Dangerous parking brake engagement (?)

[bgladewig]

Sort of embarassed to pose this question…

After driving my MY for a few months, I find that I frequently use the left stalk button to engage a single sweep of the wipers. But I have also found that I sometimes (carelessly) reach for (but haven’t pushed) the right stalk button for the same purpose while driving and I wonder/worry that if I push the right stalk button while driving, I might suddenly and dangerously engage the parking brake while driving.

Does anyone know if the parking brake will engage if the car is in motion? Is there an upper limit to the speed at which the parking brake will engage?

 

[thesmokingman]

Just to confirm I understand... are you saying that if the brake pedal isn't slowing me down fast enough to avoid collision, hold the parking brake?

You have to hold the button down. To be clear the parking brake is actuated by an electric motor/screw that moves the INNER brake pad to the disc, so it's not exactly a ton of pressure thus you have to hold it. You generally don't have to do this at speed cuz REGEN is more than enough to slow a car down enough to then assist it with the holding the ebrake in the worse case scenario of a failure.

 

[ATPMSD]

Just to confirm I understand... are you saying that if the brake pedal isn't slowing me down fast enough to avoid collision, hold the parking brake?

No! As long as the brakes are working they are what you should use because they are balanced and have an anti-locking system. If you use both the main brake and the emergency brake you will very likely increase your braking distance.

If the main brake has FAILED, that is the only time to use the emergency brake, and it is when it should be used.