Great Tip! Squeaky Brakes easily fixed!!!

[Daniellane]

I had a Ranger come out last week.
Fantastic service...
I learned a few new things I thought I’d pass on, most importantly how to silence squeaky brakes.
In addition to pairing the 2 new key fobs with the new improved 80 bit encryption that I had ordered, he was swapping my wheels out for the winter from the Arachnids back to the stock 19 inch wheels.
Ever since I have had the Arachnids wheels put on my Model S, I’ve noticed considerable amounts of squeaking from the brakes that I had never heard before.
He showed me the cause of the squeaking.
There was a considerable amount of rust on the brakes.
He said this is caused by regenerative braking and hardly applying them as a result.
He said it’s easily resolved by turning the regenerative braking to low and driving/braking aggressively. A process he called burnishing the brakes
He said he would take care of it for me before he left which he did.
He took my car out for a quick drive and when he came back it was amazing - the brakes were clean and shiny like brushed stainless steel. Absolutely silent ever since.
Afterwards, he was sitting in my car when I noticed some strange sounds coming out of the rear wheels.
I asked him what that was.
He said “that’s the parking brake”.
I said I’ve never heard that before.
He showed me that if you press and hold the Park button in on the gear shift stalk, it more aggressively re-engages the parking brake which is what he was doing.
He said it can be useful when leaving a car on a very steep hill.

 

[P100D_Me]

He showed me that if you press and hold the Park button in on the gear shift stalk, it more aggressively re-engages the parking brake which is what he was doing.

I wasn't aware of any other way to engage it.

 

[Daniellane]

I wasn't aware of any other way to engage it.

This engages it even deeper.
Simply pressing the park button puts it in park.
What I’m talking about is pressing and holding it in for a bit and when you do that it actually cranks it down harder, even though it is already in park

 

[Russell]

I wasn't aware of any other way to engage it.

If you are driving your car and you encounter "sudden acceleration", you can tap the park button and it will cut the power to the drive motor(s) and apply the parking brake.

 

[Daniellane]

If you are driving your car and you encounter "sudden acceleration", you can tap the park button and it will cut the power to the drive motor(s) and apply the parking brake.

Are you sure?
That could be dangerous if you did it unintentionally. I always assumed it was disabled at certain speeds.

 

[drklain]

I believe someone else wrote about this here in TMC or Tesla Forums. Said hitting the park button when driving in motion did nothing (did not take car out of drive or engage parking brake).....

 

[Decibelle]

I just used the parking brake a few days ago on the highway to determine if the shaking in the car while braking was due to warped rear rotors. The Emergency "P" button needs to be pushed continuously and will apply the brakes after about 1 second and slow the car down gradually to a stop or until you let go of the button. It's not a very aggressive slow down when you drive fast, but make sure there are no cars directly behind you when you do this just in case they are not paying attention. I was always afraid of touching the "P" while driving as I thought the wheels would lock up like they do if you lift your butt while backing up (without seat belt fastened). Scared the heck out of me the first time it happened. The SC told me every car has to have some kind of Emergency Braking in case the hydraulic brake system fails and it worked for me.

 

[Daniellane]

I just remembered that I took this photo right after the Ranger “burnished” my brakes.
As I said “amazing”...

 

[P100D_Me]

The SC told me every car has to have some kind of Emergency Braking in case the hydraulic brake system fails and it worked for me.

That is true for most modern cars and not just Tesla, the issue I have with that is a car with an electronically activated park brake just introduces another potential point of failure in an emergency. If the car has a major electrical malfunction holding the park button won't do much.
I'm not saying manufacturers should go back to using a cable to operate it but that was a true fail-safe, if the engine is shut down and you have no electrical power for some reason you could still apply the park brake when it was connected via a cable, but hey that's progress.

 

[Russell]

Are you sure?
That could be dangerous if you did it unintentionally. I always assumed it was disabled at certain speeds.

Yes. Since there is no ignition to turn off, I was curious to know how can I stop my car in an emergency situation.
It's not much different than a panic stop. I did it at 5 mph.

I believe someone else wrote about this here in TMC or Tesla Forums. Said hitting the park button when driving in motion did nothing (did not take car out of drive or engage parking brake).....

Well, it worked on my car with v2018.44. I never tried it on earlier versions.

Edit: I emailed a sales associate after posting this reply and he said all Teslas do this.

 

[Daniellane]

Yes. Since there is no ignition to turn off, I was curious to know how can I stop my car in an emergency situation.
It's not much different than a panic stop. I did it at 5 mph.

Well, it worked on my car with v2018.44. I never tried it on earlier versions.

Edit: I emailed a sales associate after posting this reply and he said all Teslas do this.

Revisiting this thread, I noticed multiple descriptions of emergency braking by utilizing the park button. Here is the Model S owner’s manual excerpt on this...

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Yes, pressing the "P" for several seconds is something everyone should practice at least once a year, just so they'll know there are several ways to stop a Tesla.

It's just not a big deal, but getting rid of the fear factor is a good thing so TRY IT and practice to remove the fear.

Do not believe the brake lights turn on, so best to ensure there is no one behind you . . . .