You’ll be fine just go somewhere quiet but safe and just practice
Don’t get to hung up on it and it will all be ok and you’ll learn to love it
electronic handbrake..how to use it
- Thread starter PurplePfeiffer
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You’ll be fine just go somewhere quiet but safe and just practice
Don’t get to hung up on it and it will all be ok and you’ll learn to love it
I drove a manual Golf with EPB in the Austrian Alps. Steep slopes +++. Absolutely hated it. Could not get the hang of it whatsoever in the 10 day holiday. Rolled back, nearly crashed a few times. EPB on my automatic S3 no problem whatsoever (I don’t have HHA). Been back in the Alps in my S3 and no scary moments.
Not that you need me to tell you this, but you're right!!! I tried it out this evening. It doesn't matter if clutch is up or down, or if you're in gear or in neutral, but with a touch of throttle it releases on the button press just like it does if your foot's on the brake. I've only had the car for 5 and a bit years without realising that!!!!!
On level ground or very gentle slopes it automatically releases with almost no clutch drag, so I don't mind leaving it to do its thing. But once it's on a slope I do feel it pulling against the clutch slightly more than I would with a "normal" handbrake, so I'll start using my new switch trick!
That's great
Thanks for the info!
All this discussion would be irrelevant if we had a good old conventional hand brake, because everybody knows exactly where they are with one of them.
I blame the Playstation generation for these pesky electronic hand brakes.
Totally agree. Good old cables too.
Just an observation, but I've noticed a few times whenever the subject comes up that some people seem to get mixed up with "Hold Assist" and Hill Hold Assist" apparently believing them to be the same thing, when they are actually different in the way they operate.
Hill Hold Assist only activates when the car is facing uphill and briefly holds the brake on so that the car does not roll back before drive is engaged.
Hold Assist needs to be activated by pressing a button and operates every time the car comes to a stop. There will be a green light on the dashboard and rear brake lights will be illuminated.
The way I see it if you use Hold Assist(which I never do) then Hill Hold Assist becomes redundant.
Hill Hold Assist only activates when the car is facing uphill and briefly holds the brake on so that the car does not roll back before drive is engaged.
Hold Assist needs to be activated by pressing a button and operates every time the car comes to a stop. There will be a green light on the dashboard and rear brake lights will be illuminated.
The way I see it if you use Hold Assist(which I never do) then Hill Hold Assist becomes redundant.
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That's a jolly good summary, except that Hold Assist doesn't actually operate every time the car comes to a stop by default; it only operates if you press the brake pedal firmly enough to engage it. It won't come on at all if you feather the brakes gently to a standstill.
For what it's worth, I use HA constantly. It's especially useful when you're towing. The only time it's a bit of a faff is when I'm backing out of our drive, because it's a downhill slope onto the road, and completely blind in one direction.
In that case, I have to go through very complicated sequence of operations to enable me to roll out into the road.
Get in. Check mascara in vanity mirror. Adjust genitals. Insert key. Mute MMI. Depress clutch and footbrake while selecting neutral (leaving it in gear when parked becomes a habit when you live in a hilly place...). Start engine. Lower driver's window and passenger side rear window. Disable Hold Assist. Release electronic handbrake. Select reverse. Release pressure on footbrake while keeping the clutch depressed. This allows the car to roll backwards. Rearward progress down the drive is controlled by the footbrake and steering, neither of which would function as required if the engine wasn't running. Hold Assist has to be disabled, otherwise every time I braked a bit harder to pause briefly and listen for passing cars, bicycles or pedestrians (which is the reason for having the windows down), the Hold Assist would engage again. Once safely out of the drive, I can raise the windows and use the controls normally. Twenty yards down the road I'll put my seatbelt on; it gets in the way something wicked if I put it on before rolling out of the drive.
Now I realise that you should put your seatbelt on before going anywhere on the basis that statistically speaking, the nearer home you are the more likely you are to have an accident.
I don't doubt that this is true, but I reckon the chances of me being involved in a potentially fatal RTA within twenty yards of the end of our drive are extremely small (especially because it's impossible to speed down our road) so I'm prepared to throw caution to the winds in this particular instance.
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That's an interesting point....I wasn't aware of this.
If I used Hold Assist it would probably seldom activate for me in that case because I very rarely need to brake firmly.
I hear what you are saying.....sometimes technology can be a hindrance rather than a help.
Oh and totally agree on the "adjust genitals" to get comfy before driving....this is essential.
RichardT
Registered User
Actually HA is great I find, though I hated it when I first got the car. You do have to feather pretty carefully to avoid it coming on, so I find concentration is needed.
Phutters - I have a steep drive down to the road as well, but always go out forwards. Could you not back into the drive? Before I read your post I thought that HHA was only on S-tronic, but obviously not.
Finally, according to what I have read on this forum, the threshold for HA activating on FL cars it much tighter, to the extent that the brakes can apply before the car is stationary.
Phutters - I have a steep drive down to the road as well, but always go out forwards. Could you not back into the drive? Before I read your post I thought that HHA was only on S-tronic, but obviously not.
Finally, according to what I have read on this forum, the threshold for HA activating on FL cars it much tighter, to the extent that the brakes can apply before the car is stationary.
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Nope.
If you'd tried, you'd understand, and you wouldn't try again. The few visitors who thought it looked straightforward left a thick brown cloud of fried clutch hanging in the air, and then never came back.
We just stood in the porch, smirking and muttering 'I told you so'.
It's not just the steepness and narrowness of the drive, it's the lack of width of the road outside too. Not a manoeuvre for the faint-hearted at the best of times, with a stone wall on one side, a brick wall on the other and an unguarded two-hundred foot sheer drop with a nitroglycerine factory at the bottom...
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RichardT
Registered User
I'm pretty sure with VCDS you can change the Threshold for Hold assist to change when it auto activates... although after reading this maybe that's HHA
I don't know hahaSent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
While we’re on the subject of Hold Assist (not Hill Hold Assist!), it says in the manual that after it has been on for some (unspecified) time it will automatically switch over to the EPB. Has anyone ever had this happen? I ask because if I’m waiting in traffic, and I know it will be more than a short wait, I manually switch on the EPB (which cancels the HA) to stop my brake lights irritating the driver behind me. It would be useful if this happened automatically, but I’ve never seen it and I wonder if I have a fault.
Carefree69
Registered User
Am I missing something? You stop and instead of pulling up a clunky old handbrake you lift up a tiny switch with a finger, handbrake on. When you want to move off you just lift the clutch and press the accelerator. Done.
I’ve not had one issue with my auto brake, I love it.
I’ve not had one issue with my auto brake, I love it.
There’s something satisfying yanking on a clunky over lever
Same with these new electric power steering, it all takes something away from the driver.
I've never had it switch over and my mate whose an Audi mastertech says it's a long time before it switches over
I assume because it holds on the ABS after a certain time/gradient it's to much load and then it switches although I sat on a slope in Cornwall a couple of years ago for a while and it never switched then either so who knows
