April 6, 2010 at 10:43 pm
#25442
Munch
Participant
(or emergency brake as it’s called here, though quite what emergency you would use it in has never been explained to me). ……
To put your mind at ease on a possibility. If your car is equipped with rear drum brakes and the wheel cylinder goes out you will lose hydraulic pressure in your system. The emergency (parking) brake is mechanical entirely so this will allow you to stop (over a very long distance) in case of that hydraulic failure. Or if no drum brakes any of your hydraulics bleed down from from either a brake line or one of the caliper piston seals leak out it gives you a mechanical means to assist the ones that may still have the pressure to slow/stop you.