masterkyle wrote:hey tuners, I was wondering if there was any special direction to park you car while on a hill to lessen the wear/strain on the hand brake? Parking facing up hill or down hill? Is this direction different for front wheel and rear wheel drive cars?
Not sure if this has been answered before!
from a mechanical point of view... - regardless of vehicle type FWD /RWD / AWD - the hand brake system is designed to handle the weight of the vehicle on a varying degree of slope. remember gravity / gravitational force is the same regardless of slope.
to me the more important thing to be concerned about is the proper procedure to use the hand brake to avoid the premature wear or possibly damage of the parking gear - or parking pawl
regardless of parking condition -uphill or down hill...... come to a complete stop - apply foot brake - shift into neutral -pull up hand brake...release the foot brake thereby placing the weight of the car onto the hand brake - once car is properly set in place with the hand brake - now you can safely shift into park
added advantage of doing the above procedure is you dont get the hard shift when coming out of park
for manual gearboxes the procedure is the same...with a slight difference
for slopes uphill / down hill the driver may choose to shift into a gear as an additional protection to prevent the car from rolling.
dont forget when doing brake maintenance to use the proper lubrication on the proper components.
