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New RAV4 Owner - Parking Brake Engages While Driving?!?

5K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  gimmegimme 
#1 ·
Hi!

I just got my first RAV4 -- a 2019 Limited. I'm still getting used to it. Today, when putting my phone in front of the gear shift. My finger accidentally pulled the Parking Brake button while driving. Imagine my surprise when the parking brake actually engaged at speed (about 45 mph at the time). Fortunately, I only clipped the button for a fraction of a second.

It strikes me as incredibly dangerous to allow a driver (accidentally) or a passenger (accidentally or intentionally as the case may be) to effectively slam on the brakes with such a small gesture of hand.

I'm hoping someone will tell me that it should not operate that way and so there must be something wrong in some setting somewhere?

Thanks,

Jonathan
 
#3 ·
The “parking brake” is, or used to be, also known as the emergency brake. I, for one, have needed to use one in this capacity. This brake is independent of any hydraulics and is still operable when you’ve lost brake fluid. I’m rather glad to find out it can still serve this function although maybe they could have recessed it a tad more.
 
#4 ·
Me too, glad it's a functional e-brake. I can relate to the sudden unintended braking, back in the '70s I borrowed a truck to tow a vehicle for a friend, the Jeep FC170 had a transplanted engine and transmission in it with a homemade floor shifter, I reached for something and my sleeve caught on the shifter pushing it into reverse at 60mph which locked up the transmision and the rear wheels which stopped us real quick, fortunately I wasn't towing the recovered vehicle yet and there was no one behind us, if it happened while towing, the outcome could've been much worse than just some transmssion fluid lost and soiled underwear!
 
#5 ·
Driver error... No need for Toyota to foresee something like this can happen. There are a lot more dangerous mistakes you can make in such an advanced vehicle. They can't prevent someone to do something they shouldn't do, like for example pressing the start/stop at 70mph...
BTW you just proved the emergency brake does what it suppost to do! Thanks for that.
 
#6 ·
I did not realize that the parking break is synonymous with the emergency brake. I do think that it is poorly located and/or too easy to engage (requiring such little effort). This is considering the location related to the often-used tray immediately in front of it. Maybe it's a good thing that it is easy to engage, but I certainly scared the s*** out of me. Now I know. And knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Thanks for this report! I’ll remember it when I put my cell in that area. My takeaway is to just put the phone there BEFORE taking off and leave it there!
BTW, I’m old enough to have had to pull up on my emergency brake handle a few times. Had my hydraulic brakes go out and only the e-brake saved my ass. I’ll be testing this myself soon.
 
#8 ·
Well, if you just touch it, it won't engage, you have to be pushing the brake pedal at the same time as you are pressing the emergency buton. I tried it at 10 km/h see what would happen when I first test drove the Rav and without touching the brake pedal, it won't engage even if you hold it..
 
#9 ·
I think the button/lever location is fine all things considered. My other car has a physical hand brake and it's pretty much right there in the middle. In an emergency, I would prefer it there as is needed.

At least for me, I literally have to curl and hook my finger forward facing to be able to pull it up for it to activate. I leave my phone there too, and usually grab it by the side (thumb and index), so there is a low chance is it will hook, since my fingers are on the side and not pointed forward. I can see more accidental down pushes.

Glad nothing serious happend, lesson learned for all of us as well.
 
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