Speaking of parking brakes: The Outback has 'electronic parking brake'. Basically, an electric motor that pulls the cable. Nice idea, at first. One feature the Outback has is 'hill assist'. Works two ways: 1) Turn on hill assist and when you stop on an incline the parking brake automatically engages. They release when you try to move, forward or backward. 2) Come to a stop on an incline, press the parking brake button, when you try to move forward the brakes release. If the not on an incline then the brakes don't release. The foreseen problem: Power or electrical failure and can't release the brakes. Subaru provides a tool stored with the spare tire. A two foot long hex tool - under the car below the driver's door is a place to insert the tool and turn ~200 times to release the brake. Turn the tool the wrong direction and you may damage the emergency brake system. Parked your car on an incline and came back to a dead battery? Trying to release the brake to push start the Outback is going to be ... interesting.
I have searched the internet, and I see no instance of these trucks shifting out of Park... Mine was just a lemon in that one feature... I have the factory service manual, and I checked the interlock adjustment and it seemed right on. (The interlock is where you must step on the brake to take it out of Park...)
So I adjusted the interlock out of the spec, and then adjusted it back... It has never done it again in the last 60,000 miles...
But if the parking brake was effective then the truck would not roll when it was idling in reverse... Just the perfect storm of two crappy designs working against me...
I have two Toyota trucks. My little 1995 T-100 has over 350,000 miles on it, and it has been extremely trouble free... I don't think I have ever replaced a light bulb in that truck with the exception of headlights... Original alternator and starter... I did put new contacts in the solenoid of the starter... I think that cost $3 and took about an hour... Other than fluid changes, brakes and clutches, that truck has never broke down on me yet... The clutch pedal bracket in that truck is a sub-par design, but literally that has been the only thing that has broken in 350,000 miles... I would be very surprised if that little truck doesn't make it to 500,000 miles...
I need a real truck to pull my boat, and based on my friends experiences with Ford's (engines that spit out spark plugs every 25,000 miles) Chevy's (Transmission failures at 40,000 miles that required a new transmission in 2 different 4x4s, warranty just expired on both of them...) Dodge (My friends Dodge truck has not had any engine problems, he has the Cummins Diesel in it, but transmission issues, door handles breaking off, glove compartment fell off, center console lid broke... The entire truck is falling apart except for that diesel engine...)
I'll stick with my Toyota... I have just over 100,000 miles on the Tundra, and I expect it will still be running fine and everything will still work when it hits 250,000 or 300,000 miles... That's what Toyota's do.
Inconvienence is one thing, what you have described is life threatening. This sort of reminds me of people who tell me how lovable a pitbull is. Why take the chance? Why tolerate that truck? Fool me once, shame on you, etc. I am sorry, I would not own a vehicle that shifted itself and there would be a dealer willing to pay me to get out of their showroom after I told everyone in there of my experiences.
I have a 2004 Toyota Tundra Double Cab that I love almost completely...
A couple of things I don't love...
1. My wife bought the truck while I was in the hospital for a motorcycle accident... She gave it to me on my birthday (about a month after the accident... Bad times...) I would have never paid for the seat warmers, since we live in California and I have never had my butt get cold... But she wanted them... The switches are on the top right edge of the center console, and every time we take a road trip she will at some point cross her legs and switch my seat warmer on high... There is no light that illuminates when they are activated, either on the dash or the switch itself... And the switches toggle with the slightest pressure, and they don't click audibly... The only indication that they are on is when I realize that I am uncomfortably HOT!
2. Timing belt... The V6 Tundra has a timing belt that will not cause any issues if it breaks... The truck will just stop running until you replace the belt. The V8 Tundra has an interference engine, and that means that the belt breaking will absolutely destroy the engine... The pistons will slam into the valves. As a side note, but also another major design flaw as far as I'm concerned is the fact that to adjust the valve clearances on the V8 you must remove the camshafts. The V6 shims can be changed with the camshafts in place...
3. The parking brake is almost completely inneffective... It is a design that you step on it to set it, and step on it to release it... That doesn't explain why the darn thing really doesn't work. If I set the park brake with the truck in neutral in my driveway, it will roll down to the street before it stops. And I do not have a steep driveway... I have adjusted the thing to get the max braking out of it I can, and it sucks...
4. Twice, the truck has shifted itself out of Park and went into reverse... The first time it happened I was putting chains on the truck... The thing nearly ran me over, and almost crashed into the minivan that was 20 or so feet behind me before I managed to get into it and step on the brake. I thought I must not have put it all the way into Park. The second time it did it, I was pulling my boat out... I had just climbed into the boat to raise the outdrive when the truck shifted into reverse... I was all by myself, and I ran and jumped from the boat into the back of the truck and just manged to step on the brake before the whole truck went under... The thing that saved it was the fact that the boat lifted the back wheels off, and it slowed down since it had no more traction... Another couple of feet and the weight of the truck would have pulled my 21 foot Bayliner under water... The truck was under water so far that the carpet in the front seat area got wet... After a lot of cleaning and draining my differential since the vent was two feet under water, I managed to adjust the shifter interlock so that I don't think it will happen again... But I will never again leave it running when I'm on a boat ramp... NEVER!
Sigh... And I still think Toyota makes some of the best cars on the planet...
My Tracker has the automatic lights (release emergency brake and the daytime running lights come on). Flasher switch is on top of the steering column, which seems to be OK.
My method for getting daytime headlights off is to pull up the E-brake a couple of notches. It does not engage the brake, but it does cause the headlights to go out. May not work that way on other vehicles, but it does the trick on mine. Once I'm rolling again, I release the brake all the way.
Driving up to military base gates in rental cars was always a pain in the butt. Trying to get the lights to go out so as not to blind the guard was normal practice, but in rental cars, I was always concious of looking like an idiot trying to figure it out, and since you had to show the rental papers, ID, license, etc., it was a flail.
My Tracker has the automatic lights (release emergency brake and the daytime running lights come on). Flasher switch is on top of the steering column, which seems to be OK.
My method for getting daytime headlights off is to pull up the E-brake a couple of notches. It does not engage the brake, but it does cause the headlights to go out. May not work that way on other vehicles, but it does the trick on mine. Once I'm rolling again, I release the brake all the way.
Driving up to military base gates in rental cars was always a pain in the butt. Trying to get the lights to go out so as not to blind the guard was normal practice, but in rental cars, I was always concious of looking like an idiot trying to figure it out, and since you had to show the rental papers, ID, license, etc., it was a flail.
I hate to admit I remember those days too, Rick - although I was usually a passenger...
If you google how to turn off a Lumina's headlights, this is what you get:
Turn off engine
Depress Emergency Brake
Turn on engine
I happen to be driving another Lumina (great family car) so I am going to give that a try...I bet if you jump on one of those car forums one of the guys can tell you how to turn your camaro headlights off...
Good point Nancy, and I did figure out how to turn off the automatic headlights on my new Honda Civic. There are certainly circumstances in which the automatic headlights are not desirable, but I usually keep the automatic feature turned on.
Interestingly, the automatic headlights on my pristine 1998 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (now my weekend recreational vehicle after 10 years of daily driving), cannot be turned off. The light switch on the dash is only to turn on the headlights during the daytime.
I remember the old days when there were drive-in movie theaters. It was bad etiquette to drive in with headlights on after the show started.
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