Question about using my emergency break

[Brooke Wilde]

If I use my emergency brake while going around 30 MPH will I be doing damage to my car? Car is an automatic if that matters.

Thanks in advance!

[laker01]

Originally Posted by Brooke Wilde

If I use my emergency brake while going around 30 MPH will I be doing damage to my car? Car is an automatic if that matters.

Thanks in advance!

Nah you are good it will just cause some extra wear on your rear brake pads and rotors. It wont cause any damage to the transmission, engine, or anything like that. There is a safety concern though if you pull the E brake hard you could lock the rear wheels and cause you to fishtail especially if road is wet.

[MarcellusWalluz]

Really depends on the type of e-brake your car has.
Most newer ones have electric e-brakes (push button) not cable controlled (mechanical pedal or lever) ones.
Electric ones fully engage so using it while driving might give you whiplash & will cause excessive wear on your pads & rotors but not necessarily damage anything, except for your neck.
With mechanical (lever/pedal) ones you can control the tension & if you did it by mistake I doubt you fully engaged them so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Anonymous01]

^^^ What he said.


The last two cars I've had both had electronic brakes. BTW, no manual I've read recently refers to them as "emergency brakes" rather, "parking brakes". But I drive manual transmissions, so it's easy to disengage the drive train in an emergency; just push in the clutch.


If they're electronic and you have a semi-automatic transmission, it's sorta like going 30 MPH and then shifting the car into reverse, or Park. It might work once or twice, but not after that.


Question, why are you using the parking brakes? Is there something wrong with normally braking? Mushy pedal going to the floor? Metallic screeching? How many miles on the car and when was the last time the brakes were inspected?