Foot parking brake IS 300h

Lexus IS Owner · March 3, 2019

I recently bought a Lexus IS 300h 2014 model and wondering something is wrong with the parking brake.

My driveway is at an inclination, when I park in my driveway, I shift the lever to 'P' position and engage the foot parking brake. but the car moves by few inches despite of this when I take my foot off the brake pedal which lead me to think that foot parking brake is not being effective. I did a test to confirm my suspicion. This time, I engaged the foot parking brake, then shifted the lever to 'N' (neutral) and took my foot off the brake pedal and the car started rolling as soon as I lifted my foot off the brake pedal.

Previous to buying IS, I was using a manual car and that car did not roll over when in neutral gear with the parking brake (or handbrake) engaged. SO I definitely think something is wrong with the IS.

Before I send the car to a specialist, I want to hear from other users of IS and understand how they solved this problem.

As I bought this car from a Lexus dealer, it is covered by 12 months warranty. And at this moment I am assuming that the warranty covers this issue with the foot brake.

Thackeray · March 3, 2019

Your test seems to confirm the parking brake is not working. This is actually an MOT fail so it shouldn't have been sold to you like this. It should be an easy fix, I would have thought, so take it back to the dealer so they can get it working properly.

The car stops rolling back when you engage P on the gear selector because it locks the transmission as on conventional automatics. But there's still a bit of play, which is why the car moves a bit when you take your foot off the footbrake. But it shouldn't move at all when the parking brake is on.

rayaans · March 3, 2019

A couple of inches in the direction of incline is normal once putting the parking brake on.

olliesgrandad · March 3, 2019

All 3 Lexus I've owned sometimes move a little when parking brake applied. The 2018 IS300h moves slightly when parking brake applied.

Lexus IS Owner · March 3, 2019

Thanks guys for your responses. I will contact the dealer, let me see what he offers.

ikeja · March 4, 2019

I find that I have to apply a fair bit of pressure to the foot break, but even then it will still move a bit. Like you, I have an inclined driveway. I think the trick is to apply the footbrake before moving the selector to P, but would welcome views on what is the best way.

Lexus IS Owner · March 4, 2019

Thanks again for the responses. Here is a video showing the car moving while foot brake is completely engaged. I believe the car should not move when the foot brake is applied regardless of the the gear selector in N or P position.

rayaans · March 4, 2019

On all automatics I've owned, you can drive the vehicles with the parking brake on providing you are happy to hear some squeaking

Vince Donald · March 4, 2019

Automatics or manual, most cars will move with the handbrake on which is why most have a warning beeper to tell you.

The footbrake is just the same as a handbrake in other cars, to put it on hard you need to press it down hard just like you would pull a handbrake up hard.

As someone else has alreay pointed out, when in "Park", the gearbox will lock anyway.

Vince

Quote

Thackeray · March 4, 2019

1 hour ago, Lexus IS Owner said:

Here is a video showing the car moving while foot brake is completely engaged

Your video confirms the parking brake is faulty. The dashboard shows the parking brake is on and the gear selector is in neutral. The car should not move. But the video shows it is rolling back several yards. The parking brake should be holding the car stationary.

It's true, as others have said, that you can easily override the parking brake if you put the car in Drive and press the accelerator. The engine is powerful enough to overcome the resistance of the parking brake. But when the car is in neutral, the parking brake should hold the car stationary. This is tested in the MOT and it's a fail if it doesn't work..

NemesisUK · March 4, 2019

MoT test for parking brake is it must hold the vehicle on a 16% gradient or have a minimum efficiency of 16% when tested on a roller brake tester

https://www.mot-testing.service.gov.uk/documents/manuals/class3457/Section-1-Brakes.html#section_1.4

route66 · March 5, 2019

Either you're not pressing hard enough or it's faulty.

On level ground with the car in neutral and the parking brake applied, can you push the car?

cruisermark · March 5, 2019

I have an ls430 and rarely use the parking break - but last week I had to visit some one who has a really really steep drive - I had to drive up and then reverse up to the left to wards the garage - I then put the parking brake on and park and the car held fine - again this was unusually steep village driveway - as other have voiced OP car needs checking out

NemesisUK · March 5, 2019

5 minutes ago, cruisermark said:

I then put the parking brake on and park and the car held fine

Do you think it would have held fine if you hadn't put the transmission into Park, i.e. relied only on the parking brake?

cruisermark · March 5, 2019

Good question - obviously I never tried so cannot say but my gut feeling tells me due to the incline it probably would not of held

