Electric Handbrake and Auto Hold

[Fish Jetski]

Hi All,

I have a manual R with Electronic handbrake. I have had a lot of trouble with getting it to work consistently. I have had 2 warranty replacements already (1 for the auto-hold switch, and 1 for the park brake), but I still get caught out on the odd occasion when parking on a hill.

Because I have a manual, I can't manually release the handbrake without having one foot on the brake and one on the clutch, so no matter what I do the car rolls back before I can press the accelerator and release the clutch and thus makes it impossible to perform a 'hill start' properly.

Volkswagen service are somewhat perplexed and have come up with all sorts of questions like whether I am wearing my seat belt, or what sequence I am doing things in, but cannot identify why the issue is intermittent.

Because I have nearly had 2 accidents due to this issue, I am really concerned with the car and am always on edge when on a hill with the auto hold sometimes engaging and sometimes not.

Does anyone else have this issue or does my car have some gremlins in the electronics?

FJ


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[elastica_junky]

Hi FJ,

I think I am having the same experience regarding to the hill start on manual auto hold car. I got a GTI manual. As I understand the auto hold would disengage until the clutch passing certain point. For normal slope of hill, it works fine. However, for the steep hill, it is quite difficult. I always need to roll back little bit. For my solution, I always need to rev up a little bit Around 2 to 3 thousand rpm before fully engage the clutch. When you see the rpm is dropping once reach the fraction point, the auto hold should disengage. At this time you blip a little throttle to keep the car not to roll back. It took me sometime to use to it, however once you master it, it is quite good. You don't really have to care about the parking brake button.



Golf GTI MK7

[Mattlock]

Yep, manual Mk7 R here too and it's nearly caught me out. It seems to sometimes release the clutch before the bite point which makes it roll.

I'm super nervous with it.

It is something new as it behaves quite differently to my Mk6 Tiguan (also manual) where it doesn't release until the car starts to dip against the brakes as you get to the bite point.

I was going to get the dealer to check it and adjust it as the car locked light has fallen in to the door and I want the software update to the Discovery head unit to fix the bugs.


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[DKC]

I have a DSG and even then I don't use the auto-hold function. I think for you manual guys it may be easier just to not use auto-hold and that will make the behaviour easier to control?

[Mattlock]

Not really as the manual release require you to have your foot on the brake which means that hill starts would be almost impossible as you'd need 3 feet to pull away.


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[elastica_junky]

Yes, unless you mastered the heel toe technique hill start, otherwise it is almost impossible to do hill start without Autohold and not rolling back. I have attempted several times heel toe hill start, the throttle pedal is quite short on MK7, therefore I couldn't blip the throttle easily. May be it is just only me.

Thanks for the information Mattlock. Please let us when the dealer done the Autohold adjustment on your Golf R.


Golf GTI MK7

[Mattlock]

Yes, unless you mastered the heel toe technique hill start, otherwise it is almost impossible to do hill start without Autohold and not rolling back. I have attempted several times heel toe hill start, the throttle pedal is quite short on MK7, therefore I couldn't blip the throttle easily. May be it is just only me.

Thanks for the information Mattlock. Please let us when the dealer done the Autohold adjustment on your Golf R.


Golf GTI MK7

True but with a top-hinged throttle pedal (unlike the Mk5/6) heel-toe is very tricky. I think the risk of rolling or burning the clutch is too high to attempt it.

I still prefer a proper handbrake for a manual car.


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[Fish Jetski]

Thanks for all the responses guys. The issue I have is that the auto hold does not always engage in a hill start so I take off my right foot off the brake to press the accelerator while my left foot is on the clutch and just start rolling backwards! This is followed by an oh crap moment and usually either a stall as I am not ready for it or jamming on the foot brake to stop myself from rolling into the car behind me. The handbrake also intermittently does not disengage upon start up and I just load it up as I try to take off.

I look like and feel like a moron every time it happens...

[elastica_junky]

It is a big issue. You should ask the dealer to double check it.
By the way, does the green auto hold light light up on your dashboard. If it doesn't, can you try press the press the brake pedal again(harder). Sometime it happens to me if I just use a very light brake. Have a try, I hope that this would help.


Golf GTI MK7

[Mattlock]

Nah, I get the exact, same behaviour as Fish Jetski. In fact it did it to me again tonight. I pulled up on my driveway, facing uphill, and got out to check the post. I applied the handbrake properly (red not green in the dash) and before the bite point had been reached, it let the car go and I shot backwards!

I have noticed that you need to be quite forceful in moving to the bite point, rather than gradually letting the clutch out. It seems to hold the car properly then.

I have had this issue regardless of whether it's the auto-hold (green) or full handbrake (red).


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