Hi
I was parked on an incline and when I was ready to go I found that the gear selection from P to D was very stiff/hard.
Is this normal? What's the explanation.
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Do you set your parking brake before putting it into P when parking on an incline? Not sure if it matters with
PDK
but it might. If you go into P first, or just use the P as if it were a parking brake, it can put a bind on the tranny which might affect the shifting mechanism. Just a guess - I don't have
PDK
or any auto tranny in the last 10 yrs.
I also find that happens as well with my
PDK
especially if it's on hold as well. I just assumed it was normal, not sure why though...
You sure it wasn't just the brakes releasing after hill hold function?
I usually put in park first then activate brake.
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Oh, I misunderstood and thought the question was about the actual movement of the car when proceeding from a stop on a hill. Sorry! In that case, RS covered it above. On an incline, I always apply the parking brake before putting the car in park. That way the brakes are holding things in place, as opposed to the transmission.
I would assume that the park position on the PDK works like any automatic transmission such that when you engage the park position, some type of pin is inserted into the drive train to keep the wheels from turning. If you're on an incline and put the car in park and let off the brakes, the car will roll a tiny bit until the pin catches and stops the car. Now the weight of the car is resting on that pin making it difficult to extract when shifting out of the park position.
My MO for parking an automatic transmission (I assume this would apply to PDK also) on a hill is to hold the brakes on and put the car in neutral, apply the parking brake, slowly release the main brakes and let the car's weight be caught by the parking brake. (If not apply more parking brake.) Once the car is stopped and being held only by the parking brake, put the car in park. Since the car is being held by the parking brake, no pressure will be put on the transmissions park pin mechanism and so the car should go in and out of park easily (and with less wear and tear on the park mechanism). If for some reason the parking brake fails to hold the car, the transmission in park will be a backup that will stop the car.
In San Francisco, with all the hills, I believe there is a law that says you must always curve your wheels when parallel parking on a hill which means park with front wheels turned about 45 degrees or more towards the curve such that if the car starts to roll down the hill the front wheels will roll to and be caught by the curve. This is a further backup to the parking brake and park position on the transmission.
It's normal.....don't worry abou it. Mine does it, had it checked out a couple of years back tech said it was normal.
Terry. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Makes sense but one is so conditioned when you park and don't think of the different situations.
Also just to note that the parking brake is electronic so not sure if the solution will be the same.
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My Lexus has an electric and automatic parking brake and so using my MO on that is difficult as manually working the parking brake is not convenient. So I just stick it in park and if on a hill, it gets a little difficult to remove from park. But I figure if it's good enough for Lexus engineers, it's good enough for me - well it's a lease.
