Forum menu
I'm away at the moment, due to get the train back tonight. Just had a call from MrsIHN saying she can't undo the handbrake on the car, which she'd driven to a local(ish) park to walk the dog this morning. I tried to suggest some things to try but by the time she called me her anxiety was beginning to peak so she decided to walk home. The upshot is that I get to try and sort it this evening (by getting the train to the next stop from the usual one, then walking half an hour to the car, anyway...)
The car is parked facing downhill, on a steep tarmac slope. When she tries to reverse hill-start to get out, the button on the lever won't depress. My suspicion is that, given it is a steep slope, she's hauled on the lever to put the brake on (rather than, say, leave it parked up in reverse) and now it's so tight that there's no slack to release the mechanism.
What are my options?
I bet she's parked kinda where the Tesla is in this photo (it's steeper than it looks on this photo too)
If she's right-handed, try with her right hand?
Don't focus on pressing the button, focus on pulling the handle up slightly before pressing the button.
Push footbrake hard when trying to release it?
You're married and the problem is mechanical = it's your fault anyway.
Pull up while pressing the button to take some force of the mechanism.
If it’s a mechanical brake, try pressing really hard on the footbrake and then try to release it? This will only work if the handbrake works on the same pads/shoes as the road brake.
Or, straddle the brake lever and pull up with two hands before pressing the button.
Good luck!
Sigh loudly
mutter FFS
but yes, pull up on lever and press button, don't focus on the button, focus on the pull up
tell her she lives in the car now.
DrP
Burn the car where it stands.
Sigh loudly
mutter FFS
Oh, that's been done.
Burn the car where it stands.
Tempting. We've had it just over a year, and we bought a Jazz as we don't really care about cars and just wanted something that would supply minimal faff with maximum years of ownership. In that year and a bit:
- An Ocado driver took a chunk out the offside front wing
- MrsIHN put a nice gouge up the nearside front wing
- Something fell onto the windscreen whilst doing about 40 on a country lane, causing a hole like a gunshot and a totally shattered screen
- The RAC have been out to get it started in the morning as the engine flooded.
- Last week the wipers decided not to work, cue much faffing trying to check the fuse and eventually disconnecting the battery for half an hour, which reset whatever needed resetting and they worked again
- Now this.
I think it was built on an native American burial ground