Mazda 3 rolls down driveway

[gerry]

Hi I am new to this forum,have followed the threads for some time, anyway I have a question. I have been driving stick shifts for 45yrs, have always parked in gear and never put the parking brake on hard so as not to stretch the cables. Recently my car rolled down my driveway onto the road. To me, if the car is in gear it should not go anywhere, even if the parking brake was off. If I sit in my car in gear and parking brake off on a slope, the car will roll in a series of jerks as it goes through compression strokes.

Today I had a compression test done, all cylinders were 185psi or better, this does not make sense?

PS I have a classic car, with a stick shift which I can park in gear no parking brake,on the same incline, it stays put.

regards Gerry.

[bluemazda3]

had this happen to me.. but it wasnt in gear.. I need new cables for the parking brakes..

[Rob23]

thats what the parking break is there for, if you parked your car and j ust left it in gear and somone leans on it, than it will pop out of gear. its just common sense to put on the parking break.

[Noisy Crow]

What gear was it in? And how steep is the hill? I can sort of see that it might roll if the car is in 5th on a decent slope. But 1st or reverse should prevent it from rolling. I wonder if it has anything to do with the variable-valve mechanism. Although a compression test should catch that.. how long did the car sit before you ran the compression test?

[Mr Fatty]

thats what the parking break is there for, if you parked your car and j ust left it in gear and somone leans on it, than it will pop out of gear. its just common sense to put on the parking break.

that's ridiculous, every Honda I've owned has never had this problem. Keep the car in 1st (or reverse if facing the other way), the car will NOT roll. I suspect that maybe Mazda 3s are much heavier, maybe that's the reason, but still, it doesn't make sense for it to fail so easily.

This kind of saddens me, ever since i bought my 05 GT off of my friend, and the more and more i read sites like TM3, there seems to be so much more that goes wrong (rust, recalls, cheap quality engines) makes me regret moving away from Honda :(

Don't get me wrong, I love my Mazda, our first car ever was an '81 626 2-door that was bullet-proof (not literally), but the more i read online, so much more problems can happen :( I suppose that it's true for all new cars, regardless of brand, the more electronics and cheap plastic parts, the more can go wrong.

[gerry]

Hi thanks to all of you for answers,Noisy Crow I think the phasing of the variable valve timing may be an issue,mabye the device that does this has to have oil pressure to function?Some of you seem to be under the impression that I park my car without the parking brake,this I would never do,leaving car in gear is a backup should the parking brake fail.

Regards Gerry.

[TheMAN]

the VVT actuator defaults to full retard mode when it is not functioning... it requires oil pressure to run

[-cj-]

Is your clutch slipping? Are you sure the car didn't pop out of gear? If you're in 1st gear, no one should be able to move your car without the engine trying to turn over. Unless, IMO, the clutch is slipping or the car isn't really in gear.......

[Rob23]

that's ridiculous, every Honda I've owned has never had this problem. Keep the car in 1st (or reverse if facing the other way), the car will NOT roll. I suspect that maybe Mazda 3s are much heavier, maybe that's the reason, but still, it doesn't make sense for it to fail so easily.


i always use my hand break there is no reason not too other than lazyness. besides leaving your car parked just in gear on a hill is hard on the trans. thats why the hand break is there.

[gerry]

Hi Rob,I do always use my parking brake and leave the car in gear which will not harm the transmission,far more torque is put through the transmission when accelerating in first gear,I put around 300,000kms on my cars, never had a problem with a stick shift yet!

Regards Gerry

[billd80]

"and never put the parking brake on HARD so as not to stretch the cables", He said he doen't put it on hard, not that he doesn't put it on!!, read people!!

[Noisy Crow]

Still doesn't make sense.

Neighbours pulling a prank maybe?

[billd80]

I agree with you on that, I know lots of people that don't use their parking brakes esp. in pickups where it's a sh*tty footbrake that rusts up. It would have to be some hill, or somethings slipping?

[TheMAN]

why don't you do a test to see whether you're really pulling on the hand brake hard enough or not....
go park on the driveway/street... then pull up the hand brake like you normally do ("not hard")... then leave the car out of gear, shut it off, let off the actual brakes... if it even rolls a a few inches, you're not pulling on the handle hard enough!

BUT, that still doesn't solve the mystery why your car still moves with the shifter in gear... the only other advice I can give you is make sure you're really in gear before you turn the engine off... (like slip the clutch a bit to watch the rpms drop)... I am greatly against shifting the car into gear with the engine off as sometimes that causes the synchros to not mesh together right and thus you're never really in gear.... so I prefer to "pull up", then leave the shifter in 1st (or reverse), with clutch in, hand brake on, shut off, then clutch/brakes out

[Coaster]

My car will sometimes do the same thing. I always park the car in 1st gear with no parking brake. It's strange that at work & my old house the parking has a moderate slope & the car seemed to hold ok with just a little initial slip, but it never more than a 1/4 of a wheel rotation. Today I stopped at a convience store & was inside paying when a lady came in & asked "who owns the blue Mazda, it's rolling back". When I went outside the car had rolled back about 3 feet & the parking lot really didn't have much of a slope at all.

BTW I also own a classic car, park it the same way & it doesn't budge an inch.

[TheMAN]

why don't you use the parking brake like it's meant for? you must like to pay for replacement motor mounts