Electronic handbrake & P mode

[PWT]

Hi all - have taken delivery of my new Jazz EX today. Never had an automatic before. My drive has a slight forward slope, so in previous manual cars I rolled to a stop, applied handbrake and left the car in gear before switching off engine & taking my foot off the clutch.

Got home today with the Jazz, put it into P when I stopped then applied the electronic handbrake (force of habit). Of course the red light lit up on the little lever, so I thought the better of it in case of battery drain and released the electronic handbrake. The car then lurched forward a short way before coming to a halt. I then just left it in P & shut things down.

My question is - is P mode sufficient to hold the car on its own or should I be applying the electronic handbrake as well?

Many thanks.

[Kenneve]

I would apply the electronic handbrake as well, particularly as you are on a slope.
The red light goes out after a few seconds.

[PWT]

Thanks. Just managed to find it in the owners manual - what a hefty tome that is!

[Saycol]

I would apply the electronic handbrake as well, particularly as you are on a slope.
The red light goes out after a few seconds.

Agreed. Not sure what it does to the transmission if you rely on that and no handbrake to hold the car on a slope.

[Steve_M]

You can set the parking brake to auto apply when you turn the power off, it then means you never actually have to touch the button as it will auto release when you go to drive away.

[Kremmen]

Page 498 of the online manual shows how to set the automatic parking brake when you turn the power off.

If you regularly park on a slope then maybe an idea ?

Ah Steve and I crossed posts as I was looking up the page No

[Karoq]

NEVER! leave the car in P only.  The whole weight of the car is hanging on a very small pawl which engages in a cog.
Hanging  nearly a ton of car on a bit of metal about the size of your finger is
 NOT a good idea. Only leave the car in P on level ground.

[Kremmen]

The other point raised about the electrics.

If the parking brake is on or off it will stay in that position if the battery goes dead.

[John Ratsey]

I just use P when parking outside my house where it is flat and avoids the risk if pads sticking to the discs when not move for a week or three (which happens sometimes). However, I always engage the parking brake if on sloping ground.

The issue of the flat battery hasn't worried me. The 12V battery has to be very low for the ECU to not wake up and stop  the big battery from charging the little one. And if the 12V battery is that dead then I won't get as far as thinking about releasing the handbrake. Most of the light bulbs are LEDs so the risk of a light left on draining the battery is reduced and the telemetry shuts down after several days of vehicle non-activity in order to reduce the power drain. I had an HR-V with the electric hand brake and it never caused problems (and wasn't an issue reported in the HR-V forum) but one possibility for those who are worried is to get one of those lithium emergency car starting battery packs. If they have enough power to turn an engine over then getting the ECU and other essential components to wake should be an easy task.

[Bristol_Crosstar]

If the car is stopped on any kind of slope it's important to engage the parking brake first then put it into P so that no strain is put on the gears. At home I park my car in the garage which is completely flat and level so then I don't engage the parking brake, just put it into P.

[Jeff15]

This car is very different from auto gearboxes you may have owned in the past, in fact, it has no gearbox in the sense we have all understood in the past. Always use the handbrake, you can set it to auto if you want.

[John Ratsey]

This car is very different from auto gearboxes you may have owned in the past, in fact, it has no gearbox in the sense we have all understood in the past. Always use the handbrake, you can set it to auto if you want.

The transmission is indeed different but there are some gears involved (see

) and there is some form of latch to stop the transmission from turning when the gear shift is in P (it might be shown somewhere in that video).

[Jeff15]

I was just trying to keep it simple..

[Karoq]

John,
I scuttled through the video and have watched it right through some time ago. He doesn't mention the Parking pawl.
I have search high and low for the e:HEV specific one and can't find it.
However, the video below gives a an excellent view of how it works and I am sure the e:HEV system must be similar.
Go to 1 minute on the vid to avoid all the blurb.

[ColinS]

John,
I scuttled through the video and have watched it right through some time ago. He doesn't mention the Parking pawl.
I have search high and low for the e:HEV specific one and can't find it.
However, the video below gives a an excellent view of how it works and I am sure the e:HEV system must be similar.
Go to 1 minute on the vid to avoid all the blurb.

It is mentioned at 20:50