Hand brake try this

Hi I was wondering if some one could clarify something on the Electric Hand Brake.

I have a manual (may be same on Auto) gear box Prestige. If you park the car and switch of the engine and do not apply the hand brake the red handbrake sign on the dash comes on and brakes seem to be applied. I thought therefore that the hand brake is automatically being applied when you switch the engine off.
However if you now lift the handbrake switch you can hear what sounds like the hand brake being applied to the rear wheels. im not sure what is happening here but thought Id mention it in case someone gets caught out on parking on a steep incline as I am not confident that although on switching the engine off and despite the parking brake light coming on the handbrake is not actually being applied and you have to still lift the switch.

Certainly on the auto when you switch off, the "handbrake" is automatically applied. Although in the main I normally set the dial to "P" first.

I have an auto and just switch off and assume it's not going to roll away

A bit unnerving at first.

(16-08-2012 08:35pm)IKM Wrote:  Certainly on the auto when you switch off, the "handbrake" is automatically applied. Although in the main I normally set the dial to "P" first.

You don't need to do this.
Just switch the engine off, it will flash and as the dial sinks back down it'll flick itself back to Park.

(16-08-2012 09:46pm)RacingSnake Wrote:  You don't need to do this.
Just switch the engine off, it will flash and as the dial sinks back down it'll flick itself back to Park.

Just habit I guess. Also lets my 11yr old move the dial to P when we park.

(16-08-2012 08:32pm)Ianpembs Wrote:  Hi I was wondering if some one could clarify something on the Electric Hand Brake.

I have a manual (may be same on Auto) gear box Prestige. If you park the car and switch of the engine and do not apply the hand brake the red handbrake sign on the dash comes on and brakes seem to be applied. I thought therefore that the hand brake is automatically being applied when you switch the engine off.
However if you now lift the handbrake switch you can hear what sounds like the hand brake being applied to the rear wheels. im not sure what is happening here but thought Id mention it in case someone gets caught out on parking on a steep incline as I am not confident that although on switching the engine off and despite the parking brake light coming on the handbrake is not actually being applied and you have to still lift the switch.

The handbrake is applied automatically, pulling the lever will activate it again, like giving it an extra tug! I rarely activate it when leaving the vehicle.

I have never used the handbrake switch as there is no need.

I've acquired a bad habit after 3 months with the Evoque... I keep forgetting to apply the parking brake in my Mercedes.

I still use it at traffic lights, but I guess autos you dont need to as you can place in park, whereas manuals it allows you to release the foot brake to save warping the discs by holding hot front pads on the discs.

And you should apply the handbrake when stopped incase some fool slams in the back of you and tries to jettison you into the car infront, or worse the crossing traffic.

In traffic I always manually engage the EPB when stopped at traffic lights - it's one of my pet hates people holding their car on the foot brake and burning out the eyes of the following car drivers with the bilevel brake light.
The whirring noise you here is the small electric winch tensioning the brake cable - all the modern Land Rovers except the Defender (and possibly Freelander2, I don't know about them) now have the same system.

The real party trick of the EPB is to engage it while moving........................ it activates the ABS, EBDF and DSC and the Hazard warning lights as well as the rear brakes to bring you up very very quickly indeed, as in an emergency stop.