1st gear applied when car is parked?

**tlionhart** · 29-11-2009,11:59 PM

Does anyone apply the 1st gear when parked? (manual cars) I know there is a general rule for parking on hills.

-bonnet uphill is 1st gear
-bonnet down hill reverse.

With the wheels turned, so the car would roll into the kerb should something happen.

I ask this because I have just read some horror stories with A3's ending up in the garden fence where the handbrake has failed. Shockingly reading the owners book it advises to follow this rule. What scares me is I park close to the garage, i don't want to start the car up and forget it is in gear and end up in the garage!!

It does now make sense why most new Audi's make you press the clutch before start up to avoid this happening? I guess it is a common practice i will have to get use to?
What are your thoughts?

Bratty · 30-11-2009,12:14 AM

To me it is how I have been taught! Do not trust anything mechanical! In Winter I switch the car off and do not apply the handbrake but leave the vehicle in gear, so that IF there is any moisture in the handbrake system that it is not stuck on just incase you have to exit somewhere quickly (like work!!). Bit like sitting in a feeder lane waiting to turn, I always keep my wheels pointing Fwd until the coast is clear (just in case some numpty hits you from behind and punts you into oncoming traffic).

Dunk

**tlionhart** · 30-11-2009,12:18 AM

thing is Dunk it's better in the A4. As it is a switch. No need to worry about 'how many clicks'.

I guess im gonna get into the habit of using 1st gear. Do you have to do it on flat surfaces? I guess that question is self-explanitry. Personally i wouldn't, but would anyone recommend otherwise?

**zollaf** · 30-11-2009,12:19 AM

i always put it in gear whenever i park, after a scary incident with an old landrover that rolled out of a parking space. i came back to it and a traffic warden was writing out a ticket. any handbrake, either mechanical or electric can and does fail. they are not a failsafe mechanism, but your engine is. i refer you to highway code rule 252.
this applies to hills. a hill is anything other than a level road where a car wont roll anywhere with no brakes applied, but if you get into the habit of leaving it in gear anywhere you park, this is good practice. and if you do happen to start with it in gear and destroy your garage door, you will generally only do it the once:http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAn...code/DG_069860

**tlionhart** · 30-11-2009,12:22 AM

i was looking for that section in the highway code.

I guess this is why my car tells me to apply the 'clutch' before start up. Having read the book it says 'for safety' so this is what makes me suggest it? I thought it was part of the security/immobiliser!

Bratty · 30-11-2009,12:25 AM

Its also good practice (a bit like being old school) if you were an HGV driver you would put blocks under your wheels as a matter of course when parking on a hill. I have also had a vehicle which refused to let me leave work due to frozen brake lines and it was a dilema!!

Dunk

**Eshrules** · 30-11-2009,09:51 AM

I never used to do this, unless on a steep hill.

The polo, however, has reminded me to do it every time, when you get out and hear it groan at you

**turbine2** · 30-11-2009,10:02 AM

I used to (drove my wife mad) as I used to have a landrover (great idea on the handbrake, just a bit agricultural). Since getting the passat though I've stopped doing it on the flat (but do on the hill).

My brother stopped doing it to his cost a couple of years ago. Some, um, spirited driving to a client's house to check over the newly installed fence, parked on a slight hill, went inside to talk to the owners and what we've deduced happened was as the brakes cooled and contracted the pads and disks did not have enough friction to hold the car.

Car rolled down hill, through fence, into the pond beyond that.

I didn't laugh, honestly... :-)