Hi! I'm a new Prius III owner and have diligently been reading the manual. There is a note in there not to use the parking brake in winter because it might 'freeze up.' Does anyone know anything more about this? I am in the habit of always setting the parking brake for safety reasons, and I live in Minnesnowta, so winter lasts a good chunk of the year. I did try to search for info on this before posting, but didn't find anything. Any advice greatly appreciated!
It's a pretty standard warning applicable to most cars. A warm wet parking brake may freeze when it cools off. It's not a big risk, but it does happen. Tom
As Tom said, if you are driving on wet roads and know the temps will fall below freezing after you park, you might think twice before using the P-brake. This is nothing unique to a Prius.
The only time I use my parking brake is in snowy parking lots when performing hand brake turns for grins anyway!
LOL!!! THAT takes me back!!!! It's been years since my last e-brake turn!!! I guess that's why many of today's stodgier cars don't have proper (hand) parking brakes!! I never had a problem with parking brakes freezing up when I lived in the frozen North, but I grew up back in the Mesozoic Era---when cars had rear wheel drive, carburetors, crank winders, and were generally much more fun to drive. I guess that's why old farts like me are so enamored with our motorcycles.
Did something happen to them? DW's daily driver has them, and it is still a year younger than my old car was when replaced by this Prius. Young whippersnapers these days don't appreciate how much of an improvement two speakers is over one speaker in the center of the dash. And if given one of those old AM car radios -- better quality than any AM radio I've heard since -- they'd probably complain about how long it takes for the tubes to warm up before any sound comes out.
Back on topic. I've always used the parking brake on Pearl. Now Pearl's rear brakes are drum type, so that may be different than the current disk type. But I've never had a problem with them "freezing". Except when I forget to release them, that is. (come on Pearl, let's go ... oh!)
Yeah...I was pleasently suprised that the G3's brakes are disc/disc. I'm amazed that there are any disc/drum cars left in production. (Something I noticed Honda still does when I looked at an Insight not too long ago...) Chalk one up in favor for the Prius!
I use my parking brake last night and this morning it's frozen. The E-brake pedal is out but the light is still on, along with the ABS warning. Can't drive - the emergency brake is still engaged. I phoned Toyota and was told the brake is frozen and it needs to thaw. It's 21 degrees out there and I have things to do. Needless to say, I will not use the emergency brake any more in cold weather.