The car has never had any advisories regarding the parking brake

wharfhouse · March 5, 2019

One should not rely on the P engagement when on a hill as this will put a lot of strain on the pawl and is certainly not a safe way to leave the car. It may even prove difficult to re-engage D as you have to overcome the force against the pawl. The parking brake should definitely hold the car on any incline that will be encountered. On my car I do notice a very slight movement when releasing the footbrake after applying the parking brake but we are talking mm and not the extensive distance the car moved in the video. There is definitely something amiss there. I would get it checked asap as it is a) dangerous and b) liable to damage the gearbox if that is used to hold the car on an incline

Thackeray · March 5, 2019

1 hour ago, wharfhouse said:

On my car I do notice a very slight movement when releasing the footbrake after applying the parking brake but we are talking mm

Same here. I just tried my parking brake on a steepish hill. I engaged neutral, applied the parking brake and then released the footbrake. There is the slightest movement of the car as play in the parking brake system is taken up. But only millimetres as wharfhouse said. I doubt the car moved as much as a centimetre.

Lexus IS Owner · March 5, 2019

Thank you all again for your wonderful and informative responses.

I have booked in with the local Lexus centre. Any idea if the warranty covers the cost of fixing the problem (both labour and parts and any additional costs)?

I had to apply extra power to move the gear leaver out of the P. This is in line with what wharfhouse said above. I have always been uncomfortable applying extra force to move the gear lever out of P for the reasons mentioned above.

The dealer did issue a fresh MOT with no advisory notices. This MOT was carried out few days before the sale of the vehicle. I am really surprised MOT did not highlight this obvious issue. Wonder if dealers are serious about the MOT?

Considering I bought the vehicle only on 25th February 2019, what are my options?

Thank you all and I highly appreciate your time and effort responding to my queries and taking time to test against your car.

wharfhouse · March 5, 2019

34 minutes ago, Lexus IS Owner said:

Thank you all again for your wonderful and informative responses.

I have booked in with the local Lexus centre. Any idea if the warranty covers the cost of fixing the problem (both labour and parts and any additional costs)?

I had to apply extra power to move the gear leaver out of the P. This is in line with what wharfhouse said above. I have always been uncomfortable applying extra force to move the gear lever out of P for the reasons mentioned above.

The dealer did issue a fresh MOT with no advisory notices. This MOT was carried out few days before the sale of the vehicle. I am really surprised MOT did not highlight this obvious issue. Wonder if dealers are serious about the MOT?

Considering I bought the vehicle only on 25th February 2019, what are my options?

Thank you all and I highly appreciate your time and effort responding to my queries and taking time to test against your car.

If the car was bought from a Lexus dealer I think they all come with a 1 year extended warranty and so I would have thought you have a good case that this should be fixed under that warranty of the fault has been there all along.

LexusIS300h · March 6, 2019

I believe your Lexus garage will just fix it anyway, as they would want to avoid embarrassing questions about why it passed its MOT a couple of weeks ago and now it has an obvious fail.

You should not expect to pay anything irrespective of whether this is warranty or not

Lexus IS Owner · March 6, 2019

In fact I bought the car from a dealer from a different town (approx 150 miles away from where I live). Driving the car back to that dealer is probably not very practical. Hopefully the local Lexus will honour the warranty.

65mike · March 6, 2019

Hi all. :driving:

If the car is under warranty yes the dealer should fix it simple a that.😶

65mike :driving:

wharfhouse · March 6, 2019

1 hour ago, Lexus IS Owner said:

In fact I bought the car from a dealer from a different town (approx 150 miles away from where I live). Driving the car back to that dealer is probably not very practical. Hopefully the local Lexus will honour the warranty.

The Lexus Extended Warranty is valid at any authorised Lexus dealer. I believe this is the one year warranty all used Lexus cars sold through an official dealer are provided with. However, this wouldn't cover normal wear and tear (say for example if the brake just needs adjustment or new pads were required etc.) The fault however does seem to be one that the original selling dealer should have rectified before sale regardless of warranty and so I guess you will have to see how it goes with the local dealer and see what the problem is first - hopefully they will be able to draw on the Extended Warranty.

Thackeray · March 6, 2019

It is possible, of course, that the parking brake became faulty in the few days you've had the car. I don't know how the brake works but if it's purely mechanical (a cable attached to the pedal) then you'd probably notice a change in the feel of the pedal when it stopped working. (Perhaps the cable snapped.) If the pedal suddenly became much easier to press, that would indicate it happened after you got the car. If it's always felt the same (probably very little pressure needed to press it) then the fault was probably there when you collected the car.