Originally Posted By: mbacfp
I just read through "how to be a good car owner article on U.S. World News Report - Cars (
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/ownership/40-ways-you-are-killing-your-car/ss-BBIhDoU?ocid=iehp)
One of the tips was to always set the emergency parking brake as it can put strain on an automatic transmission if you don't...is that true? Honestly, never heard of that. Take care all.
Always, manual or automatic transmission. I used to work in an oil change/tune-up shop, and at that time Fords had a nasty habit of jumping out of park.
As well, one of my fellow techs left a VW Beetle in gear w/o the parking brake set. This was before clutch safety switches, and the lead mechanic, a very good Scottish fellow, reached in through the window and turned the key with the intention of bumping the starter so as to rotate the distributor shaft slightly. The car started in gear and took off in reverse. We got it stopped, but not before it had damaged the tool shelf under the big scope. Yikes, a close call that could have been worse.
Much worse, a few years ago a woman left her young children playing in her Chrysler van. Chrysler was late in adopting an interlock, and the kids were able to pull the shifter out of park. The van was parked on a slope and rolled back backward, hitting the driver's friend and crippling her. The newspaper story was focused on how the injured woman was not allowed to sue Chrysler because of our mandatory no-fault public insurance. The role of the driver in not setting the parking brake was not mentioned.
It was corporate policy at my last job, but it made most of my coworkers crazy when I'd set the parking brake in our shared work truck.
