Okay. Stupid question. I am asking this solely because i have no clue whatsoever. Lately, while sitting in a drive-thru, redlight, etc., instead of throwing it in park (automatic) I tend to reach for the emergency brake instead. Can it in any way harm the car to use the "E-brake" while in gear?

 

Does not hurt it at all. Only thing it might do is cause more heat in the transmission oil which could cause it to fail earlier. As long as you dont have you foot on the throttle cranking up the torque convertor you should be all set. Just dont do it for a very long lenght of time. drive thru and stop and go should not hurt it.

 

If anything, throw it in neutral if you're worried. The worst thing to do is not use the parking brake and just slam it in park. The only thing holding the 3000lb car still is the roll pin in the parking pawl that's about 1/4" in diameter. Park is the same as neutral in an automatic with the excepting of the roll pin in the detent in Park

Justin

 

Sounds like you are longing for a 6-speed.

 

only problem I would imagine is someone rear-ending you coming to a stoplight, seeing as the brake lights don't light up unless you hit the pedal.

I do the same thing, throw up the handbrake.

 

Eh, not necessarily. I've found myself using the autostick quite often to make it through a light, etc. I like the idea of having a "hand-brake" rather than the traditional left pedal which is on most newer automatic sports cars. So now, how would I go about DRIFTING with the E-brake?!?! Ha ha. Only kidding!

 

Why would you want to drift?!

You might flat-spot your tires... I think that's the best reason lol.

You can't drift by simply pulling the handbrake. You can turn real sharp and mash the gas (dangerous) or adjust the brake to clamp harder, which also happens to be dangerous and detrimental to one's health.

But I'm not in this for safety

 

When you rest your foot on the brake, you put a strong brake on all four wheels through the hydraulic.

When you pull the E-brake, you put the brake on the rear wheels only through the pull of wire.

I don't see any chance you will damage anything. Even if you slow down the car using only the E-brake, you are just heat up the rear brake quickly, which won't do any harm unless you do it very offen at high speed.