"P" shift position vs. PARK button

I'm not that familiar with gen 5, but it has electronic parking brake? I'd surmise "P" button "shifts" the transaxle to park, which activates a "parking pawl", a pin that move in, to lock the transaxle from turning, mostly, but the car will be able to roll an inch or two. And it's somewhat "all the eggs in one basket", a relatively weak deterrent to movement.

On the other hand, if you push the "PARK" button, you've activated the electronic parking brake, which is going to clamp the rear wheels rotor with the brake pads, preventing all back and forth rolling. And it's "belts and braces", protects the aforementioned parking pawl from undue loading.

My 2 cents, always use the electronic parking brake, but at the least use it when you're on any amount of incline.

 

By default the parking brake is automatically applied when you select P anyway.

 

You hold the switch in position for a few seconds to enable or disable the shift link. Dash message will acknowledge.

 

Manual says consider not linking the two in cold weather, but I didn't have any problem this winter.

 

It's not the most well written manual in the world, but as I read it, it says not to use the parking brake at all in cold weather.

 

It is a general piece of advice. There is a risky of parking brakes icing shut in wet, freezing weather. That said, it hasn't been an issue with any of my cars.

 

It’s like any car with an automatic transmission. Force shouldn’t be applied to the wheels when the transmission parking pawl is engaged; otherwise, it will break. Use the parking brake on slopes before you put the transmission in park.

 

Where did you get that diagram?

 

That looks like the kind of diagram you find in the New Car Features manual—that's the one that explains what all the parts of the car are for and how they do it, so when you're reading the Repair Manual you know what it's talking about.

Toyota Service Information and Where To Find It | PriusChat

 

Thanks. For printed service manuals TIS refers one to Helm Inc., but they don't have service manuals later than 2011. (They do sell owner's manuals for about $75 including tax, shipping, and handling.) Jeez Louise.

 

By the same token, back when you could buy the dead-tree manuals from Helm, you'd spend a few hundred for the repair manuals, something more for the Electrical Wiring Diagram, more if you also bought the New Car Features manual (a very good idea, because it explains all the things the Repair Manual assumes you know) or other extras like the Collision Repair Manual.

Now, you can pay $30 for two days' access whenever needed and have access to all of that, and it's all interlinked, and the wiring diagram lets you click circuits and follow them everywhere they go, pull up replacement pin part numbers and so on, and also all the technical service bulletins, service campaign announcements, and quick technical guides are there, plus the whole library of "University of Toyota" technician training course books, all included in the one price, as well as all the manuals for your friends' and family members' other Toyota models. Or you can have a month of access for $105—well worth it if you are new to the car and want to get familiar with the manuals and where to look for what.

And if an error is caught in the manuals, the next time you look online, it's been fixed; you're not carrying around a paper copy frozen in time. (Though people often do pay for a short subscription period and use it to download things for future reference.)

Also, as that wiki page explains, you may have various options to access all of that for free, depending on where you live, what your local library subscribes to, and so on.