Electronic Parking Brake in Golf 7

[DV52]

To help with hill starts, the e-brake has an "auto hold" feature. Whatever that is.

brimway: I'm still not sure if Ebrakes are better, or worse than mechanical style brakes. Ebrakes have the advantage of being able to be electrically integrated into the rest of the car (i.e Ebrake can be automatically disengaged when the car is in drive and the pedal is pressed). However, disc pad replacement is more complex (needs VCDS type equipment) and caliper replacement costs are higher (I would think). And another important thing about ebrakes - don't flick the "on" switch when the car is in motion -very scary stuff happens!

[Mountainman]

And another important thing about ebrakes - don't flick the "on" switch when the car is in motion -very scary stuff happens!

And don't let your wife pull it on by accident when blindly trying to open the sliding tray at 100 on the freeway..... It seems they lock solid at any speed.

That said, I'm a real fan of the electric park brake / auto hold and I just hope it comes to the Polo. I won't buy it until it does.

[Kesh]

Is there absolutely any reason that they cannot disable the ebrake from being engaged after a certain speed? It seems absurd that you can hit the handbrake on the freeway...

[DV52]

And don't let your wife pull it on by accident when blindly trying to open the sliding tray at 100 on the freeway..... It seems they lock solid at any speed.

Mountain man: now that would be interesting! I flicked mine on momentarily whilst fidgeting. I reckon that engaging the Ebrake in earnest when the car is doing speed would be real exciting indeed! Hope that you didn't berate the wife when you came to a stand-still.

Is there absolutely any reason that they cannot disable the ebrake from being engaged after a certain speed? It seems absurd that you can hit the handbrake on the freeway...

kesh: I think that a speed limitation on enabling the Ebrake would defeat the purpose of using it as an emergency brake.
IMO a more workable solution would be to have a hood over the Ebrake switch so that it would take two deliberate actions to engage the mechanism. In an emergency, lifting-up the hood before lifting the Ebrake switch itself would not be a too difficult

[Mountainman]

Mountain man: now that would be interesting! I flicked mine on momentarily whilst fidgeting. I reckon that engaging the Ebrake in earnest when the car is doing speed would be real exciting indeed! Hope that you didn't berate the wife when you came to a stand-still.

We both gasped in shock as she said sorry and I quickly disengaged it. It literally locked solid but for no more than a second as I reacted very quickly.

[Mountainman]

Is there absolutely any reason that they cannot disable the ebrake from being engaged after a certain speed? It seems absurd that you can hit the handbrake on the freeway...

Why? There are dills around who pull the handbrake on while on the move too. The difference with the ebrake is that it is instantly 100% effective. I know that in an emergency it will at least pull you up much, much quicker than any handbrake ever will. After my experience I don't want to be in the car when it happens though.

[flight]

kesh: I think that a speed limitation on enabling the Ebrake would defeat the purpose of using it as an emergency brake.
IMO a more workable solution would be to have a hood over the Ebrake switch so that it would take two deliberate actions to engage the mechanism. In an emergency, lifting-up the hood before lifting the Ebrake switch itself would not be a too difficult

It seems to me that VW should have placed the switch on the driver's side of the console and thus harder for the passenger to reach. I think they have missed doing this in the changes from LHD to RHD.

[Kesh]

Hand brakes only work on the rear only, so in most cases, more so in the wet, if you applied full force on the hand brake, you would lock the rear tyres and your car would probably swing around and spin. The whole purpose of the manual emergency brake is that you could modulate it from 0-100%, bringing the car to a controlled stop. I think the electronic brake in the golf is pretty much a "parking brake" as they say. Simply only to be used when stationary and parked.

[NCGR1]

Wasn't the whole point of a handbrake was so that if your brakes fail you would have a mechanical back up ?? I think it is a stupid idea ! ....Hypothetical situation: cars brakes fails and loss of electronic power ... What happens ? Are there any fail safes ? ....

Suggest to me what situation would make the split service brakes fail. There are essentially two parallel systems. How would you make both fail at the same time?

Also, if the e-brake system was not fail-safe for the things it is used for, it wouldn't be in the vehicle.

[brad]

It seems to me that VW should have placed the switch on the driver's side of the console and thus harder for the passenger to reach. I think they have missed doing this in the changes from LHD to RHD.

My wife has had 2 vehicles with an electronic park brake switch in the centre console & never had an issue with a passenger using it or inadvertantly swithing it on.

What do som of these folk in the passenger seat get up to?

BTW: latest Commodore has an electronic park brake (centre console switch) so they are being adopted quite broadly and obviously aimed at the most simple of users .