electronic handbrake

LucasS3

LucasS3

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well, ordered the S3 but won't be here till April soooo long wait ahead and plenty of time to bug you all with loads of questions!!!

First one is strange but for anyone with a small dog will understand. This is my first car with an electric handbrake so not used to how they work, my problem is I have a small border terrier that sits on the wife's lap when I drive on long journeys she (the terrier) lays across the armrest or centre consol to have a nap. Bear with me!!!!

Is there a chance that she could step or lean the on handbrake and turn it on whilst in motion or do you pull up on the button to activate.

I hear you all laughing in the background :):jester:
 
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Hi pal. Its well worth the wait, i waited 3 months for my a3 and it soon flew. I didnt get the s3 but the 1.8 is still pretty quick and i love it everyday. The electric handbrake is flush with the centre console with a lip in so you out your finger below the level of the console to lift the switch up so you shouldnt have a problem.
 
You have to pull the switch up to activate the handbrake.
I have found that as I have hold assist, I rarely use it, as the assist applies it automatically.
The only occasion when I will activate it myself is when "parked" as the assist keeps the brake lights on. I operate the handbrake to stop dazzling the driver behind. Very rare occurance, though.
 
I have hill assist ordered to so will be interesting to see how that works.
 
Not really as you have to pull small hinged button upwards to apply the EPB. Mind you there are all the button and MMI wheel in the centre console and you may get some strange things happening with the MMI system!! A bit like when my cat decides to walk across my desktop computer keyboard.
 
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I think there's every chance of your mutt :oops: stepping on the handbrake 'switch' at some point. That said, it is pulled up to activate and goes off (by itself) when you've belted up and make to move off. I have the manual and can get the car to roll by pushing the handbrake switch down and touching the foot brake. So I suppose a situation could exist when you thought handbrake was applied but it became unapplied inadvertently.
Now if you had hill hold assist you might have a few surprises if that got switched off mid-journey.
 
audi upgrades
Ah, you have HH specified. Simplistic view of this is that once you're moving you can take your foot off the brake whenever you are stationary. You can visualise for yourself what the effect of having this switched off unknowingly would be!
 
There is an icon on the DIS which shows green for assist and red for handbrake. If it isn't lit, you have no parking brake applied.
 
Thanks Bristle hound, us Swindonians are simple folk lol. My god these next few months are going to drag, I've also gone Sepang, seems quite popular!!!
 
Cant see you pup setting off the park brake as all have said its an upward motion. But I wouldn't say it's impossible. There's always that one in a million chance.
Not sure if the brake can be activated if the vehicle is travelling at much above walking pace. Others may know.
But if it can then it would be one hell of a shock.

Sepang Blue? Not another?
 
I don't think it would be possible to set it off would it?! If so, only one place for her to go, in the boot with the parcel shelf removed!

Also, without meaning to hijack the thread, is it possible to activate the EPB by other means than flicking the switch e.g. Opening the door or taking off seatbelt?
 
After reading this last night I had a horrible dream. I went to the petrol station to fill up, as I went in to pay my girlfriend said the dashboard starting flashing and started rolling forward, she jumped out and the car ran into a petrol pump and caused a huge fire.
 
steeve said:
Cant see you pup setting off the park brake as all have said its an upward motion. But I wouldn't say it's impossible. There's always that one in a million chance.
Not sure if the brake can be activated if the vehicle is travelling at much above walking pace. Others may know.
But if it can then it would be one hell of a shock.

Sepang Blue? Not another?
Click to expand...

As @veeeight said in an earlier post, you can apply the EPB when the car is moving at speed. It is a safety measure - if the normal brakes fail you can apply the EPB to stop the car.
 
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Surly for safety reasons it would make sense to not have the dog in the front of the car or on the wife's lap?
Put it in the boot or the back seat?

As for your hand brake you'll be fine but like others have said, the MMI and other buttons might cause odd things to happen.

If you are going over 10mph the hand brake can only be activated if you hold it in the up position for longer than 10 seconds (I think its that), then it will engaged hydraulic brakes till the car drops below a set speed, then the handbrake will come on.
 
ScottD3 said:
If you are going over 10mph the hand brake can only be activated if you hold it in the up position for longer than 10 seconds (I think its that), then it will engaged hydraulic brakes till the car drops below a set speed, then the handbrake will come on.
Click to expand...


Lift and hold. It will activate full pressure hydraulic braking immediately (less than 1 second).


(This is a circular discussion)
 
veeeight said:
Lift and hold. It will activate full pressure hydraulic braking immediately (less than 1 second).


(This is a circular discussion)
Click to expand...
It took a bit longer than that when I tried it.
10 seconds could be wrong and it was a lot quicker.
I never counted. Should have done I think.

Not doing it again.
 
^ Were you trying it in your D3, or an 8V?

It could be that given the average owner age of a D3, it puts in that sort of delay :p
 
If anyone wants any further information on this Emergency braking function try reading page 94 of the Owner's Manual. It's all there!
 
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Thanks for your help on this, I think it may be easier to pop the dog on the back seats, can't stick her in the boot she is only a Border Terrier and would be lost in their, wouldn't be able to see out. lol

First world problem!
 
h5djr said:
If anyone wants any further information on this Emergency braking function try reading page 94 of the Owner's Manual. It's all there!
Click to expand...
and give up my man card? Never! Pffft read a manual... o_O
 
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It's amazing what you can learn by reading the manual. Personally I'm not so stupid to think I can know everything about a new model without reading the manual. I also have a copy of the Elsawin workshop manual and ETKA parts catalogue software purely because I am interested in my car.
 
Last edited:
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The reason I thought to the lock this thread was I thought, like another member in the thread, that we were just going round in circles

I am disappointed by some members responce to this, especially some that I thought mistakenly, I had a modicum of rapore with. Why not PM me with your concerns rather than going public straight away

@DickiePhitt - I sent you a private message. Your responce? Open ANOTHER public thread moaning about the one I deleted. You are yet to respond to my PM ...

I find it interesting that the Op wasn't all that bothered about the thread being locked, but everyone else was

If you think you can do a better job than me or for that matter any other of the mods. Apply for a post as a Moderator

& thanks to those that have supported me. You know who you are!

As we live in a democracy & not North Korea as one member said in another thread, I will unlock this thread

So ... fill yeh boots ...

*** THREAD UNLOCKED ***
 
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Will the dog fit in the glove box ?? - only kidding lol. This is my first auto so I need to find something to occupy my left hand (insert rude joke here) so maybe getting a dog for the centre console is the answer ??!!

Thumbs up to the mods they put a lot of time and effort keeping us lot in order and it's not always easy.
 
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My dog 'pictured' sits in the passenger footwell and has never yet applied the EPB whilst driving. I am still trying to train him to do it when parked however :jester:
 
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Good man BH!
 
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I hope we can all get back to our shared love for Cars now !!!! Group hug
 
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Hi BH, thank you for unlocking, but my OP was supposed to be a little bit of fun, you are probably right I could of researched a little more about the handbrake but like some say "it's good to talk".

As always my question was answered by all the very helpful people on here, and as someone who has been on here for quite a few years, although not a major poster, you guys do a great job, so a big thanks from me.

L
 
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h5djr said:
If anyone wants any further information on this Emergency braking function try reading page 94 of the Owner's Manual. It's all there!
Click to expand...

Maybe the dog ate his manual:undwech:
 
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