Electronic Parking Brake in Golf 7

[Guest001]

To get the car on the tow track.

Put rears on go jacks and pull it up.

Only thing I have found is if I wash car and put it away with wet rotors and h/brake on the pads tend to stick a bit and go off with a bang next time it releases. Scares Sh** out of wife

[Captain Courteous]

Wasn't the whole point of a handbrake was so that if your brakes fail you would have a mechanical back up ?? I think it is a stupid idea !

Step backwards in that regards .... In regards to space, how much room are you using near the handbrake ???

Hypothetical situation: cars brakes fails and loss of electronic power ... What happens ? Are there any fail safes ? This whole adaptive cruise stuff etc is just making us lazy as drivers in general. Lane changing feature is a good one though !
I've yet to see a computer that has not failed yet .

Agree.
Years ago I was in a situation where the foot brake failed. I stopped by gearing down and applying the hand brake.
Fast forward to now. If I'm in the same situation (knock on wood) with a car equipped with this tech, what are my options? Do I just click the button up and just hang out? Doesn't seem safe to me...

I think guys that's the future and you will just have to learn to live with it.

hm. if that's the case i ought to get the scirocco now before they ruin it with this in the next gen....

Agreed.
It wont be long till its DSG across the board and no manual too...

sad face.

[wai]

Agree.
Years ago I was in a situation where the foot brake failed. I stopped by gearing down and applying the hand brake.
Fast forward to now. If I'm in the same situation (knock on wood) with a car equipped with this tech, what are my options? Do I just click the button up and just hang out? Doesn't seem safe to me...

In their wisdom, with the introduction of split system (dual circuit) braking systems that are now required by an ADR, the powers that be decided to no longer actually require a hand brake as they argued "what is the chance that both circuits would fail?". Technically, what is provided as a "hand brake" is actually referred to as a "parking brake" and why you have cars like the Honda CRV that have a foot activated parking brake which allows you to partially apply it, however to release it you have to first fully apply it.

I get involved in process hazard assessments and I can tell you that relying on a dual circuit braking system alone would simply not pass, even if supplemented by a foot operated parking brake that required you to fully apply it before being able to release, or an electrically operated brake.

[DoggieHowser]

I was driving down the slope the other in a manual van and hadnt realised the engine stalled (music too loud), so boy was I surprised when then regular brakes didn't work.

Craptastic moment. Lucky instincts kicked in.

[Volkswagen]

This thread is funny. Go read the passat and tiguan forums and see how many complaints the are about the electronic park brake. People just looking for something to complain about.

[djdims]

This thread is funny. Go read the passat and tiguan forums and see how many complaints the are about the electronic park brake. People just looking for something to complain about.

So i guess the general consensus is it's a bad thing?

I kinda like the idea.

[Tobes_WIR35]

My handbrake is only used for parking. I don't think I have ever used a handbrake in any of my cars for any reason other than when parked. This is of course taking exception to when I used to drive like a typical 17yo doing handbrake turns and so on.

Personally I'm not phased. As above, having brakes operate on two separate circuits is enough redundancy for my piece of mind. The likelihood of both circuits failing is so low it's not worth worrying about. You might be more concerned that a piano is going to fall on your car from a helicopter (especially if you drive a Morris Marina). Handbrakes are quite useless in slowing down a car safely from road/highway speed anyway, and if you pull it on too hard you're going to spin out and probably hit a pole or a truck anyway.

[clip]

I had it on the Tig and the Passat. Never had a problem, reversing up or down hills, taking off etc. The auto hold looks after it all, not the handbrake. Not sure about the VW system, never checked it out, but I know the MB system you can apply it in an emergency while the car is moving.

[team_v]

Not sure about the VW system, never checked it out, but I know the MB system you can apply it in an emergency while the car is moving.

Apparently it works up to 20 or 30km/h or so i have heard, so just gear down and then whack it on.
Not game to test it on my own car though.

[Ryan_R]

Haha I was actually thinking about this the other day coming home on the Fwy, and was thinking that I shouldn't take my usual exit and just wait for the next uphill section.... next thing I know I've almost missed my exit and had to do a quick mirror check and swerve

[JC76]

The way it was explained to me, in the event of an emergency you pull the lever up and hold it there and the car will pull up gradually. I guess if the rear was to lock up as in a normal handbrakey you'd likely lose control and spin out.

[readerr0r]

The new corvette has an Electronic Brake and no one seems to care?

[Digger11]

My Bentley has an electronic parking brake and it works.
It has the benefit of letting you drive off and it automatically releases.

Maybe we should all start whining again about space saver spares that are used happily all over the world except for Australia where we believe the gumph a few motoring writers make up about them.

[elephino]

According to the ever reliable (for a given value of reliable) source of Top Gear (TV), you can't use an electronic handbrake on a Bentley for handbrake turns on a rally stage

[Ryan_R]

hehe you beat me to that one