Both the G30 and the Volvo have automatic parking brakes. For a brief while and for the first time for both of us we had cars equipped with them. Both cars set their brakes at predictable times and were seamless in use. To be fair, the V60's brake was very subtle and stealthy in its auto mode. Occasionally you hear a mechanical sound but no sensation of the brake activating. The G30's seemed to obey similar rules but was a little more obvious when it set.
The MINI seems odd. The handbook says something along the lines of "the parking brake will set when certain conditions are met" nothing in the book suggests what these conditions are, although I found a You Tube clip from MINI in the USA which comes close to elaborating a little by saying it comes on when you put the car in "Park"
Any user info would be welcome !
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My Clubman (F54) puts the handbrake on when you put it into Park. Or when you rather lazily turn the engine off without putting it in Park, in which case it’ll put it in Park and apply the handbrake. Other than that, I don’t notice, nor indeed even think about when it puts it on. Indeed, until you posted I hadn’t even thought about it! But, you can hear when it does put it on, which is why I think it’s not often. Maybe on hills as well? Though Arundel has some pretty steep hills and I don’t recall hearing the handbrake go on!
Possibly not very helpful, but the fact I don’t notice must mean it works well :)
The only thing it doesn’t have, which the Merc does, is a ‘hold’ function on the foot brake, where a sharp push down on the brake pedal will hold it on the brakes even if you take your foot off the pedal. It releases when the accelerator is pressed of course. Catches me out in the MINI occasionally ;)
Last edited by: PeterS on Tue 12 Jan 21 at 08:30
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As an aside, at first glance I thought you were referring to the auto parking function that the MINI has, which will look for and then parallel park in a space. That works brilliantly. It’ll squeeze the car into pretty small spaces, certainly with less room to spare than the Merc, and is very aggressive in its use of space...the parking sensors will go well into the red at the front when it swings it in and at the back as you reverse. It always gets it right though!!
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Thanks Peter. This one doesn't have the auto park function (which my old V40 had and scared to good burghers of Llanberis, by slotting itself into a very small gap one morning)...I'm not convinced the Mini is right. It went in for a minor bit of work - compliments to Halliwel Jones - Mrs RP found a small nick in one of the alloys after the car had been delivered and the sales guy had gone on his was. She says that the the brake does not release when reverse is selected...a mystery. I'll check out the hold function on it and the Volvo later this week...the 335 had it.
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It won’t release the handbrake automatically if you don’t have your seatbelt on, or if the door is open. Otherwise mine releases no problem at all, forwards or in reverse. So could be a sensor issue I guess?
Mines a 2018 model, and one of the first with the 7 speed DSG box by the way, if it makes any difference. Prior to that they had an 8 speed one.
Last edited by: PeterS on Wed 13 Jan 21 at 07:23
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>> It won’t release the handbrake automatically if you don’t have your seatbelt on, or if
>> the door is open. Otherwise mine releases no problem at all, forwards or in reverse.
>> So could be a sensor issue I guess?
Yep, our Clubman was the same.
ISTRC there was about a 3-4 second delay between putting the seatbelt on and/or closing the door, and the electronic committee deciding you were permitted to pull away, and allowing the parking brake to be disengaged. :)
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Just checked today...no discernible delay in mine between closing the door/putting on seatbelt and handbrake releasing automatically. Maybe a software tweak? Though if you put it in drive before putting your belt on the act of putting the belt on isn’t enough to release the brake. Hopefully R.P. gets theirs sorted easily enough :)
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 26 Jan 21 at 12:27
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MINI - Auto Gearbox, auto parking brake. - PeterS
