OK, first off, I know a lot of you are going to say "just use the parking brake".
That's not my point, I consider this a safety issue, and I wanted to point it out to
those of you with manual transmission.

So I went to my Nieces birthday party (6 years old), and my sisters house is up on
a hill. Long driveway, full of cars. I park half way up the drive, behind my in laws big
trucks and go into the party.

I come out to find my box as the BOTTOM of the driveway, and inches from having
rolled into the street!!

Major WTF!!!

So I test this, I pull up the driveway where I was, park the box, and lock the
trans by putting it in 1st gear and power down the box.

My girlfriend and I wait about 10-20 seconds, and suddenly the box pulses
and rolls back about 6". It was as if I had my food on the brake, let go for just a half
sec, then applied the brake again. Every 5-7 seconds the box would pulse again and
drop another 6" down the driveway!!

Now I've been driving stick for about 15 years now. I've NEVER had a car that didn't
lock in place when you power down in 1st gear. Even my '74 Porsche 914 which has
an upside-down shift pattern (Reverse where 1st would be) you can lock the car
in place by putting it in first gear!!

I personally don't trust Parking Brakes at all. I've seen too many go, or grow weak
or suddenly out of adjustment when you most need it. I've NEVER had a car walk
away while in 1st gear!

So has anyone else seen this problem? I'm not sure what to do about it except learn
to trust my Parking Brake, but ignoring my issues with Parking Brakes, why is a
car locked in 1st gear rolling away!!!!

 

Whoa..that is NOT cool. Thank God it didn't cause a wreck or something.
I always use both the parking brake and the "leaving it in gear" thing. I'll have to watch for that though.

 

When I get outa work in a few hours, I'm going to hit up the
owners manual and see if it says ANYTHING about not relying
on parking it in gear.

I'm VERY lucky it didn't walk into traffic or into a relitives
truck!

 

I put my MT in 1st gear, and use the park brake. My park brake is not stong enough to hold my xB buy itself sometimes.So I use both.

 

Every manual for any car will say to use the e-brake, even with an automatic trans.

I would say that they car rolls in first because of the extrememly low ration in the trans. Try it again but leave the car in second gear instead, it should hold the hill better due to the ration difference.

 

Auto or MT / Flat or Hill I always use the gear and the parking brake

My Civic SI HB would do the same thing.. Leaving it in gear alone is not enough to hold it on extreme inclines, the gears turns and the car rolls until it catches again, and it will repeat itself..

Just use the ebrake and gear and you should e fine!

 

for all people who drive a manual

WOW PEOPLE U NEVER WANT TO LEAVE THE CARS WEIGHT ON THE TRANS ....otherwise u will mess up the transmission ....

ALLWAYS:
1) put up the parking break
2) take out of gear and take foot off break
3) then put back into gear and trun off the car

lets get it together people...

 

Yes, this is true. BUT CAPS ARENT NEEDED!

 

What is a "transmition"?

What is a "beake"?

It's difficult to take you seriously when you type like a 5 year old.

 

I think it's your nose raven

 

yeah, my brother always told me to use the e-brake when parked. he said that if i didnt, there will be stress on the transmission.

have you ever consider of putting a brick behind your wheel? i dont know, just trying to help...

 

Funny you mention that...some of the guys at work were suggesting I get some
chrome plated chock blocks.

 

where ever you heard tis from is a lie. your suppose to leave your car in gear AND use the parking brake.

this has also happened to me but only the steepest of hills.

yopu will not mess up the trans. where did you hear this junk anyways? read your manual lately?

 

Leaving a manual in gear doesn't lock the tranny in my experiences. It's basically doing the same thing as push starting your car. The hill must be exerting enough force that it's turning the crank just enough to roll a piston over the TDC. Of course, I'm just conjecturing here...

BTW, there's a reason they call it the PARKING brake.

 

i imaging the compression sort of holds the car from rolling away too

 

Exactly, and this little bitty engine probably doesn't take much to turn.

 

That makes the most sense I guess, only being a 1.5

 

did you read his post??? He IS suggesting both leaving the car in gear AND using the parking break. He was simply saying to put it in neutral with the parking break engaged and letting go of the foot break to get the stress off of the trans and onto the parking break... but then you put it back in gear. Nice reading comprehension. Let's not forget that you are supposed to turn your wheel away from the curb if you are parked facing uphill.

 

Yup, that's it exactly.

The amount of torque it takes to turn over this engine - even to turn it over backwards - is very small compared to the weight of the vehicle on a decent incline. Besides, over time, the 'compression" in the one cylinder holding the car from rolling will eventually leak down and let it roll.

An autotmatic transmission in 'park' has a locking pawl that tries to keep the transmission from turning, but those have a notorious propensity to fail (especially on Fords...).

A manual transmission in gear depends ENTIRELY on the engine not turning, and on low displacement, low friction engines, it doesn't take much to turn them.

Use the parking brake when parked with either type of transmission.

 

Now that's the kind of info I needed!

Thanks Tomas!

I guess I'll have to retrain myself to use the Parking Brake