Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Tonight I had to borrow my dad's (brand new!) van to run an errand and it was the first time I've driven it in the dark. On the way back, I left the handbrake on. Even though the warning light was bleeping I didn't realise what the problem was until I stopped at the third set of taffic lights. I'd say I drove about 7 miles on surface streets with the handbrake on. My dad isn't worried about it but I am. I know I must have done some damage to it but would it be serious?

F.Y.I, I feel like an absolute moron for doing this.

It happens, don't worry about it. I guess it was inner city driving so all you are likely to have done is worn the brake a bit. Sometimes they can seize on so its good to learn when something ain't right and that comes with experience.

You'll learn for next time. It's not like you put the wrong fuel in and drove it around for an hour.

Don't feel bad, everyone has done that. If your car is powerful you don't necessarily even notice it. A van is probably a diesel and has a lot of torque.

7 miles is a bit far but the only real damage is wearing out the brake pads a bit.

Naturally you don't want to drive all the time with the brake on.

I still feel like an absolute berk for driving that far with the handbrake on despite the warning light going off. I have a head cold at the moment so if the brake was burning I wouldn't have smelt it.

I did this once before in my own car, but it was only for about ten-twenty feet and the car was struggling to move I knew immediately something was up. My handbrake needed replaced at the time anyway so it didn't really matter. But this van is less than a month old, so I'll be really upset if I've fethed up the handbrake.

Definitely not a big deal. I wouldn't think about it again, other than to remember it's off.

If its got a new brake and pads.

I doubt you wrecked it at all.
Put some extra wear on em yes, but its not going to be broke.

It can generate a lot of heat, which can damage some parts if it's left too long. I have heard of brakes on aircraft actually becoming welded to the wheel assembly with the heat, because the pads were worn through. It's likely that you just put wear on the pads, but it might be worth having someone check it over. There are a few places in the UK that do free brake checks, so it might not even cost you anything.

Hey FWC!

You didn't harm anything. The parking brake typically only activates the rear brakes on most passenger vehicles. Those brakes generally wear at 1/3 rate, compared to the front pads. So you'll replace the front pads two or maybe three times before you'd replace the rear pads. So like others have said, you've put a little extra wear on the pads, but you haven't done serious harm to anything.

I wouldn't worry about it.

But then again, considering your luck with cars.....

Did you ever get that insurance claim sorted?

Andrew

What kind of van is it? I hope it isn't a Vivaro (or any of the similar iterations), I wouldn't recommend them.

In my old car (1999, just got replaced this month) I drove 25~ miles or so with the handbreak on during one of the practice seasons for my license. Didn't notice 'till we got back.

I did it for some distance before on a back-road dash (it was a muscle car with crap tires) and it was fine. Pretty hot, smelt pretty bad and with a bit of a flat spot on the tire, but no lasting damage. If you were in slow city traffic it won't have had much impact at all.

@ greatbigtree

That's good to know. I was pretty worried.

@ AndrewC

I did! I won, and got a big settlement. It's not arrived yet but it's a Christmas present waiting for me!
@ Grogsnik

It's a Volkswagen Caddy, so it's well made at least.

Ouch, but it happens I've done it for a couple blocks. When it's daylight out double check the tires to make sure they are ok. If the brake was holding firmly it could have dragged the tires instead of letting them roll and it'd be possible to wear a flat spot. Most of the time it'll just slow the wheels down but it doesn't hurt to check.

Oh gak, the tyres. I didn't check them. I hope that isn't them ruined after only one month!

Try a Land Rover, driving 4+ miles with the brake on, and only realising when he couldn't make the turn properly at a mini roundabout. He drove into one of those metal fences they put near them, and found the brake was already on when we went to stop. He'd hardly noticed all that way.

Before that, I had assumed the hand brake was the same as the other brakes, but just seems to really just add additional inertia when going to move.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Oh gak, the tyres. I didn't check them. I hope that isn't them ruined after only one month!

