Hi guys

recently got a Audi A4. I park outside my house on a hill and when setting off the car rolls back as I have no control over the electric hand break. As soon as I start to release clutch / push throttle back it rolls as the break auto releases. This isn't good as I recently hit my neighbours car and am now scared to park on the hill. Any advice on how to stomp the auto release?

Haven't had my A4 long but my a4 s-line seems to work ok on hill starts. You should be able to leave the handbrake engaged and pull off without having to dis-engage.  There may be a fault however - might need looking at.  

Hello Tony and Steve,

Tony - Can we take it that the handbrake does actually engage, and indeed disengage properly when the car is at rest, and the only problem is that it disengages similar to how a fly-off handbrake would, rather than a gradual release when starting on a hill? Although I can ask the question, I cannot answer it without knowledge of whether it should or shouldn't release gradually on a manual gearbox car.

Steve- is yours manual or auto? If manual then it obviously points to something being wrong with Tony's. If auto then it is of course an automatic hold and release on any gradient.

If Tony's is as it should be then it's a bit like driving the manual Mercedes with the foot-hand-brake. Clutch control at its best, and not very entertaining! 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

 

Got rid of my manual partly for this reason. Dangerous on steep car parks with small stone walls in front of or behind the car. The solution is to let the clutch up quickly rather than trying to slip it. Or hold the brake switch towards you with your finger as you move off, as with a mechanical hb. I changed to an auto with hill assist.

I've got the electric handbrake on my manual A4 3.0TDI, as long as you have your seatbelt on it should release automatically as you pull off.  To be honest having driven automatics and manuals with standard handbrakes I'd say the electric handbrake on the Audi is the easiest of them all, hill start or on the flat.