I’m mostly thinking about a scenario where you are going down a highway (say, at 120kmh for the sake of the example) and suddenly your brakes fail
could shifting to Reverse function as a brake in that situation?
edit: thank you all for the answers, I want to note that I myself don’t drive and did not consider doing this, I was just wondering if this was possible
have a lovely day o/
In: 11
On a manual, you’d like damage the transmission trying to shift into reverse. As stated by others, best bet is to downshift to use engine friction to slowdown.
On older cars, the e brake was typically a pedal thats connected to a steel wire that manually engages the brake. Theoretically, you could slowly press the e brake pedal like a normal brake pedal to slow down. On newer cars, the e brake may sometimes be electronically engaged. I’m not sure how one would use an electronic e brake as a last resort though.
Can confirm that the engine braking described by others here works. My brakes once failed me just as I was about to turn on to the highway entry ramp. So I wasn’t doing 120 km/h, more like 50, but still. Needless to say, I did not turn on to the entry ramp. I continued straight ahead, kept my foot off the gas, shifted down through successive gears (manual transmission), and finally turned into a deserted side road where I let the car come to a halt. I did not use the emergency brake until the very end because I assumed it would cause me to skid.
Anyway, nothing bad happened.
Back in the day, when center mounted parking brake handles were a thing that was also an option (unless you had a stick shift which meant you could do engine braking). Also a fun option in other regards.
My personal experience, with a ’92 Camry automatic, was that switching from Drive to Reverse, while moving forward, caused the engine to shut off immediately. It happened only once, so I can’t say that’s what happens every time for every ’92 Camry automatic. It was accidental and I wasn’t in the mindset to experiment further with that hypothesis.
On a manual, you’d like damage the transmission trying to shift into reverse. As stated by others, best bet is to downshift to use engine friction to slowdown.
On older cars, the e brake was typically a pedal thats connected to a steel wire that manually engages the brake. Theoretically, you could slowly press the e brake pedal like a normal brake pedal to slow down. On newer cars, the e brake may sometimes be electronically engaged. I’m not sure how one would use an electronic e brake as a last resort though.
Can confirm that the engine braking described by others here works. My brakes once failed me just as I was about to turn on to the highway entry ramp. So I wasn’t doing 120 km/h, more like 50, but still. Needless to say, I did not turn on to the entry ramp. I continued straight ahead, kept my foot off the gas, shifted down through successive gears (manual transmission), and finally turned into a deserted side road where I let the car come to a halt. I did not use the emergency brake until the very end because I assumed it would cause me to skid.
Anyway, nothing bad happened.
Can confirm that the engine braking described by others here works. My brakes once failed me just as I was about to turn on to the highway entry ramp. So I wasn’t doing 120 km/h, more like 50, but still. Needless to say, I did not turn on to the entry ramp. I continued straight ahead, kept my foot off the gas, shifted down through successive gears (manual transmission), and finally turned into a deserted side road where I let the car come to a halt. I did not use the emergency brake until the very end because I assumed it would cause me to skid.
Anyway, nothing bad happened.
Back in the day, when center mounted parking brake handles were a thing that was also an option (unless you had a stick shift which meant you could do engine braking). Also a fun option in other regards.
On a manual, you’d like damage the transmission trying to shift into reverse. As stated by others, best bet is to downshift to use engine friction to slowdown.
On older cars, the e brake was typically a pedal thats connected to a steel wire that manually engages the brake. Theoretically, you could slowly press the e brake pedal like a normal brake pedal to slow down. On newer cars, the e brake may sometimes be electronically engaged. I’m not sure how one would use an electronic e brake as a last resort though.
My personal experience, with a ’92 Camry automatic, was that switching from Drive to Reverse, while moving forward, caused the engine to shut off immediately. It happened only once, so I can’t say that’s what happens every time for every ’92 Camry automatic. It was accidental and I wasn’t in the mindset to experiment further with that hypothesis.
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