I grew up in rural SD... it gets cold there.
we got in the habit of NEVER using the parking brake. because it had a nasty tendency to melt snow and such from the road, and freeze in position. and the brake would not release.
I know it's silly, but this year, many many many unsuspecting southerners had their cars unable to move, for this very reason. it was on the news, and I had myself a good laugh!

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Shortly after I moved here from Georgia I had that happen to me. Luckily I had another car that was not so afflicted and was able to get to work. At the time I was in a training class which included a Canadian. He made fun of me.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

put it in drive and go, the ice will melt

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1981 300SD 512k OM603

Agreed!

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

yeah, um, that's not really an option on well adjusted ebrakes...
sometimes you can backup to get friction that will melt the ice. but forward is usually beyond the capabilities of the vehicle.

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Seriously? There was so much snow in Ithaca this year and the temperatures were well below freezing. I've never had such an issue of the parking brake freezing. Heck even when I did some driving at 2am with the engine stone cold there weren't any problems.

What about cars that have a manual transmission? How are they supposed to park in the freezing cold???

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

I usually put it in first or reverse on a manual.
I wasn't saying it was an everyday thing, just in superfrigid temps, (waaaaay below zero) after driving through snow and such, the accumulated water can seize the ebrake. it happened to enough this winter that the announced it on the news in the south...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 560SL convertible
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
2005 Dodge Sprinter 2500 158"WB
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

On all of my cars, before going into park, I apply brake, move gear selector to N then engage parking brake. Finally, I move gear selector to P. Going out of P, I move shifter to R or D then disengage parking brake.

To my beautiful wife (married 16 years today) the above formula is more complicated than string theory. I usually have to walk her through it every time. She doesn't understand why we can't be like everyone else and just rip the gear selector like its a one-armed-bandit.

I don't want any strain on the transmission.

This pretty much eliminates wear on the selector pauls and bushings.

(That being said, I could park my 83 Crown Vic on the steepest hill or driveway and it would slide into and out of gear like buttah). Miss that old easy chair of a car. However, 8 mpg was killing me.)

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2009 E320 Bluetec 117,000
1995 E300D 306,000 Sold
1996 Ford Taurus LX 130,000 Sold
1985 300TD Still 225,000 Sold
2016 Ford Fusion 24,900

I think i'm going to have more problems than the parking brake in super frigid temperatures

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.