Do you really need the emergency brake?

I have never used the emergency brake. My family lives in Dubuque, Iowa and there is extreme hills there. Never had transmission problems or issues from not using an emergency brake. I would go without the repair.

 

In the UK and Europe your car would fail the MOT "yearly test of being road worthy". This brake is not considered to be a parking brake here, but a secondary means of stopping the vehicle "the term emergency brake". This would also "if checked in a roadside safety check" would mean the vehicle taken off the road until it is repaired and tested, and possibly a fine for driving a non road worthy vehicle.

John (Britprius)

 

i would get it fixed. if you ever try to sell the car, or get it inspected and they check that, here in pa that would fail inspection. and the mechanics check those. plus i use it for my transmission's sake to take stress off the park pawl and internals. and you said your having trouble getting into park, i would fix it. last thing you need is to have that car roll away and hit a house, car, or worst a kid. not worth it to not fix it.

I would disconnect the cable back at the rear brake drums and use the pedal and see if the cable moves, if it does, put everything back together and adjust your rear brakes. my e brake didnt work when i got mine at 150k also. paid $4000. but all i had to do was adjust the rear brakes and bingo it works great now.

 

I would get it fixed to be safe. Sounds like your trans could fail and the car could roll away without the second brake to stop it the car could hurt or kill someone.

 

If the gen1 is designed anything like the genII or any others... there is parking pin/claw that engages when you hit P... if you don't use the parking/emergency brake while on inclines, you can eventually wear or out risk braking your parking mechanism. the rollback you feel is the gap between your current position and pin engagement spot...

you can use it to stop... that's usually why it isn't set very tight.. at highway speeds, if your rear brakes were to lock up because they are set too tight, your rear end will skid and you'll spin out of control (worse case scenario)

so.. it is needed.. probably... almost definitely yes.

 

Source: Famous Last Words

 

Sounds to me like your shift cable my be out of adjustment. This could be why you're having trouble with it staying in park as well as removing the key.

Brakes are kind of important. The more braking systems you have the better. Should you have a failure with your service brakes your parking brake will come in handy. $300.00 is miniscule compared to the costs that can potentially arise from an accident.


Avi

 

GenI and GenII Prii have completely different systems. GenIs have a traditional cable system connecting the gear shift to the parking mechanism

 

I'm not exactly referring to how Park physically engages (electrical/mechanical)... I'm simply stating that there is a paw that engages and it has "slack" of sorts between the engagement of the paw and actual catch of the paw.

not to be confused with the emergency/parking brake (rear wheels).

if it was my car i would get these problems fixed. these cars roll very well and even the slightest incline might be putting pressure on the parking paw, therefore causing some sort of damage over time. (much worse if you are at a location or visiting a location that has steep inclines)

I see this as general practice for all cars.. not just my genII or your genI... but every car I've ever owned or driven (or large trucks for that matter)