I'd be impressed if you could drive a car and not notice the wheels dragging. The scrubbing, screeching and complete lack of control should be obvious even to the most newbie driver. I'd also be impressed by the car that has a handbrake strong enough to lock the wheels completely, lol. Not to mention if it's RWD or 4WD the car will have to move the braked wheels before the car itself moves.

I've driven cars with the hand brake on a couple of times, luckily all my cars are manuals so leaving the hand brake on is usually quite noticeable. I've had other people drive my cars with the handbrake on more than I've done it myself.

DId you notice the burning smell? When I did that back when we used our feet to stop the car, I notice a burning smell when I left the break on. So I decided to live in Texas, where it was flat and I wouldn't need a parking break ever again...

That's the thing; there was no screeching burning tyres, no drag, nothing at all to tell me that something was up besides the warning light which I'd forgetten the meaning of. That's actually why I kept driving. There was no indication that something was wrong...besides a light and noise.

Did you only have it partway on? That might explain it.

Don't beat yourself over it - we'll call and have others beat you over it :-)

I'm sure nothing really happened. Take it on a short spin to test the tires, alignment, and ability to brake, and just don't do it again.

I developed a procedure that I passed to the daughter. You could modify and apply.

look around to see if looks safe.
stop
look around to make sure safe
lights off
keys in hand
lock door with key.
rob bank. (oops did I say too much)

 Future War Cultist wrote:
That's the thing; there was no screeching burning tyres, no drag, nothing at all to tell me that something was up besides the warning light which I'd forgetten the meaning of. That's actually why I kept driving. There was no indication that something was wrong...besides a light and noise.

The burning smell will be the brakes not the tyres.

If the tyres are locked, you will know. You wouldn't get 7 miles without crashing if the tyres were locked because you'd have little to no control over the car.

But yeah, most people have driven down the street or something with the handbrake on at least once in their lives. The only reason I haven't really gotten far with hand brakes on is because in manuals you'll usually notice the extra effort required to stop the engine stalling when you take off.

Yeah. Once. It's less an "Emergency" Brake and more a "Ruin my gas mileage and make the car smell funny" Brake.

Rear drums work on a mechanical ratchet system. On new cars you have to engage the parking brake numerous times before you are even getting full contact between the pad and drum. If you did not notice a noise or smell, like others have mentioned, the brake has probably not fully seated yet. But, even if they have the minimal pressure supplied by rear brakes will cause little to no damage unless you were out doing like 70mph for 30 miles on the highway.

It appears that I didn't have the handbrake fully engaged at the time so I think I got off easy.

A couple of times.

In my defence, I'm learning to drive in a car (previous licence was for a donorcycle - which don't have parking brakes).

Fortunately, the car has alarms for everything ...
Driver's door open and key in ignition - alarm.
Key in ignition + driver's seatbelt not locked in - alarm
Parking brake on and vehicle under power - alarm
Headlights left on - alarm.

Haven't driven more than about a block with it on. The alarm is too damn annoying. Usually it goes off because whilst I have released it, I haven't pushed the lever down fully enough.

I did it a short time with no damage.
But I noticed in a minute or so as manual 1.0

You seriously notice when it partly on.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Oh gak, the tyres. I didn't check them. I hope that isn't them ruined after only one month!

You didn't.

I once went ten miles or so with the brake on, becausd I set it before changing a flat tire. Nothing happened.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
In my old car (1999, just got replaced this month) I drove 25~ miles or so with the handbreak on during one of the practice seasons for my license. Didn't notice 'till we got back.

25 is a lot ! I drove less than a mile, as the slowness of the car and the funny smell alerted me.

yes, a few times.

I did it once, driving down a busy motorway at night wondering why I was struggling to accelerate past 50mph with my agitated Dad barking at me "Drive faster, you're holding up the traffic!"

Turned out the plonker had nudged the handbrake with his elbow and triggered it. (My cars handbrake has a very sensitive bite point).