[JROC]

Originally Posted by LT4Greg

JROC, invest in some Race Ramps for future oil changes and such. They are expensive but worth the money. I’m going to order some from Summit Racing very soon as my Rhino ramps won’t work with the front splitter on my ZL1!��

Agreed.

I do have some Rhino ramps that would of likely prevented the roll, but like you said I'd have to jack up the car to get them under it, and they've got my Foxbody roller sitting on them right now. Using these ramps on this car is kind of boneheaded especially if lifting the rear as well. Not very safe. I generally just use these ramps to change the oil in my truck or my wifes Taurus, but they're both autos and I'm not lifting the rear or putting boards on them to raise the tires up more.

I'm certainly not saying I did everything right, I'm just aggravated that the car rolled with the rear on the ground and the parking brake indicating that it's on. I might call the dealer and have them look at the parking brake to see if it's working correctly.

If you engage the parking brake on these cars the rear wheels should be locked Regardless of whether or not you lift the car or anything until you physically get in the car and cut them off, correct? I'm just trying to determine if some weird scenario can cause them to disengage or not with them being electric instead of manual. How the whole thing went down doesn't make sense.

[z28pat]

The only feedback I can give is that I’ve pulled on the button thinking it was on and not done it hard enough and it wasn’t on. I now always put it in gear when I park it.

[LT4Greg]

I’m not sure what happened either but definitely get some Race Ramps. I saw on YouTube a video of someone that had a SS 1LE that had a set of them using to change the oil in his Camaro. You have the get the ones for lower front ends on cars and I can’t remember what model/part they are but if you order from Summit they have the different ones listed.

[RWT]

These vehicles come equipped with Automatic Parking Brake Release. It's designed to turn off the EPB if someone attempts to drive the vehicle with the EPB engaged.

Maybe just the right combination of engine running, tires moving, vehicle attitude, etc., etc. triggered it's release?

I don't know, I am just spitballing here.

[LT4Greg]

XT-2 piece ramps are the ones we need for low clearance front splitters on our Camaros! They are about $344.00 thru Summit and maybe cheaper on Amazon.

[JROC]

Originally Posted by RWT

These vehicles come equipped with Automatic Parking Brake Release. It's designed to turn off the EPB if someone attempts to drive the vehicle with the EPB engaged.

Maybe just the right combination of engine running, tires moving, vehicle attitude, etc., etc. triggered it's release?

I don't know, I am just spitballing here.

I did not know that. That is very relevant information. Thank you. So it tries to help protect itself from users forgetting to disengage the parking brake, but if it somehow disengaged itself it in fact failed to do the job of preventing a roll that became a decent sized issue, and one that could of been a lot bigger if someone had gotten hurt.

The thing that's got me thinking this can't be it is that when I started the car after the roll happened the light on the dash indicated that the parking brake was on. Still the car rolled freely for several feet. If the parking brake disengages itself will the light turn off, or will it re-engage itself next time you start the car?

Car companies need to quit trying to make systems out-think you. Especially if they take actions without your input. Regardless of whether this is what happened to me or not. 99% of the time it might be doing the job it's supposed to do and being beneficial, but then you hit a situation where it's counterproductive and causes bad things to happen because it wants to make decisions instead of the operator and override their commands. You hear about it with passenger jets a lot. If the parking brake is on and I start driving then I'll know it's on because I'll feel it dragging, or just give me a warning light and a chime alerting me to it being on. I'll then take the necessary actions to disengage it. If I'm not wearing my seatbelt, warn me once or twice and then STFU as I've gotten the message. Some cars won't even let you ride down your driveway to the mailbox not wearing your seatbelt without going crazy.

[wwiiavfan]

Maybe when you were lowering the rear your car moved far enough ahead on the ramps to get past the center of gravity, making your boards into a sort of teeter totter causing your front wheels to roll down off the front of your ramps. That might be enough to overcome the parking brake?
Did you test your parking brake? Does it hold on hills?
Sorry to hear about the damage. I’ve heard of others fixing similar fender damage from lift mis-use pretty easily, so don’t stress too bad.
Good luck.

