Handbrake Failure?

[Nuvolarian]

Originally Posted by anonymus

Nuvolarian i am glad your daughter was not injured or worse.

Thanks, the potential for an accident and subsequent injury to her (and passers by!) was considerable.

Sorry to hear about your recent roll away experience with your A3. Can I ask if the handbrake assembly actually moved when your car moved or if it remained in the same position as when you applied it and left your car?


As an update my issue with the handbrake on my A3 has been resolved to my satisfaction by Audi UK. After my vehicle was recovered to the local franchised dealer it was thoroughly tested and inspected to see if the situation could be re-produced.

After the car had been with the dealer for a week they stated they had been unable to find a fault with the handbrake and were unable to reproduce the event in testing. I feel the Audi have taken the issue seriously and tested comprehensively although I do have a niggling concern at the back of my mind that there could still be an underlying issue- still I'm not a car mechanic so I will trust the dealers opinion.

Although the dealer was unable to find a fault with the handbrake Audi UK did agree to fully replace the front bumper (which was substantially damaged as a result of the incident) and handbrake grip at their cost. They also provided a courtesy vehicle for the duration of the time when my car was off the road. I would also stress the importance of involving central Audi Customer Service in any incident like this from the outset as well as a franchised dealer if your vehicle is still under warranty.

I can only describe this as a freak but genuine incident, I just hope it never occurs again.

As a precaution I now leave the car parked in gear- once bitten twice shy!

[Cargo 3]

Having owned an A2 for five years I was very excited to get our new A3 in August 2008. However, my wife and 1 year-old daughter had a near miss four weeks later when the handbrake failed after half an hour on slope. My wife was knocked over by the open door. She managed to roll away from the wheels and keep my daughter clear.

When the vehicle was checked by a witness the handbrake was found to be fully engaged and impossible to ratchet any higher. Our car was badly damaged and a friend's less so. Without going into detail I can add that we have had the "how to park a car properly" discussion with Audi - I am sorry that we never had this when we took delivery of the vehicle (although there seems to be some debate at our dealership, so this may not have helped - watch this space).

Going forward my wife will be wrenching the life out of the handbrake (without pressing the button in) leaving the car in gear and pointing the wheels to the curb. That is at least until we get another car with a handbrake that is easier and safer for her to operate (like the many others we have had and driven over the past 15 years).

[tln]

HI my audi R8 had handbrake failure last week
i applied the hand brake but the car in gear as advised by in car warning that the car can role
i walked in front of the car made 2 trips to the car unloading it and went into the house
approx 45 mins later a young lad knocked on the door pointing out that me car was now firmly wedged in a wall . the wall was the only thing stopping the car from running into a busy road

[a8 tech]

ceramic or steel brakes?

[Smurf]

Further to Nuvolarian comments

I purchased an A3 2.0TDI S-Line QTO back in April 2007 and have enjoyed every bit of the driving experience until 12 Feb 2008.

I returned home from work on this day, parked the car on my drive, which has an incline of 25-30 degrees (UP). I applied the handbrake as far as it goes, got out of the car and went to the house, a minute or so later i went to the boot to get my laptop.

On closing the boot shut i heard a very distictive click and a hard thud, the car suddenly moved backwards very quickly and with me still behind it pushed me down the drive, across the road and on to the driveway opposite, smashing into the car parked on the drive - with me still behind it. I do have witnesses.

This happened in a space of no more than 5 seconds and i just managed to react in time and clear the impact, but unforunatley the laptop didn't and got crushed.

On inspecting the car afterwards i see that the handbrake was completley down, to me this was the thud i heard after closing the boot. if i hadn't of moved at the last moment i would be Critically Disabled or even DEAD.

I went to Audi the following day to report this issue, they put it on the ramp and found no problem. They put the car on an incline and slammed the boot a couple of tiimes and this was then fully tested and no fault found, they were prepared to do nothing about the problem and just gave me the UK Customers Services number.

After many arguments they put it down to the handbrake not being put on. So i offered, no i actually layed down the Guantlet and challanged anyone from Audi to get out of my car, on my drive, with the handbrake off. They DECLINED this invitation, typical, and now the engineers there refuse to even take another look the car.

