Help Please

[martin 1965]

hi all, just joined.

 

i have a 60 plate 2l tdi company car, which due to my job i carry a lot of heavy equipment in the rear of the car.

 

today i parked in a car park with a steep slope.

 

when i returned to the car after completing my work , i found the car had moved backwards and hit a tree causing severe damage to the rear of the car,(it might have to be written off). the hand brake was still on, this has happened once before ,when i only had the car 1 week. (i thought i had'nt put the handbrake on,but i had).

 

has anyone else had experience of this ? as i may be in serious trouble at work if there is no fault found with the hand brake.

 

if anyone has any infomation / help i would be extremely grateful.

 

many thanks

 

martin1965

[wez_tdi]

Hi,

 

This usually happens to vehicles with disc brakes on the rear (happened to my mondeo ST24, dads range rover and my friends dads Audi A6)

I've ben told the reason for it is because when you've been driving, the brake discs are obviously warm with use, when you apply the handbrake, the brake pads sit onto the disc and all is well.

However once you've been parked up for a while, the brake disc cools back down, and as metal cools, it contracts. So the disc gets ever so slightly smaller - just enough to move away from the brake pad ever so slightly.

 

If you're parked on a hill and have a large heavy vehicle... gravity will work its magic untill something gets in the way (like a tree)

 

I always park my cars in gear anyway, as most of the vehicles i've had are cheap runabouts with poor handbrakes to start with lol! when on hills you should park with your wheel pointing in to the kerb to stop it rolling away.

 

Hope you get it sorted :lol:

[edatelder]

The highway code recommends you park with your wheels facing into the kerb if the vehicle were to roll, forwards or backwards, and in first or reverse gear.

Also, today's cars are too full of [electronic] gizmos like electronic/foot operated "handbrakes". Handbrakes should be operated by a good old lever that you can yank very tight on a hill. All these ABS, DSR, ATC, ASR, etc etc will cause us issues in 5 - 10 - 15 years time.