Why you should always park in gear

roundthebend

Jonathangus said:

ICBM said:

roundthebend said:

I bought a banger in October last year for commuting to a new job. Inspired by having an old van with a dodgy handbrake I've been leaving it parked in gear, and without the handbrake on, since then.

Anybody who gets in the car with me comments on it - "you forgot to put the handbrake on...."

My wife hates it, thinks it's dangerous. I've tried explaining the mechanics but it doesn't work.

Why would you deliberately leave the handbrake off?

The whole point of why it's safer to leave the car in gear is because you're not relying on a single mechanism to stop the car moving.

Highway Code rule 239: you MUST apply the handbrake before leaving the vehicle

It's the law.

It was inspired by my Dutch pal who said he'd had trouble with frozen handbrakes in winter.
Since it's the law, I'll do both. I never knew that. Pretty obvious though, innit!?

cj73

ICBM said:

blobb said:

Always done this. Didn't stop my Dad's car rolling backwards down our drive which was quite steep. My mate happened to be walking past at the time and put his body behind it before it could roll into the house across the road. Looked out of the window to see what the shouting was about and there he was spread eagle across the back of the car shouting "your car is rolling off the drive...!!" in a sort of strained Alan Partridge way (think 'foot on a spiiike')

ok - bit of fun but, as above, you can see how it can soon turn into something more serious. Just be aware that a) most handbrakes are sh*t and b) if it's steep enough, even 2nd gear wont stop it turning over the engine. Couple of bricks as chocks from then on.

Why would you leave it in 2nd? Always 1st, or reverse if the car is facing downhill. The point is to make it as difficult as possible for the wheels to turn the engine against the cylinder compression.

It can save someone's life, as well as the car from being damaged. I've been going on about this for years and it's usually met with derision, a shrug or "if you don't check it's out of gear the car will jump forward when you start it" - which is trying to make a right out of two wrongs.

I was lucky, my driving instructor was very old-school and drummed it into me that 1 - you never leave a car parked out of gear, and 2 - you never start the engine without checking it *is* out of gear. In my opinion it should be part of the standard teaching and both should be an immediate test fail if you don't.

This, my now 95 year old grampa was a mechanic and always drummed it into us to leave a car in gear ( 1st or reverse depending on situation) and depress clutch and waggle gear stick before starting

Sassafras

Always have four housebricks in your car boot which you can place in front or behind the wheels depending on whether the car is facing uphill or downhill. 
For extra safety you could even use breezeblocks.

blobb

ICBM said:

Why would you leave it in 2nd? Always 1st, or reverse if the car is facing downhill. The point is to make it as difficult as possible for the wheels to turn the engine against the cylinder compression.

it rolled backwards (so facing uphill). 2nd because that's what I was told to do at some point when I was learning. My simple mind probably thought 2nd would be more difficult to overcome than first? Is this not true? I guess any gear is better than no gear though.

digitalscream

blobb said:

ICBM said:

Why would you leave it in 2nd? Always 1st, or reverse if the car is facing downhill. The point is to make it as difficult as possible for the wheels to turn the engine against the cylinder compression.

it rolled backwards (so facing uphill). 2nd because that's what I was told to do at some point when I was learning. My simple mind probably thought 2nd would be more difficult to overcome than first? Is this not true? I guess any gear is better than no gear though.

An easier way to think about it is...the easier it is for the engine to turn the wheels from a standing start, the harder it is for the wheels to turn the engine.

Ergo...first gear or reverse, depending on which way you're facing (the opposite direction to which the car would go in that gear).

Kebabkid

I'm glad Eric Jr is ok

ICBM

blobb said:

it rolled backwards (so facing uphill). 2nd because that's what I was told to do at some point when I was learning. My simple mind probably thought 2nd would be more difficult to overcome than first? Is this not true? I guess any gear is better than no gear though.

Whoever told you that was wrong. Any gear is better than none, but the lowest gear makes it the hardest for the wheels to turn the engine.

This is a particularly sad case... it may have been in 3rd.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/kiara-moore-death-inquest-wales-car-roll-river-handbrake-cardigan-a8654776.html

EricTheWeary

Kebabkid said:

I'm glad Eric Jr is ok

It has weirded me out a bit which is why I think I needed to share. Quite often he has some story about his day which is some issue about office politics and I've been there, done that but last night my eyes kept widening as he told this story! 

He's fine, although I suspect he'd be very annoyed if he knew I was calling him Eric Jr. 

mrkb

I always jack my car up, remove the wheels and sit the car onto a pile of bricks (or breeze blocks) and drain the fuel tank to stop the engine accidentally starting, whenever I stop - you can’t be too over cautious about these things!

sev112

ICBM said:

blobb said:

Always done this. Didn't stop my Dad's car rolling backwards down our drive which was quite steep. My mate happened to be walking past at the time and put his body behind it before it could roll into the house across the road. Looked out of the window to see what the shouting was about and there he was spread eagle across the back of the car shouting "your car is rolling off the drive...!!" in a sort of strained Alan Partridge way (think 'foot on a spiiike')

ok - bit of fun but, as above, you can see how it can soon turn into something more serious. Just be aware that a) most handbrakes are sh*t and b) if it's steep enough, even 2nd gear wont stop it turning over the engine. Couple of bricks as chocks from then on.

