When parking front facing up or front facing down, here is what I do to minimize 'strain' on the transmission. 1. Foot on brake pedal 2. Engage emergency brake to the floor with left foot. 3. Press 'P' button to park car 4. Release foot from brake pedal 5. Press Power button off. When driving off: 1. Foot on brake 2. Press Power on button. 3. Put car in drive mode either for forward or backward. 4. Release emergency brake with left foot. 5. Foot off brake and accelerate as usual Thoughts?
i reverse 3 an 4 in the parking sequence soi know the e brake is holding before i press park. and agree with sergio. but either way is fine.
Sounds like proper hill parking techniques to me (exact method my driving instructor told me). I will sometimes test the hill-hold ability of the emergency/parking brake by shifting into N and slowly releasing my foot from the brake pedal. If the car holds, I put it in Park and shut off the car. If it doesn't, I reapply the parking brake. Prius tip: With the electronic shifter in the Prius liftback (and Prius v wagon), you can press the POWER button without pressing Park first as it will automatically engage Park.
If you are trying to prevent stress on the transmission pawl, I would say that you should put the tranny in N, then set the foot brake until the car holds with the brake alone, then place in P to engage the pawl. The car may still creep and you might still get the thump when you switch out of P the next time you move the car.
FuelMiser, I was thinking that after my post....I think that may be the ultimate way to eliminate undue stress on the tranny. By putting it in N, I guess the tranny is not under any stress with your right foot on the brake, so in N, apply the Ebrake, then put in P (park), then Power off. When getting back in, Power on, With right foot on brake pedal, left foot dis-engage Ebrake, put car in D or R to drive off. In the past with previous cars, I recall putting the car in R or D and hearing a clunk, so that's why I was wondering what would be the best set of steps to avoid that.
When parking down hill, turn to the right until your tires touch the curb. When going up hill, turn to the left and back up a bit until your tires touch the curb. With no curb, always turn to the right. This is for the US, drivers on the other side will probably need to reverse this. With a curb the tire and curb should hold your car. After putting the tire touching the curb then set the break and transmission to park. If there is no curb or the curb is very small, then use the break and transmission to hold the car. Point the wheels such that if it rolls it will not roll in to traffic (rather it will roll off the side of the road).
My normal sequence in the Prius is. Foot on brake Switch car off and apply parking brake (either order) Foot off brake Switching the Prius off automatically puts it in Park (paul engaged) and I only press P if I want to stay stopped with the engine on. I normally don't use N as the Prius never physically disengages its gears. It simulates N when the engine is running by running an MG backwards just fast enough that there is no power to, or drag on, the wheels. I rarely deliberately run the front wheels up against the curb as I am rarely parked on a steep grade with a curb of the right height. (Most curbs are either too low to do much, or high enough to risk damage to the body due to the low ground clearance) If I do park on a hill that is steep enough that runaway looks like it would be a disaster, I am likely to park with the front wheels pointing in a relatively safe direction.
In some places you can get tickets for not parking on hills correctly. On steep hills "relatively safe" is not going to cut it. Your car goes out in traffic and kills someone … that's Negligent Homicide. 6 Months to 10 Years in the slammer.
All that matters is that your foot is on the brake and you engage the parking brake before going to P. Ensure your brakes are applied before turning off P and taking off the parking brake. There will be no stress to worry about when you power on/off the Prius as the brakes are holding the tension, not the transaxle.