[JROC]

Originally Posted by wwiiavfan

Maybe when you were lowering the rear your car moved far enough ahead on the ramps to get past the center of gravity, making your boards into a sort of teeter totter causing your front wheels to roll down off the front of your ramps. That might be enough to overcome the parking brake?
Did you test your parking brake? Does it hold on hills?
Sorry to hear about the damage. I’ve heard of others fixing similar fender damage from lift mis-use pretty easily, so don’t stress too bad.
Good luck.

That's my speculation as well. I didn't sense the car moving forward when lowering the rear, but nothing else makes sense as to why the car started a roll forward like it did after lowering the rear to the ground. How freely it continued to roll after coming off the ramps with the wood blocks actually lightly pressed against the sideshirts until crashing into what was ahead of it is what has me really questioning the parking brake.

This is a good lesson to use the proper tools for any given job. Especially jobs that can cause serious injury or even death. I might have just lifted vehicles so much that I became complacent. I've been working under cars on ramps and jack stands since I was a kid. My ramps really need to have some kind of chalks to prevent a roll seeing as I lifted the rear as well. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes as they say. It sucks that it happened, but it could of been much worse.

[ssmofo]

ID10T

[arpad_m]

Sorry to hear this happened to you, hope the fix won't be too costly. Definitely get the parking brake checked out, having read your description this doesn't sound normal, I don't see how the automatic release feature could have kicked in.

Originally Posted by JROC

Car companies need to quit trying to make systems out-think you. Especially if they take actions without your input. Regardless of whether this is what happened to me or not. 99% of the time it might be doing the job it's supposed to do and being beneficial, but then you hit a situation where it's counterproductive and causes bad things to happen because it wants to make decisions instead of the operator and override their commands. You hear about it with passenger jets a lot. If the parking brake is on and I start driving then I'll know it's on because I'll feel it dragging, or just give me a warning light and a chime alerting me to it being on. I'll then take the necessary actions to disengage it. If I'm not wearing my seatbelt, warn me once or twice and then STFU as I've gotten the message. Some cars won't even let you ride down your driveway to the mailbox not wearing your seatbelt without going crazy.

+100. Additional inputs are warmly welcome (and less critical ones, such as blind spot monitoring, should be configurable), all decisions should remain with the driver.

[JROC]

Originally Posted by ssmofo

ID10T

Your momma. Ask me how I know son.

[Tyestick]

Originally Posted by RWT

These vehicles come equipped with Automatic Parking Brake Release. It's designed to turn off the EPB if someone attempts to drive the vehicle with the EPB engaged.

Maybe just the right combination of engine running, tires moving, vehicle attitude, etc., etc. triggered it's release?

+1
Great info RWT.

This information was along the lines of what I was going to post.
There’s quite a few people whom don’t know that you can release the parking brake by driving forward, or in reverse.

[cellsafemode]

e-brake releases when the accelerator is pressed outside of park.

If that happened then this is your own fault.
A mechanical e-brake wouldn't have saved you either.

If you fell over the other side of that ghetto ramp then momentum could have pushed you forward, in which case the electronic e-brake was engaged, as would a mechanical one ...and it would have still moved in that situation since the e-brake is intended to keep a stopped car stopped to a certain amount of force, (not a whole lot off level) ...falling over the other side of the ramp would have easily ovepowered an e-brake for certain amount of time.

It seems obvious the e-brake was engaged if it was indeed, still showing as engaged when you checked afterward. So whether it was mechanical or not, the same brake would have been engaged the same amount and it would have had the same stopping force. Mechanical e-brakes allow engaging less force than what the electronic e-brake does if desired, not more. And the auto-disengage would have only occured if you were gassing it and it wouldn't have shown as still engaged afterward. This looks and sounds like 100% user error and a learning experience to get real ramps that have an actual stop plateau

[c4racer]

Parking brake only does so much. I learned that the hard way on a vette that I left running on a pretty small incline. It really only works with the car shut off and in gear the way I see it.