Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny damage

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

You won't damage your brakes with the foot brake. Unlike most cars, it's pretty hard to drive away with the brake on. Mostly you sit there with a dumb look on your face, thinking "Why won't it move?"

As for hurting the transmission, the Prius transmission is always engaged, so there is no issue about stripping gears or the like. What you feel, as you surmised, is the parking pawl coming into position. Ease your foot off the brake slowly and it will lessen the shock load on the parking pawl. Either way, it's pretty tough, so you don't need to worry about it. Besides, the ECU won't let you engage the parking pawl if the vehicle is moving too fast.

Tom

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

My handbook says not to use the park brake in freezing conditions so the park pawl must be strong enough in Toyota's eyes to hold the car. They do however recommend chocking the wheel as a precaution.

BTW it isn't an emergency brake, it is a parking brake. I wouldn't want to count on a parking brake in an emergency.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

As I found out :redface: the Prius will start beeping at you if you attempt to drive off with the parking brake on.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

I don't think you will damage the "parking pawl" in the transmission. It's not a pawl from the pictures I've seen posted. It's a gear. The only sliding gear in the "transmission".

I always use the "parking brake". It's never frozen or corroded on. I -have- tried to drive away with it engaged (only once so far), and it did complain loudly ("what IS Pearl upset about, why is she beeping at me?!"). To err is human. To correct your error before it results in bad things is smart.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Every automatic transmission vehicle I have ever driven has done that, some worse than others. When I was with the Utah Guard, their hummers would rock back and forth until you felt seasickness coming on. There is some serious drivetrain slop in those things!

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Ditto that! Safety calls for redundancy, so always use the parking brake.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

I've never had a parking brake sieze due to freezing but the handbook says it can happen.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Setting the park brake also is how the rear "shoe" brakes are kept in adjustment, so it's a good idea to use it regularly.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

So, you may as well chock your tires too. Everyone knows that triple redundancy is even safer.

I NEVER hit the parking brake on flat ground. I also, to some, live dangerously by not hitting the 'park' button prior to powering the Prius off.

I will gladly take the added 0.0000001% risk that my car will spontaneously roll away on flat ground after the parking pawl breaks if it means I can make a quicker getaway for the 0.00001% chance that a carjacker is approaching my vehicle just after I park.

. . . Or maybe the 0.000003% chance that I see an airplane falling out of the sky and coming right at me in my parked car.

. . . Or maybe the 0.000006% chance that _ _ _ _ _.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

A lot of Patricks in this forum and some are smarties aren't they?

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Yes my 07 does that exact same thing too...the clunking around when it parks. You'll get used to it quite quickly. Its normal don't worry about it. I always engage the parking brake every single time so its now muscle memory which is what I want so I never forget to engage it. Especially when I really needed to.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Contrary to popular belief, automatic transmission cars are not designed to be parked without the parking brake engaged.

You should ALWAYS use the parking brake when parking. ALWAYS. In most states its actually the law also.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

I have always, for decades, applied the parking brake first then put my transmission into park. With my Prius, it's parking brake first, then off.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Although technically true, this is rarely enforced unless the car has run away. Michigan allowed substitution of the "park" setting in 2003 after a cop ticketed a bunch of parked vehicles that didn't have the brake set. (link) A lot of these laws predate automatics -- MN's dates to 1937.

In my home state of Arizona it's not required. Interestingly enough, the law seems to prohibit curbing your wheels (turning them into the curb to brace the car):

I put the brake on if I'm on an incline, otherwise I don't bother.

The 2007 Prius manual doesn't mention anything about the parking brake when it discusses going into park. The separate section about the parking brake says it should be used to "avoid inadvertent creeping".

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

After the looks my wife gave me in the past when the car rocked as she was getting out of the passenger side, I've always set the parking brake before I open my door.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Is it necessary to push "P" button before turning off the car? Sometimes I forget to put it into park, but "P" lights up for a second before everything switches off, anyway.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

Old topic, but as you're a newbe, the Prius goes into "Park" automatically when you turn it off. Note that this can be a problem if you, for some reason, want to leave it in "N". You can't.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

You can put the Prius in neutral with the HSD off by pressing the power button twice from off with your foot off the brake to go into accessory mode. In this mode you can select neutral but it will go into park when you turn it off.

If you are concerned about the rocking in park, allay your concerns by engaging the park brake before switching off.

 

Re: Foot park brake or not - concerned about slight rocking after park button pushed and tranny dama

When I street-park my Prius in the city, I always set the parking brake.

New Yorkers are notorious for trying to shoehorn their cars into really tight parking spaces on the curb with lots of back-and-forth maneuvering. And in the process, the car being shoehorned is going to hit the bumper of the adjacent cars, sometimes pretty hard.

Setting the parking brake in such situations sounds like a good precaution to me... As well as having bump strips on the bumpers (which I have).