The parking brake is also called an emergency brake, hand brake, and e-brake. It’s a brake that takes the rear wheels’ role to ensure that the car does not move when it is parked or otherwise stopped in an unsafe position. When you engage the parking brake, your car relies on the mechanical handbrake shoes to stop it from rolling away. Once you disengage it, your car moves freely again.
In this article, we’ll explain what the handbrake shoes are and how they function. We’ll also answer questions such as can you drive without parking brakes? and is it safe to drive with parking brakes applied?
When Can You Drive With Parking Brake Shoes
First, remember this: when your car is parked, you should use the parking brake. It’s one of those things we hear all the time, but how many times are you actually going to engage a handbrake in a day? For most of us, the answer is ‘rarely’.
So exactly when can you drive without parking brake shoes? The answer is never. You see, using the parking brake isn’t just about keeping your car from rolling away at that stoplight. It’s about keeping your car from rolling away when you’re parked. There’s no way to drive without engaging your parking brake first!
Driving with No Parking Brake
Parking brake shoes are an important part of the parking brake. If you lose one or your tire slips off it, you will not be able to use the parking brake at all. That’s why it’s so important to have a parking brake!
What To Do If Your Parking Brake Shoes Break?
If your parking brake shoes break, you will be able to drive your vehicle as long as you have a spare brake shoe. If you do not have a spare brake shoe, it is best to park your vehicle and not drive it until the broken parking brake shoe(s) are replaced with the new ones. If your car has only one parking brake shoe, meaning that there is a single parking brake on either side of the rear wheels, then you won’t be able to drive at all.
As mentioned earlier, if your car has two parking brakes on both sides of the rear wheels then you will only notice that one side is actually working. In this case, you can still get away without replacing the broken parking brake immediately as long as you don’t put too much pressure on the working one while driving and breaking.
Without parking brake shoes, you will be able to drive between 30-40 mph.
Parking brake shoes are definitely one of the most important accessories you can buy for your vehicle. If there’s someone in your family who’s really into driving, they should buy parking brake shoes right away because when they’ve saved enough money to afford a new car, they’re going to want to drive somewhere really fast. Most people peek at parking brake shoes and think “I don’t need those.” But you do need them. When the main brakes fail, you’ll be able to slow down by hitting the parking brake shoes and not stop at all. That way, other drivers will try to avoid hitting you as much as possible.
That being said, it’s important that you get them before something serious happens with your car. This is an expensive accessory that you only have a short time to enjoy before your brakes start going bad and you have an accident on the highway.
