Parking On A Ramp

you missed it....

Even the part about releasing the parking brake when you got back in?

"When I got again into the car I held the brake, turned the start key, placed the shift in "N" or "R".

OOOPS sequence is as follows: 1. held service brake, 2. turned start key, 3. placed shift in N or R and (I actually felt a certain resistance on the shift lever which was followed by a trepidation and the sound) and finally released the parking brake.

As Ron has stated, it doesn't take much stress to put considerable tension in things.

Maybe try the neutral thing I suggested to be sure.

The other thing to consider is that when you get back in and start it, even though you have set the brakes the power steering booster has not had time to energize the brake system. So, there's a fraction of a second that the car might move backward slightly.

Confused yet?

Well I actually pump the brake a couple of times before starting the engine, but despite that, the car tends to move a bit backward

I'm guessing you mean move backward when you release the parking brake?

despite the ramp is not THAT steep, the parking brake hardly keeps the car braked, so I start the engine, boost the brakes before shifting from P to R, to finally release the parking brake. The clunking sound comes when doing the shifting

As you pull the shift level out of park, right? Do you feel any movement associated with the clunk?

yes, the car makes a sort of a short backward jump that is associated to the clunk I described earlier. On manual cars something alike happens when you leave the car on a ramp in first gear and disengage the shift lever passing it to Neutral without using the clutch.

Maybe try leaving the emergency brake engaged until after you have shifted into reverse or neutral?

_{Buy your wife a shorter car?}

You wrote:-

Park the car, hold the service brake, shift into neutral, set the foot brake, take foot off service brake, shift into park, turn off car.

That is to my mind wrong, maybe partly a terminology error, (the USA calls things different to the rest of the world....) it should be written to make sure no misunderstandings. For example you cannot set a foot brake in any car I have driven, but you can set the park brake with your foot on some cars like Volvo and Mercedes for example).

It should go like this so you don't "wind up" the automatic gearbox and cause problems:-

1) Park the car,

2) hold with the foot brake,

3) set the hand/park brake,

4) take foot off foot brake warily! (check car does not roll more than an inch or two at max backwards, get repaired if true. A small movement is normal, sometimes the rear of the car rises and brakes groan, that's not a problem),

5) shift into park,

6) turn off engine.

The key component is that the handbrake MUST be good enough on its own to hold the car on the slope. But it is illegal in most countries to leave a car without selecting park or a gear on a manual box as well, in case of failure of brakes on an incline.....

Driving away:-

1) Leave in park to start the engine,

2) press on foot brake,

3)shift into the relevant gear (reverse or drive, though if you can select first gear only on your automatic, this may be better assuming you parked up backwards) as it will slow the car down a lot when done with no gas pedal.

4)release hand/park brake,

5) release foot brake slowly, control speed with foot brake carefully

6) drive down slowly.....

Expect a slightly shortened brake life, maybe the gearbox might need adjusting more often depending upon box type/design, I am not absolutely certain....automatic mechanics?

I personally would park up backwards if it was me......but I would never buy a house so low down that I needed to do this (which is why I am on top of a hill, 15 - 20 meters higher than the village below, with no river in sight for 1 km!!)

Right, set the PARKING brake.

Good catch.

Though the UK Highway Code recommends leaving the car in gear when parked on a hill (reverse when facing downhill, first when facing uphill) it is not actually illegal here to ignore that advice. I'm pretty sure the same is true in Germany.
That said, it's only sensible to have a second braking system on a hill, whether it be an automatic or manual gearbox. The issue is solely in which order to activate or release the two systems.

This advice cannot possible be intended for automatic transmissions.

I do not have an automatic transmission, so you know best. My impression, though, was that the P position on an automatic selector represented a Parking position, intended as a second braking system.

It certainly does, but the mechanism can get "locked" when on a steep hill, which means that you have to drive UP the hill a tiny distance first, I am told that it can be loud......the US Guys here will know that better than I do.....and explain it better too.....

That was a vague memory of when I studied for my test in 1963......in the UK.

I still do it as do all my family. I will check up for Germany when my daughter is here tomorrow...

Yes, you are right, misunderstandings may happen because of the different way many issues are described in English worldwide. In my case, "terminology errors" happen quite often cause English is not my mother tongue... but I am working on that! In Argentina it is noon by now. In 2 hours I have an appointment at Honda to have the parking brake checked: the "clunk" is always there, no matter how I park.

I wish I could find a hill in the island I live at! This is a flat alluvial area at the mouth of of the Paraná river. Every now and then there are high tides that get combined with winds from the SE, causing (a not very significant) flooding. Every 10 or 15 years you may find 1 meter of water at your front door. The positive part of this is that you can go fishing without leaving home!

LOL!!!

Andy You got my drift right. You understand what I was trying to get accross. You are correct that terms from different countries will be interpeted differently. You are coorect in the way that I wanted the answer to be. Thanks

Its fun working together with you. Have a great day.

I've noticed that the pawls are much more forgiving in the newer cars...probably the car mfrs. trying to overcome our shortcomings (the lesser of our brethren, anyway).