I have also experienced another Audi A3 owner have exactly the same problem, about july/august of 2007 there A3 Sportback rolled of the drive and went through 2 walls and wrote a car off. They had only just taken the child out of the back seat, i have pictures of the destruction, in fact one wall hasn't been repaired yet.

In addition to this i kept reporting the handbrake problem to audi, it was actually occurring regularly (this time in gear). A passenger actually witnessed the handbrake release suddenly.

So on 24th April 2008 the car went in for a service and they had it all day. I know 100% that the centre console was removed because it hasn't been put back right.

Since the service i have had no problem at all, you can't call that a coincident..

But to this day, i still have the damage to my rear bumper, the laptop was trashed and still Audi say 'WE FOUND NOTHING WRONG'

I reported this to watchdog and got ZIP back. Waste of time that was.

OH! I agree, if you own an AUDI never trust the handbrake, put your highly expensive toy in gear.

The End....

[Badger61]

"put your highly expensive toy in gear."


Sound advise.

[Smurf]

Yes! Its a sad day when the most expensive car that i have ever owned fails to hold the car still. I have had many cars over the years and never had this happen to any of them.

£28k and the handbrake is NAF, maybe i'll buy a Merc next time. an RS6 would be nice, but could i trust, well could I?

[Badger61]

2003 Mercedes-Benz A-Class A160 Elegance Comments - Carsurvey.org

Vauxhall’s Handbrake Problems Part 2 - Car Articles

Handbrake failure - The Consumer Forums

Ya pays ya money ya takes your choice.

From my own A3s owners handbook page 112 "(!) Caution" (Texts with this symbol draw your attention to a possible risk of damage to your vehicle.)

"Once the vehicle has come to a standstill,always apply the handbrake firmly and then, on a manual gearbox, engage a gear, or select P on an automatic."

This is repeated again further down the page with a ! in a red triangle (Texts with this symbol contain safety information. They warn you of serious dangers, possibly involving accident or injury.)

It carries on " When parking on gradients. Turn the steering wheel so that the vehicle would roll into the kerb if it did start to move accidentally"

One thing I have learnt in 30 years in the motor trade is that owners very rarely read the vehicle handbook and when things go wrong will blame everyone except themselves.These warnings are clearly stated and whether you think it is right or not it is the operating handbook for a machine you are in charge of and as such should heed these warnings as with any machine.

[a8 tech]

Originally Posted by Badger61

2003 Mercedes-Benz A-Class A160 Elegance Comments - Carsurvey.org

Vauxhall’s Handbrake Problems Part 2 - Car Articles

Handbrake failure - The Consumer Forums

Ya pays ya money ya takes your choice.

From my own A3s owners handbook page 112 "(!) Caution" (Texts with this symbol draw your attention to a possible risk of damage to your vehicle.)

"Once the vehicle has come to a standstill,always apply the handbrake firmly and then, on a manual gearbox, engage a gear, or select P on an automatic."

This is repeated again further down the page with a ! in a red triangle (Texts with this symbol contain safety information. They warn you of serious dangers, possibly involving accident or injury.)

It carries on " When parking on gradients. Turn the steering wheel so that the vehicle would roll into the kerb if it did start to move accidentally"

One thing I have learnt in 30 years in the motor trade is that owners very rarely read the vehicle handbook and when things go wrong will blame everyone except themselves.These warnings are clearly stated and whether you think it is right or not it is the operating handbook for a machine you are in charge of and as such should heed these warnings as with any machine.

As always wise words from Badger

[OilBurner]

Wise words indeed. Perhaps this will draw things to a close in this increasingly tedious and repetitive thread?

Having scanned back through most of the posts again it seems like a lot of people are stating something along the lines of "I parked up, didn't leave my car in gear (yes...I know you are supposed to - aren't I stupid!) and then it rolled away. This clearly isn't my fault even though I know I didn't park correctly".

Having seen through my emails that this thread has been active again over the past few days I happened to notice that of the three foreign registered vehicles (1 Italian and 2 Polish) that I walked past on my way into the office this morning that all three were parked up in gear. This backs up what I've seen consistently whilst spending a lot of time in Slovakia.

It would seem that our continental cousins all make a habit of parking in gear but for some reason the British decide that they don't need to bother and are then surprised when their cars run away from them!

Re. your point about car owners never reading the manual and then immediately blaming everyone else around them - I'm afraid the IT industry suffers from the same problem...much to my disdain.