timrud

Right, bit of a long story this, but here goes.

My mate has bought an 08 Astra Van from the dealers, only had 10 miles on it when he got it. Now he has done just over 1000 miles in it. This is a van with disc's on the rear.

Last night he was in a hurry to get home, gave the van a bit of right foot, so the brakes got warm. His drive is long, and on a bit of a gradient. He has got home, parked it at the top of the drive and put the handbrake on. He has sat in the van with the engine running for a couple of minutes, then got out. At no time did the van creep or start to roll. He has gone inside, then upstairs to the bathroom. He just looked out of the window as he saw a car, which then turned out to be his van which had rolled down the drive and wiped the gatepost out! When he got to the van the handbrake was still ON in the same position he left it.

Do vauxhall have a known problem with this? And what consumor rights does he have? The van looks like its probably got upto around 20mph looking at the mess its in, so no cheap repair! Does a standard vehichle have a number of clicks a handbrake should take to be on?

Where does my mate stand?

focusv8

Rear disc handbrakes have had this problem for years.
Well known by all manufacturers.

Some have had more problems than others.

He didn't leave it in gear as well then?
The problem your mate has is, was the damage caused by the handbrake failing or did he reverse into the post.
His word against others.

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Billabong

Not sure about Vauxhalls, but I know of Citroens (LOTS) & Cosworths that have had this happen.

There's usually a proper procedure in the handbooks, such as fully depress the brake pedal and then engage handbrake, or similar....

timrud

There is no way you can reverse into the gate post as it is right next to a wall. I would have to take a picture of his drive, but no way you would dare reverse down it that fast to cause that much damamge.

Will get him to check the hand book. TBH I have heard of the problem before, the pads contracting when they get cold.

Rick Astley

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=83pfAC...eature=related

Coldo

This happened to my old mans 2007 Civic, our drive is on a gradient, he parked up, handbrake on, about an hour later he looked out and it had rolled off the drive, across the road, luckily the kerb stopped it from hitting anything, and its a very quiet road.

Honda said that when engaging the handbrake, he SHOULDN'T press the button on the stick odd as its the opposite to what ive been taught but hes done it ever since and no problems. Also leaves it in gear too, just incase.

timrud

Interesting!

Will try and find out if it was put on by pressing the button or not.

TBH its a bit shonky that cars can do this.

Gav Diamond

iTrader: (6)

As Billabong has said, with Cosworths Stu@MotorsportDevelopments said about pressing brake pedal first then pull the handbrake, i tried this and was amazed when the handbrake was pointing towards the sunroof as i had never known to do it this way.

Rs1

iTrader: (1)

Think theres a recall on civic handbrake for that exact reason. The amount of customers weve had back complaining about crap handbrakes is unreal.
The shitroens(and similar) are bad for it aswell, especially bigger vans but the motorhome variations have the opposite problem, they tend to bind through over adjustment from factory and cook the rear brakes.

Iain Mac

It's basic physics - hot discs and pads expand.

As they cool they contract, with the result that the handbrake isn't holding as tight any more so, if the car is on a slope, there's a good chance of it rolling away.

Vauxhall made a modification to Vectra handbrakes a year or so ago, and issued a sunvisor sticker reminding you not to depress the button when applying the handbrake.

Coldo

Will look into that, if there is a recall i'll let the old boy know to get it done. Cheers.