As a result, however, the parking brake is much more important when parking on a slope of any kind. It used to be that one didn't want to set the e-brake too many times on a slope with the nose pointed upwards as this would tighten the rear (drum) brakes too much and cause excessive wear. (The automatic tensioners on some drums were set by applying the brakes while moving backwards after changing the shoes. You appear to be young enough to remember this.)

So far, I am starting to miss manual transmission cars!

Automatic cars should do everything FOR YOU! Obviously, it is defective.

Call the manufacturer and have them replace it!

I called Mr. Soichiro Honda and told him about my CRV, the ramp issue, and that you suggested to have it replaced. His reply was quite short: こら やめなさい (kora yamenasai). I do not dare to translate this into english!

Each term of the phrase I attributed in my joke to the founder of Honda Motors may have different meanings, but all together "Kora yamenasai" means only one thing: f** you

Thanks......

Means: Hey stop it!

I'm with Ronseto

Easy test, if the Parking Brake is holding fine on this gentle slope, tomorrow throw a brick behind the wheel and leave it in N overnight.

No clunk it is Parking Pawl.

If you get clunk, it is possibly tension letting off in the Parking Brake system.

I'm also with Ronset.

When you try the brick, place the brick(s) first, drive onto the ramp, past the brick(s), then reverse onto them, let the brick(s) hold your position before you put the car in park, set the brake and turn the engine off. Then, if you get a clunk it is not the pawl and is probably the brake.

Happy New Year to you r&d,

"I have to leave the car when my wife does not let enough space on the flat part"

Teach your wife to pull her car completely onto the flat part so you have room to park on the flat part and not on the short ramp.....................problem solved

And this advice is from a married man!

I've found that it's easier to herd cats on foot than it is to teach a wife.

I finally had to get ride of my first one. She was totally un-trainable.

Hi KJK! please let me ask you a personal question: are you single? ... cause if not you certainly would know it makes no sense to expect one´s wife to leave some room to park the car!

Lyn and r&d,

You both have a very good point.

I am sitting here laughing out loud at the realization of my initial ludicrous post.

Thanks for snapping me back to reality....what could I have been thinking

"Teach your wife..."

BwahahahahahahahahahhahaHAHAHAHAHA!

You funny, funny man

You state "despite the ramp is not THAT steep, the parking brake hardly keeps the car braked", In this case the park brake is not working properly The park brake is required to hold the vehicle on any slope with out allowing any movement, This tells me your park brake requires some attension as it isn't working properly it may just need adjusting to make it work correctly.

I am in Australia & 1 of the test to pass roadworthy inspection before registering a vehicle is the park brake should stop a rolling vehicle after 10 clicks of the ratchet on the hand brake if it failed to do this the vehicle didn't pass the roadworthy & required adjustment or replacement of the park brake pads & I think this is what you need to look at

The way I have always been told to park an automatic was hold foot brake on, put in neutral & apply parking brake, release foot brake so park brake holds vehicles weight, then put in to park.

If I ever parked our old ford fairlane on a slope with out doing this ie put gear box in park before applying park brake first, it would jam the park lock in gear box & it was impossible to get it out of park with out moving the car to take presure off the park lock in gear box & the clunking you hear is the gear box park lock releasing with a lot of presure on it & this can damage the gearbox

Hi brettj1au, as I said, I have no experience at all in automatic cars, cause is the first time in my lifetime I own one; and cause in Argentina they probably represent less than a 10% of the registered cars. In regard to this CRV: it´s brand new (i hardly drove it more than 400 Km). What you say about the parking brake sounds right to me, and I will have it fixed immediately. You have won a positive vote!

Driven Honda CRV for 10 years - best car ever had! (spare wheel a bummer though)

Stop - (how you like!) - neutral gear lever, parking brake, g/lever opposite to slope.

Start - neutral gear lever, start engine, engage g/lever, release hand brake,.. Go!

Wise to turn steering wheels always into the curb (or side) just in case of rolling.

jt.

Drive every journey as if you know you may not arrive, - then you probably will!

GA! Last evening I left the car parked with the front wheels on the ramp, leaving the rear on even surface. I will have the parking brake fixed ASAP and try it to park it the way you (and some other) suggest. There is no curb on my ramp, so I only can rely on the parking brake and gear-box.

The way I left it last evening (rear wheels before the ramp) is just temporary due to the flooding risk and cause the rear bumper remains quite close to the sliding garage door at the front of my house

The one item I have seen mentioned here...... the parking brake will hold the car better in the forward direction. I am not exactly sure why but that has been my experience. If you back the car up the ramp, apply the parking brake then place in park.

This was true with drum brakes, due to the design/action of the brake shoes against the drum. Disk brakes are immune from this effect.

Definitely do not do what you were doing first. This loads the park pawl completely, producing a clunk when you take it out of park no matter what you do at that time.