Why would you leave it in 2nd? Always 1st, or reverse if the car is facing downhill. The point is to make it as difficult as possible for the wheels to turn the engine against the cylinder compression.

It can save someone's life, as well as the car from being damaged. I've been going on about this for years and it's usually met with derision, a shrug or "if you don't check it's out of gear the car will jump forward when you start it" - which is trying to make a right out of two wrongs.

I was lucky, my driving instructor was very old-school and drummed it into me that 1 - you never leave a car parked out of gear, and 2 - you never start the engine without checking it *is* out of gear. In my opinion it should be part of the standard teaching and both should be an immediate test fail if you don't.

Well, you do live in San FranGlasgow

tony99

RaymondLin said:

I park it in P....it's an auto.  Then pull the handbrake.

remember trying to shift an automatic that had broken down, few of us at the back but couldn't even shift it. lad who was sitting inside to steer had put it in "p"......for "push"

ICBM

sev112 said:

Well, you do live in San FranGlasgow

I only work there . I do regularly drive up and down one of the steepest streets in it though...

tone1

The issue with 99% of handbrake failures on modern vehicles is the fact that the discs contract when cooling down, which reduces pad to disc clamping force... Shit non genuine parts wont help matters, but if you apply the foot brake hard before applying the handbrake it will definitely help matters....(official advice) as hydraulically actuating the brakes gives massive clamping force, then the handbrake will hold that force once applied.... and a diesel won’t bump start itself if it rolls whilst in gear....

BenSirAmos

Danny1969 said:

BenSirAmos said:

Except if you leave a diesel in first gear facing down a hill, it could bump start the engine if the handbrake fails.

The engine won't start with no ignition

Really? I thought they worked solely on compression. They don't need a spark

steveledzep

It needs fuel though.  The compression ratio in a diesel is so high, I can't envisage movement downhill to turn the engine over when in gear.

BenSirAmos

steveledzep said:

It needs fuel though.  The compression ratio in a diesel is so high, I can't envisage movement downhill to turn the engine over when in gear.

The fuel used to be supplied by a lift pump - that might have changed these days but you don't need electrics to keep a diesel running - even in my car I can remove the key and the engine will keep running.  The compression ration is not so high as to prevent bump starting. As to movement downhill - depends on the load. A fully loaded 52-ton truck might have little problem turning the engine if the handbrake fails. 

steveledzep

BenSirAmos said:

steveledzep said:

It needs fuel though.  The compression ratio in a diesel is so high, I can't envisage movement downhill to turn the engine over when in gear.

The fuel used to be supplied by a lift pump - that might have changed these days but you don't need electrics to keep a diesel running - even in my car I can remove the key and the engine will keep running.  The compression ration is not so high as to prevent bump starting. As to movement downhill - depends on the load. A fully loaded 52-ton truck might have little problem turning the engine if the handbrake fails. 

Fuel pumps are electric in most cases.  What are you on about with 52 ton trucks ?........we're talking cars and vans here.

tone1

BenSirAmos said:

steveledzep said:

It needs fuel though.  The compression ratio in a diesel is so high, I can't envisage movement downhill to turn the engine over when in gear.

The fuel used to be supplied by a lift pump - that might have changed these days but you don't need electrics to keep a diesel running - even in my car I can remove the key and the engine will keep running.  The compression ration is not so high as to prevent bump starting. As to movement downhill - depends on the load. A fully loaded 52-ton truck might have little problem turning the engine if the handbrake fails. 

Lol... you definitely have a fault if you can take the keys out of the ignition and it doesn’t switch the engine off....you definitely need electrics to keep a diesel running... 

BenSirAmos

tone1 said:

BenSirAmos said:

steveledzep said:

It needs fuel though.  The compression ratio in a diesel is so high, I can't envisage movement downhill to turn the engine over when in gear.

The fuel used to be supplied by a lift pump - that might have changed these days but you don't need electrics to keep a diesel running - even in my car I can remove the key and the engine will keep running.  The compression ration is not so high as to prevent bump starting. As to movement downhill - depends on the load. A fully loaded 52-ton truck might have little problem turning the engine if the handbrake fails. 

Lol... you definitely have a fault if you can take the keys out of the ignition and it doesn’t switch the engine off....you definitely need electrics to keep a diesel running... 

You are mistaken on both counts

tone1

So how do you switch your engine off then if it won’t stop the Engine when you take the keys out?.... maybe worth phoning your local garage or main dealer and get back to me....