MBScoob
Member
Hi,
Not my car, but that of a friend. He got into his car the other day, popped the key in the ignition and didn't get that whir noise that signifies the steering lock being released. He was still able to turn the key, and a few things lit up on the dash (no warnings) but was unable to crank the car. Battery issue was the first thought, but battery is actually perfectly fine. The thinking is that the steering lock is broken and, apparently, when it fails (we read elsewhere) it will not let you start the car. That makes sense if the lock is stuck ON of course, but his is actually stuck OFF, evidently failing to engage when he last used the car. So, his car needs to be taken to the garage to get this sorted... which leads to the title issue...
While the battery is indeed 100% fine, the car will NOT power the parking brake release, so the lever he'd usually pull to release it (electronically of course) is unpowered and won't work. With them collecting the car, he's worried about being able to move it. Is there a way to override the electronic parking brake release when it's not getting power? He was able to manually get the car out of Park with just some minor tinkering (it has a manual release, hidden underneath a covering) but has not found a way to release the Parking Brake.
Does anyone have any experience of having to release an electronically-activated Parking Brake when there's no power to it? To be clear, the car has power, it's just chosen not to give any to the Parking Brake, one assumes because of the (we think) steering lock failure. Of course, there may well be more to the issue, this was just what we read and what the tech at the garage (who will collect the car tomorrow) suggested as the most likely cause.
Not my car, but that of a friend. He got into his car the other day, popped the key in the ignition and didn't get that whir noise that signifies the steering lock being released. He was still able to turn the key, and a few things lit up on the dash (no warnings) but was unable to crank the car. Battery issue was the first thought, but battery is actually perfectly fine. The thinking is that the steering lock is broken and, apparently, when it fails (we read elsewhere) it will not let you start the car. That makes sense if the lock is stuck ON of course, but his is actually stuck OFF, evidently failing to engage when he last used the car. So, his car needs to be taken to the garage to get this sorted... which leads to the title issue...
While the battery is indeed 100% fine, the car will NOT power the parking brake release, so the lever he'd usually pull to release it (electronically of course) is unpowered and won't work. With them collecting the car, he's worried about being able to move it. Is there a way to override the electronic parking brake release when it's not getting power? He was able to manually get the car out of Park with just some minor tinkering (it has a manual release, hidden underneath a covering) but has not found a way to release the Parking Brake.
Does anyone have any experience of having to release an electronically-activated Parking Brake when there's no power to it? To be clear, the car has power, it's just chosen not to give any to the Parking Brake, one assumes because of the (we think) steering lock failure. Of course, there may well be more to the issue, this was just what we read and what the tech at the garage (who will collect the car tomorrow) suggested as the most likely cause.
