Are handbrake turns legal

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MikeT
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Post by MikeT »

reblack68 wrote:I think Mike was taking issue with the suggestion that his car was dangerous to drive because it had no handbrake....but the "dangerous to drive" statement is normally reserved for something a little more serious than a handbrake. It's the CMA culture at work again.
Maybe my sense of humour is too warped :lol: What I didn't mention was that it was one caliper only (O/S) that had a failed handbrake mechanism, the N/S is safe.

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Post by reblack68 »

Cover My Arse. It's the raison d'etre of the Health and Safety at Work Act
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Post by MikeT »

:lol:
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Post by CitroJim »

reblack68 wrote:Cover My Arse. It's the raison d'etre of the Health and Safety at Work Act
Never a truer word spoken Richard :D I recently attended an all-day H and S training course and that message was very much rammed home and ran like a thread throughout the whole day :lol:

Mike, how's the caliper? Is it freeed offf and working now?
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Post by MikeT »

citrojim wrote:Mike, how's the caliper? Is it freeed offf and working now?
I'm getting stuck into the emissions failure at the moment (and having great fun learning). From the looks of things (the disc is rusty and the pads are at their service limit), it's new caliper time - unless I can source a service kit. Looks like I need a new driveshaft gaiter as well, it's got a 5p sized hole/split. Are they an MOT failure because he hasn't picked it up on the failure sheet?
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Post by myglaren »

Are they an MOT failure because he hasn't picked it up on the failure sheet?
Certainly is. Muck and water in there and your CV joint seizes, sometimes catastrophically. I got an advisory for a pinhole in a trackrod end balljoint rubber. At least an easy fix.

That tester should be dismissed!
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Post by MikeT »

Not sure if it makes much difference but just for clarity, this a rear wheel driven car and the gaitor is at the wheel end.
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Post by reblack68 »

I'm sure an MOT tester once told me that the reason they fail split gaiters is because grease can get onto the brake disc and not because of any risk to the joint itself.

By that logic a split gaiter shouldn't fail if you have drums or inboard discs.
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Post by myglaren »

Failed my GS for it, inboard discs on that.
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Post by bxbodger »

For those of us with older cars some form of working handbrake is essential- my Triumph has single circuit brakes so any single failure of say a pipe will result in total loss of ALL the hydraulic braking system....no brakes at all apart from the mechanical handbrake.

Hopefully it'll never happen as I have kunifer pipes all round but you never know!!
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Post by Kowalski »

myglaren wrote:
Cars have dual circuit brakes, which provides the back-up braking system.
I don't think this is true anymore as ABS and dual-circuit are not compatible.
Modern ABS can mean that you have more than one independent circuit.

The Xantia for example has 3 ABS channels, front left, front right and rear, that gives slightly better split than a non ABS Xantia with front rear split. Some cars have 4 channels.
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Post by Plumb bob »

I think the point is ( apart from poking fun) that you do not use the handbrake whilst driving the car, only whilst parking the car, unless you is a chav, and need to handbrake turn into the local shopping precinct! :shock:
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Post by MikeT »

Plumb bob wrote:I think the point is ( apart from poking fun) that you do not use the handbrake whilst driving the car, only whilst parking the car,
Exactly. Whether other's had picked up on that is hard to tell from the replies given.

Moving on to issue of the split gaiter; I asked the reason for failing and it is indeed to stop grease being thrown over the disc - to suggest the possibility that loss of grease could cause overheating and disintegrating brought a wry smile and a shake of the head from the tester.
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Post by dnsey »

Hmmm... A few years ago, I was asked to take a look at a friend's car. Problem was that, although it drove perfectly well on short journeys, once it approached 50miles or so, a severe vibration and noise would start, worse on cornering.
It took a bit of finding, but turned out to be a very small and hard to see split in a CV joint gaiter, which had gradually allowed the grease to escape. The joint was running virtually dry, and was overheating and partially seizing after running for a while. Fortunately, a good clean and dry test revealed no significant wear, and a new dose of grease and a replacement gaiter completely cured the problem.
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Post by bigjl2 »

The reason you need a working handbrake on a xantia is when you have an LHM leak, or your multi belt snaps, you have very heavy steering, and loss of your brakes in a very short peroid of time, this may be a warning due to the design of xantias, not sure of other citroens, but I believe they all have the handbrake on the front wheels. But wouldn't it also be a problem under construction and use regulations? And yes my multibelt did break recently in a very inconvenient place, fast lane of M25.
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