Do you use your *emergency* brake? You should. Your emergency brake is not just for emergencies only. You should use it any time you park on any type incline. You know, when you pull up to the restaurant to treat your family to a great meal you have to park on an incline. Now, you're sitting there enjoying the family-get-to-gather, when you happen to look out the window and watch your very own vehicle rolling backwards toward that Mercedes across the parking lot! Did you set the *parking* brake? Probably not. A large number of people still call the parking brake an emergency brake: "That's my emergency brake, an I don't want to use it...I might have an emergency." But you should use the parking brake. That's what it's for! If you don't use it for parking, guess what will happen some day when you do use it? It will lock-up on you. So, what happens then? The brakes won't release and you will have to give it more fuel to get up the road (or down the road...depends on where you are going). When the parking brake locks-up it keeps pressure on the rear brake shoes, or pad if you have rear disk brakes, and this causes your engine to work harder...plus, not only will it take more fuel to get to your in-laws, it also causes the engine to run hotter than normal. It will cause your rear brakes to wear out sooner. I have seen the rear drums get so hot that it caused the rear axle seal to get hot and loose its sealing power...this causes rear axle grease to seep past the seal. So, from now on set the parking brake...keep it free, so the little cable can run to-an-fro to set and release the pressure on the rear brakes. You'll be proud of yourself for saving time and money by not having to take it to the repair shop. :-( |
