Use of parking brake is a good habit, not against Park transmission failure but against slippage, auto or manual. As for the shift handle alignment flaw, probably not a complex job so, in any event, get fixied soon. Don't safe vehicle operation to guesswork because the the worst time for guessing is when you need to know for sure without thinking. The key to hill parking, even with brake and gear locking, is to park such that an obstruction (like curb) blocks the car's runaway path; or, barring that, such that the car can collide sooner rather than later.
Should always use your handbrake while parked, in case the gear or park fails, and vice versa. How do you start your car? Because an auto will not start in gear, Only park and possibly neutral. So when you push select as far as possible towards park does it still roll? Sometime through wear the marker can be out of alignment or break on one side of the shift but work like it should on the opposite side, making it look like it isn't going far enough. A selector maybe broken, probably from using park as your handbrake too often.
In Europe, your emergency brake is called the handbrake or parking brake, in fact in the UK where most cars are manual apart from parking overnight or parking going to the shops it should be applied when stationary,stopped during a journey at like traffic lights or roundabouts or T junctions etc, this is taught during driving lessons, it is also taught or used to be, to turn your wheels in to the kerb just in case of brake failure
Where is the pointer when you put it in drive? Maybe down to two or one. It is a Ford? The handle real sloppy? That would mean the shift tube is broken, easy fix if you know what your doing. Take the cover off the column it is on the top and easy to see what happened.
Hi sounds like the linkage is out of adjustment. the E brake has been used for years to hold cars.. use it. It should be fine..
good luck
tim
When I park I was used to put the transmission lever (my car is an old one) in Park, and the car stayed blocked there.
Ever since now, the parking device broke down, in fact the lever doesn't go beyond R, ney and stays between P and R, but the car isn't blocked.
Now I must use the parking (emergency) brake, but I don't trust it (in fact I have never set it) and I avoid to park in downhills.
If I had to park in downhills, would I better put some stones under the wheels?
How much does, in your opinion, cost the parking device? Is it fixable? How to do?
