joegr
SUSTAINING MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2019
- Messages
- 4,622
- Reaction score
- 2,144
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- 113
- Genesis Model Year
- 2018
- Genesis Model Type
- Genesis G80 Ultimate
Are you really serious about this, or are you just trolling?...
Any other answers out there.?
The parking/emergency brake has two purposes.
1. Should the main brakes fail while you are moving, you can use the emergency brake to bring the car to a stop. It is slower to stop as it is just the rear wheels, and just drum brakes at that. Also, there is no ABS function, so you only want to use it if you really need it.
2. Parking brake. You should always* use the parking brake every time you shift to park. Putting the car in park engages a parking pawl (kind of like a non-rotating gear) on the output to the drive shaft. This keeps the rear wheels from both rotating in the same direction at the same time. It does not keep one from rotating forward while the other rotates backwards. The park gear will not keep the car from moving if one of the rear wheels is off the ground or otherwise does not have traction. Using the parking brake solves this problem and ensures that neither rear wheel will rotate. It also keeps undo pressure from being put on the parking pawl. With a normal mechanical gear shift, it was not uncommon to get stuck in park when parking on a steep hill without using the parking brake. You would have to get someone to push the car while you tried to shift out of park. I don't know how that works with the shift by wire, but I assume it is possible to get it stuck badly enough that the servo/motor/solenoid that retracts the parking pawl can't do it.
*: If you are somewhere where it is both wet and likely to freeze, you may not want to use the parking brake for fear that it may freeze in the on position.

