Hill Assist, be careful

[ttdan]

Well, i wont blame his entirely on the hill assist thing but it caught me out on Tuesday. Work car park is a on a hill. Park on the right and you face uphill, park on the left and you face downhill. I park on the right, as usual, my foot is on the brake pedal as i apply the handbrake, foot comes off the pedal and the cars stays absolutely still. Of course it does as the hill assist is still active, ie the brakes are still applied. 99% of the time i will leave the car in gear but for some reason this day I didn't. Walk up to my office and 30 minutes later a colleague arrives for work and says, have you parked your car in a weird place? No i said...the car has rolled back down the hill and collided with two other cars on the downside of the car park...handbrake was on but just not enough, the hillassist thing fooled me a bit into thinking i had the handbrake on well enough. I will admit to having got a phone call as i parked up so i was definitely distracted but thought i would share as a reminder to others to be careful.

[charlie]

I thought I applied my handbrake to find my car had rolled into a tree head must of been somewhere else 

[Booth11]

Ouch!  Hope it's easy to sort. Unfortunately it's easy to be distracted.

I never fully trust hill hold. Like you, I have to park on a hill everyday at work, and it being DSG can't be left in gear, so I never release the foot brake until I've heard the reassuring crunch of the handbrake being fully applied.

Have had a near miss though, parked up facing downhill and unwittingly left the handbrake off all day to return to find the car headbutting the hedge which divides the next level of parking spaces.  Thank god for that hedge otherwise I would've found my car at the bottom of the car park, no doubt in a sad state      I could park on the less steep lower section but then that puts you in with all the inconsiderate drivers who fling their doors open onto yours and I've had enough door dings inflicted on other cars to tolerate that any longer. 

[Buck]

You're not alone!

On my Mk4 I had a spirited drive and parked it outside my mums. She lived on a steep hill.

There was a knock at the door and a guy said "anyone own a black Golf"

"Yes, why?"

"It's at the bottom of the hill!"

Oops it had rolled down into the back of an Astra van. No damage to mine but cost me a few £££s to get my mums neighbours car repaired.

Apparently as the brakes cooled, the grip of the handbrake didn't hold the weight of the car on the hill. For some reason I'd not left it in gear as I normally do.

[J400uk]

Ouch!

You do definitely need to be careful with it. May sound like I'm stating the obvious but for DSG owners it won't hold the car in neutral, and that's caught me out once or twice. Needs to be in R or D.

[Snooze]

Ouch, there's another reason to go manual!

[ttdan]

Ouch, there's another reason to go manual!

Mine is a manual!

[Booth11]

Ouch!

You do definitely need to be careful with it. May sound like I'm stating the obvious but for DSG owners it won't hold the car in neutral, and that's caught me out once or twice. Needs to be in R or D.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding so correct me if I'm wrong, but on a DSG you must engage P (to fully lock the transmission) before you are able to remove the key from the ignition, so how can you park up on a hill (assuming you are leaving the vehicle) and leave it in Drive or Reverse?  Or are you just referring to stopping temporarily on a hill, say in traffic, in which case, yes, you would keep it in D or R.

Regardless of whether I'm parking on a hill or on level ground, I always hold on footbrake, engage handbrake fully and then shift lever to P.

[J400uk]

Ouch!

You do definitely need to be careful with it. May sound like I'm stating the obvious but for DSG owners it won't hold the car in neutral, and that's caught me out once or twice. Needs to be in R or D.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding so correct me if I'm wrong, but on a DSG you must engage P (to fully lock the transmission) before you are able to remove the key from the ignition, so how can you park up on a hill (assuming you are leaving the vehicle) and leave it in Drive or Reverse?  Or are you just referring to stopping temporarily on a hill, say in traffic, in which case, yes, you would keep it in D or R.

Regardless of whether I'm parking on a hill or on level ground, I always hold on footbrake, engage handbrake fully and then shift lever to P.

I mean if you're stopping temporarily on a hill, if you take it out of D or R (i.e. into N) then you loose the hill assist. Obviously yes when it parked needs to be in P! 

[Booth11]

Ouch!

You do definitely need to be careful with it. May sound like I'm stating the obvious but for DSG owners it won't hold the car in neutral, and that's caught me out once or twice. Needs to be in R or D.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding so correct me if I'm wrong, but on a DSG you must engage P (to fully lock the transmission) before you are able to remove the key from the ignition, so how can you park up on a hill (assuming you are leaving the vehicle) and leave it in Drive or Reverse?  Or are you just referring to stopping temporarily on a hill, say in traffic, in which case, yes, you would keep it in D or R.

Regardless of whether I'm parking on a hill or on level ground, I always hold on footbrake, engage handbrake fully and then shift lever to P.

I mean if you're stopping temporarily on a hill, if you take it out of D or R (i.e. into N) then you loose the hill assist. Obviously yes when it parked needs to be in P! 

I did wonder, as most of the thread was about parking on hills.  Haha, thought you'd found a new way of driving or rather parking a DSG    I never put it in neutral on a hill, and hill hold only lasts for 2 secs anyway.