If like me you have tried to do the odd "hand-brakie" in your 8, you will know that the RX-8 handbrake is pretty weak.

Last week a friend of mine who owns an RX-8 (not a forum member) had his handbrake on but the car out of gear while he was paying for some petrol. The petrol station had a bit of a slope at the pump, but not much. When he got back, the car had rolled down the slope and into a telegraph pole. The front was quite smashed up to the point where the car needed to be towed. Luckily it didn't roll into on-coming traffic. When he checked the handbrake, he could only get one more click out of it.

His RX-8 is only 6 months old. I don't think his handbrake was any weaker than normal or failed - it is just indicative of how **** weak all our handbrakes are. I always leave my car in gear for this reason.

Anyone else think Mazda should pay for this one?

 

Sorry to hear Wildcard,

I remember doing my driving test, when switching off your car, it is a must to

leave in 1st or else in reverse. My car's handbrake however holds the car fine

without being in gear with a click or 2 to go on a VERY inclined hill.

Perhaps he could take it up with his service dept as I'm sure I've seen

handbrake adjustments noted on the service pages. Not that they'll do anything

about it...

 

With 1 click left to go mine will roll back slowly on a relatively gentle incline.
It is pretty **** poor, I've been meaning to get an adjustment.

 

I've specifically asked at a two separate services to have my 8's handbrake adjusted because of this problem. I have a steep slope down into my garage and stop at the top while I wait the garage door to open. A couple of times I've had the car roll on me even with the handbrake on, similar to what has been mentioned. After the last adjustment I'm still not 100% happy with the result.

I was thinking it was just my car and a badly adjusted handbrake. I'll be making more of an issue of this at my next service with this information in-hand. Sounds like a bit of an issue that needs to be addressed.

 

I have not had any problems with my handbrake. While I do live in FL, there are some slight slopes here....not problems with the handbrake yet. I did take the car on a trip up north to IN, and didnt have any problems with the hand brake in those cases, on larger hills.

 

Mine seems okay too... Perhaps it is a problem as the car gets older?

 

I park everyday on a spot that is sloped backwards into a busy right of way. I use the handbrake plus 1st gear but occasionally would forget to engage the transmission. Never have issue with the car moving. However, I had the same thing happen to my old RX-7. It rolled halfway down into the right of way, good thing nobody hit it. It was embarrasing though...

 

I have a steep drive way and i often leave my car idling on the slope in the morning with no problems of it rolling back

Hand Brake needs to be adjusted or your friend needs to learn how to apply a hand brake properly . :D if the handbrake wasnt gripping properly surely he would have noticed it (young people these days ) :p

B...free
michael

 

It's easy to adjust - just look in the cup holder, pop the front tab out, and adjust the nut.

 

I normally push in the foot brake first and then pull on the hand brake...this is supposed to help get a better grip when applying the handbrake.

skc

 

Mazda should meet the cost of the repair on those facts but good luck proving that the handbrake had been applied properly.

Thanks for passing it on though. Salutary lesson for all of us in that. I always used to leave my cars in gear but in recent years I've become a bit lazy about it. Will do it for sure now.

 

I learnt that in a hard way within a month of getting the car. Luckily I could buff off some minor marks - but you can still see it now

 

It may not be as simple as that. The problem I have been having with mine has been intermittent... 95% of the time the handbrake is fine, but every now and then it doesn't engage properly and the car starts to roll.

 

I do this as well.. but still have had the odd problem.

 

Slightly OT: Who here uses the button while engaging the brake and who here just reefs it, clicking past every stop?

Me... I use the button.

 

I learnt my lesson the hard way. Not long after I had bought my RX7 I had it in the driveway with the gate shut. I was in the kitchen and I heard my dog barking in a mad frenzy ( Rottweilers only do that if something aint right) Looked out the kitchen window and I couldn't see the 7. Ran out the front door to see the gate had been flung open and the 7 in the middle of the road and the dog barking madly at the car. Ran to the car expecting to give some juvenile the beating of his life only to find the car was still locked and the handbrake on. Ever since I have left any manual car I drive in gear when parked.

 

my 8 hs only rolled back once, stationary at the lights on a steep hill in the city, pull the handbrake up, the car rolls back a little bit.....
its always good to ask the mechanics to check/adjust the handbrake.
i have finally get used to put the car in gear again :p

 

Looks like my handbrake is exhibiting similar problems.

This is the first time in nearly 30,000kms that this has happened. I'm assuming that I didn't just fail to put the handbrake on properly.

Parked at the Royal Melbourne Show in the VRC carpark, on a very very slight incline. Applied the handbrake as normal, took things out of the boot and back seat, so didn't shut doors and walk away immediately. Nothing noticable. Spent over 3 hours wandering around the showgrounds returned to car to find it about 3 foot back from where it had been parked. Handbrake was still applied, on trying I was still able to extract 2 clicks from the mechanism when trying to apply it harder, but I tend to apply a reasonable force on the handbrake usually. Thankfully there was nothing to run into and the main tarmac was cambered such that it was uphill to cross to the next car, I'm hoping it was a very gradual creep rather than a complete rollback. I know the service department usually tightens the handbrake cable, so it may be that because I've not driven the car as much over the last 3 - 6 months that the usual tightening at the service has happened in time to never get to this stage. I'm not making sure I put the car into gear if there is any slight incline where I park.

And yes I will be mentioning this at the 30k service.

 

Draco....was the car in gear at the time??

 

I push the button when doing hill starts, but I like to hear the clicks when parking (I park my 8 on a fairly steep incline)

 

No. I have never had any handbrake problems with any car and would only ever consider putting in gear on a very steep incline if I had to park on one.

This was barely an incline, which made it all the more intriguing.

 

Time for a change of habit then.....

 

You're telling me : o)

 

Hey guys, can anyone tell me why you wouldn't leave your car in gear when it is parked? Are you worried you might damage the gear box, or is it just laziness?

I'm not throwing spears, but no one has offered an explaination of why they leave it in neutral.

 

Habit (aka laziness ) for me, although I always modify that behaviour if parking on steep slopes. Ok, I'll tell you what my habit is: leave it in neutral, and use the handbrake; always start the car in neutral with foot off the clutch.....I'm sure someone told me to do this many years ago, but I can't remember who, when, or why :o