3 Potential Parking Brake Problems
When manual transmission vehicles were more common, the parking brake was the preferred method of keeping a car from moving once parked. Automatic transmissions use a parking pawl instead. This component locks the transmission's output shaft, ultimately preventing the vehicle's drive wheels from turning and keeping the car from moving.
Although parking brakes no longer have a central role to play for most drivers, they are still critical safety elements. Your parking brake (also commonly known as an emergency brake) provides extra security on hills, and it can give you an emergency backup in the event of a brake failure.