or cam belt tensioner mechanisms under stress - this is particularly bad for engines with oil pressure operated tensioners especially when worn.

The problem with handbrakes (& foot brakes) is that they are ignored in garages until they see £££s signs - worn pads, sticky calipers, stiff handbrake levers .................... a lot of the problems (& expense) can be avoided by a wheels off fettling - pads out, calipers examined, etc etc

My Indie charges £50+VAT for the hours work. Even at £100+VAT at a main dealer it's a lot cheaper than sticking pads, scored disks and sticking calipers.

A D-i-L' Lexus CT needed new rear disks & pads in December - it was some £200 - not done at the Toyota garage with genuine parts as they intended to sell the car - it was £300+ at Toyota where the car was normally serviced. Car had done 83,000 miles on original disks & pads, pretty good but could have lasted longer had they been"serviced" instead of a squirt of brake cleaner.

wonder if Toyota hybrids with their regen braking get those sorts of figures?

Don't know about pad wear but it is quite common for the rear discs to need replaced due to lack of use/friction allowing surface rust to get more of a hold rather than wear ...

This fast rusting of rear discs seems to be an issue on quite a few cars, which tells me that rear discs were never needed on them in the first place and the car would have been better with rear drums for many reasons.

re the rapid wear of rear brakes on hybrids, i wonder if the vehicle's own stability systems have some input here, the previous Subaru driven not always enthusiastically by SWMBO also wore the rear pads rapidly, i put that down to whichever 3 letter acronym responsible doing its thing to stabilise the vehicle...as an aside one wonders if disabling the system might imporove fuel economy if the rear brakes are being activated individually to please the sensors.

the current Forester i have yet to see any warning lights telling me the stabilty system is operating and brake wear is normal all round, the previous Outback it didn't take too much enthusiasm to light the dash up but you can't feel if these things are coming into play because they do the job seamlessly.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/04/2020 at 08:00

All of the three cars of my own that I used for driving instruction, a Corsa C, Honda Civic 1.7 D and Civic 2.2 had no trouble with handbrake effectiveness because the handbrake lever was up and down like a fiddler's elbow all the time during driving instruction so it kept the cables, linkages and self adjusting mechanisms free and working as they should.I suspect the average driver doesn't use the handbrake much if at all!