You must make the car completely stationary and held in place by the parking brake alone before putting the car in park. This means that the handbrake will have to be yanked hard with the car in drive, foot on the brake. Go to neutral and release the foot brake. If the car drifts back, then you must pull harder on the handbrake. If you cannot get the car completely stationary with the hand brake, then the dealer needs to fix it. To avoid load on the parking pawl the parking brake must take the full load. You cannot hurt the parking brake by applying it really firmly. You will find that with it so applied, you will have to pull hard to be able to press its release button, when you want to drive.

Putting something under the wheel is probably not a good solution. If the car drifts back against the chock (deflecting the tire, etc) then the chock will be impossible to remove. If you whack it out of the way with a sledge hammer, then you will have put yourself into the original problem again -- with the park pawl instead of the brake holding the car.

Be certain that you do not defeat this whole practice by removing the parking brake (when you go to drive off) without first having your foot firmly on the service brake. If the parking brake is released a little, the car drifts back against the parking pawl, and all your careful parking work is for naught.

I have an Odyssey, in which all this is very easy, because it has a powerful parking brake. In my Accord, it is not so easy, because the parking brake does not work as well: I have to really yank.

It took me a while to train the members of my family to do this right.

Thks!

Hi folks! I just returned from my appointment at the Honda dealer. The Inspector drove the car on a test-track with me on board. When at a speed of 50km/h he firmly applied the parking brake, completely stopping the car in a couple of meters with both rear wheels blocked. He did this at different speeds and same happened. Then we went to a large mall, where we did the "ramp test" he braked the car, applied hand-brake, released brake pedal (car stood completely still), placed shift into P and stopped the engine. Then he started the car: brake pedal, shift into N or R (no "clunk" at all) parking brake off.... and there we went. His theory is that when parking the car in the evening brake disks are warm. Overnight they get cold, brake works a bit less and this puts some stress on the gear box....

also said they sees this quite often, and that I should not care about this issue, cause anything that might get broken is covered by a 3 years warranty. Hmmmmmm !

Obviously it is a Porly designed park brake & they have no idea how to correct the problem you said they see this quite often, and that I should not care about this issue, cause anything that might get broken is covered by a 3 years warranty.

With past experiance the usual times when things brake it is the day or week after the warranty runs out so they are just hopeing things last untill the end of the waranty Typical of car companies they won't act untill they have thousands of complaints about the specific problem or are forced to correct the problem by the government

You would probbaly find the next model vehicle to yours will have a modified design of the park brake to correct the problem or maybe even half way throughy your model they might change it this why you quite often have to quote the month your vehicle was made to get the right parts

Is this your first visit here?

You trying to solve the symptom not the problem.

Teaching your wife to park solves the ramp problem by substituting a teaching problem.

Make the area at the top of the ramp bigger.

To teach my (second) wife is an impossible task: she is not tamable (nor was the first). No place to make a bigger ramp-top. No money to get a new wife! Currently in the search for a brick to put under the wheel!

Hang a tennis ball (or similar) from a string that just touches HER windscreen when she is in the right position......If you get high winds, us an old fishing rod with the ball mounted on the tip of the rod.

Show her how to drive slowly till the ball is touched, handbrake etc..

Re-adjust the ball's position if she changes her car......make sure that a piece of strong wood or similar stops her ever driving off the end, one per front wheel.

Your idea is really excellent! Can I use a brick instead?

It might work out a bit expensive on the windscreen, or did you mean for the front wheels?

Put your foot on the brake and stop the car. While holding the brake, put the car in neutral and set the parking brake. Let off on the foot brake to insure the car does not move with the parking park only. Now put the car in Park. When you get back in the car. Crank it up put car in gear and hold the foot brake and then release the emergency (parking) brake and then drive away.

EUREKA! I finally got familiarized to the parking brake of my car (it´s a double-action pedal: when you press it for the first time, it brakes. The second time, it releases) This requieres to learn houw far to press it with the first push, as if you try to correct, it get´s released, and you have to start all over again...

Finally: maneuver consists of: driving up the ramp: Completely stopping the car, placing the shift in "N" pushing the parking pedal far enough to keep the car stopped, but not too much as to damage it in the long run, release of the brake allowing the car to to roll backwards some cm before getting completely still. Lever into "P", engine off.

Thank you all

Well done, thats the way to do it as many here posted.....never "wind-up" the gearbox in park!!

Danke schön!

I am glad that what I said made sense and you have solved your problem. Now on to the next senario.

Sounds to me like the vehicle is creeping slightly & causing the drive train to tighten up so when you try to come out of park, a) it is stiff & b) when it comes out of park the drive train loosens up with a noise like if you stall a stick shift at low speed, try when you stop holding your foot on the foot brake, pull on the handbrake release the foot brake checking that the car doesn't creep then put into park, If when you return before you do anything else try putting it in neutral the shift should move freely if it doesn't then thats proof of creeping, (this last advice is assuming there is no cross lock between the ignition and the shift leaver, in which case you need to turn the key to release the shift but not to start the engine) If there is proof of creeping then it needs to be rectified ASAP.

Bazzer