i was just wondering,
do you guys with automatic trans use the parking break when parking?
if so, is there anything that can go wrong?

 

I frequently do on even small inclines. If i'm in my garage I don't bother.

I don't really mean what you mean by "go wrong" but there is nothing that immediately comes to mind as to why you should avoid using it.

 

Well, I haven't had to do rear brake work on my car, so I haven't seen just what the setup is, but I had parking brake issues with a prior car. Granted it was a POS GM (90 Grand Prix), but that entire platform (which spanned several models from the various GM brands, for an 8 year period) was known for parking brake problems.

Basically, it was a crappy design (imagine that from GM) and if you didn't set the parking brake two or three times a day, it would corrode the sliders, and they'd seize up from non-use. This in turn would allow the front brakes to wear prematurely since the rears weren't working. In the end, you'd have to replace all four rotors, all the pads, and the rear calipers. This would happen about every 10 months. It was ridiculous, and a letter to GM North America got me a response that amounted to, "tough ****, you bought the car, you deal with it." Needless to say, that was the last time I owned an American car.

That being said, since no one is coming up with info so far about parking brake-related issues, chances are it's not a factor in these cars, so you'd probably be OK. If you're on an incline, you might want to set it before you put the car in park, to keep it from rolling back to a stop on its gears. That way, you don't have to forcefully put it in gear when you're ready to leave. Otherwise you're probably fine without using it.

 

if you don't use it regular it rusts up so in a word ( use it all the time )

 

So Dave, the parking brake assembly on these cars use seperate pads? I just haven't tore into my rears. Andsince we are talking about it, when I was looking at my fronts, there didn't look to be a wear indicator (a metal blade that would sqeal once the pad is worn too much)? Sorry for the ignorance, but you have to learn sometime.