Toyota of Mt. Pleasant Auto Repair Service

The Pros and Cons of Using Your Parking Brake

Whether we took a driver’s ed course or had our dad teach us in an empty parking lot, everyone learned when to use the parking brake. Some of us were taught to pull the brake back every single time we parked, just as a safety precaution, while others were taught to only use it on hills. Considering the conflicting information circling around, this article seeks to answer the burning questions, “When should I use the parking brake?” In order to do this, all of us at  Toyota Of Mt. Pleasant Auto Repair Service in Mt Pleasant, TX are taking a look at the pros and cons associated with pulling that brake lever back.

Most of the pros are fairly straightforward. Getting into the habit of pulling the parking brake every time you turn the car off can be a good thing, especially since it gives you the peace of mind of an added safety measure. This is essential in a stick-shift car, since it will roll any which way without the parking brake. In an automatic transmission, however, the parking brake is simply a backup safety precaution most of the time.

This may be necessary if the car slips out of gear, which isn’t very common. If the driver forgot to put the car in park, however, pulling the parking brake will keep the car from moving until the driver realizes their mistake and puts the car in park.

Parking on a hill and only putting the car in the park can make it hard to put the car back in gear when you want to drive away. Putting the parking brake on can make this an easier situation to deal with. Parking on a hill isn’t the only time the parking brake should be utilized, however, because even when you park on a flat surface you are putting stress on the transmission if you aren’t using the parking brake.

The main major downside to constantly using the parking brake is that it can be easy to forget to take it off. This can smoke your brakes and cause you to have to replace the parking brake. If your parking brake hasn’t been used in a long time, or if you only use it very rarely, the cables could have become rusted. If this happens, they may get stuck in the “on” position the next time you use the brake. In order to fix this issue, you’ll have to have your car towed. So if you haven’t used your parking brake in a long time, you may want to have it checked before you pull that lever again.

 Toyota Of Mt. Pleasant Auto Repair Service, 102 Tankersley Rd, Mt Pleasant, TX  75455 

Sources: Autonews.com and cartalk.com