Behavior of the Auto Hold button + electric parking brake

K

Kellic

:
2017 Mazda CX-5 GT
Hey folks. I just noticed a behavior and wanted to see if anyone has seen this with prior model years.

I use the auto hold feature, then continue with my drive. When I get to my destination I put the car in park and the parking brake comes on where my finger isn't anywhere near the switch. I can turn it off easily enough, but WFT? It does this consistently. Is this normal behavior? This is a 2017 CX-5 Grand Touring.

I've been going through my manual and while there are conditions where the Electric Parking Brake will enable, I don't think this is the case.

 Under the following conditions,
the electric parking brake (EPB)
is automatically applied and the
AUTOHOLD is released. The
AUTOHOLD is re-enabled when the
conditions before the AUTOHOLD is
released are restored.
 The driver’s seat belt is unfastened.
 The driver’s door is opened.
 When about ten minutes or longer




Which none of these are valid as the AUTOHOLD is turned off when I park. I'm not seeing any reason why this should be turned on when I park. The first time this happened I was freaking out thinking that I had been driving with the parking brake on. The second time I thought OK maybe I bumped the switch. This morning when I came into work I verified that nope, it just turned on, on its own. Thoughts?

PS- I've already called the dealership and talked with one of their service shop managers, he's going to go out and do some test driving to see if he can replicate this on another '17 CX5.
 
Last edited:
Weird. Besides what you've listed above the ONLY other condition when EPB would automatically engage is when Stop Hold Control is activated, as part of MRCC with Stop & Go, when traffic ahead has comes to a standstill:

The electric parking brake (EPB) is automatically applied during stop hold control.

Hope the dealer can sort this out for you.
 
I have had this happen to me as well. Was driving with the auto hold activated and when I pulled into my driveway the ebrake activated as soon as I went into park.
 
Rgmz3 said:
I have had this happen to me as well. Was driving with the auto hold activated and when I pulled into my driveway the ebrake activated as soon as I went into park.
Click to expand...

I believe this is normal and operates the same way as Lexus' auto hold. When AH is engaged, and you put it to park, the EPB will engage automatically. I think the only way for the EPB to not engage is to not activate the auto hold feature. I could be wrong though for Mazda...
 
Is there a reason you wouldn't want the parking brake to come on when you park?
 
murky said:
Is there a reason you wouldn't want the parking brake to come on when you park?
Click to expand...

So I don't jump in the car and just take off the follow morning without turning it off. I'm on a flat surface. No reason to have it on.
 
I think calling auto hold is misleading, it should be called an auto parking brake, but you don't have to use it, its an option.
 
Kellic said:
So I don't jump in the car and just take off the follow morning without turning it off. I'm on a flat surface. No reason to have it on.
Click to expand...

Even if the EPB is engaged and you jump in and drive the vehicle (forward or reverse) the EPB disengages automatically once movement is detected (assuming it works the same way as my CX9) so you'll never drive with EPB engaged at same time (part of the safety feature).
 
Not sure if this relatable to Mazda, but my Mercedes automatically engages the parking brake once you put the transmission into Park. And once you put the transmission into Drive and step on the gas, it automatically disengages the parking brake.
 
xtrailman said:
I think calling auto hold is misleading, it should be called an auto parking brake, but you don't have to use it, its an option.
Click to expand...

Here's my limited understanding based on the owner's manual. Auto Hold has nothing to do with preventing car from moving when car is put into parking. It instead guards against driver's inadvertently releasing the brake AFTER depressing it and bringing the car to a stop (e.g. at traffic light, at building entrance while leaning over to reach card reader, etc.) This actually agrees with Kellic's observation that the unexpected activation of EPB (when car was put into parking) happened even though he has turned off Auto Hold!

The manual also says that when Auto Hold kicks into action (i.e. when driver either inadvertently or deliberately releases the brake after applying it, and provided AutoHold is turned on of course), a "Hold" indicator would appear in the instrument cluster (instead of EPB light coming on, since the latter has nothing to do with Auto Hold).

On the other hand, Auto Hold aside, Mazda has apparently decided to throw in an unrelated feature in the 17 model where EPB is engaged automatically whenever car is parked. I personally welcome this change (which is not available with the EPB implementation in the 16.5 CX-5).
 
mazdafollower said:
Here's my limited understanding based on the owner's manual. Auto Hold has nothing to do with preventing car from moving when car is put into parking. It instead guards against driver's inadvertently releasing the brake AFTER depressing it and bringing the car to a stop (e.g. at traffic light, at building entrance while leaning over to reach card reader, etc.) This actually agrees with Kellic's observation that the unexpected activation of EPB (when car was put into parking) happened even though he has turned off Auto Hold!

The manual also says that when Auto Hold kicks into action (i.e. when driver either inadvertently or deliberately releases the brake after applying it, and provided AutoHold is turned on of course), a "Hold" indicator would appear in the instrument cluster (instead of EPB light coming on, since the latter has nothing to do with Auto Hold).

On the other hand, Auto Hold aside, Mazda has apparently decided to throw in an unrelated feature in the 17 model where EPB is engaged automatically whenever car is parked. I personally welcome this change (which is not available with the EPB implementation in the 16.5 CX-5).
Click to expand...


Auto hold isn't really a safety feature. Its core reason for existence is to let you take your foot off the brake when you are in dead stop traffic for an extended length of time. That way you aren't shifting in and out of park. All you need to do is hit the accelerator and away you go. That is its core feature. The folks at the dealer said it uses the electric parking brake, but its not the same thing. Still waiting to hear back from the dealer on the official response. I'm suspecting this is a software issue. We'll see.
 
Kellic said:
Auto hold isn't really a safety feature. Its core reason for existence is to let you take your foot off the brake when you are in dead stop traffic for an extended length of time. That way you aren't shifting in and out of park. All you need to do is hit the accelerator and away you go. That is its core feature. The folks at the dealer said it uses the electric parking brake, but its not the same thing. Still waiting to hear back from the dealer on the official response. I'm suspecting this is a software issue. We'll see.
Click to expand...

You're right, they're selling it more as a convenience feature, perhaps safety is just the side effect for safety conscious users. Good to know that AH uses EPB mechanism, though the two are loosely coupled at the user interface level. Thanks.
 
I don't have AH in my '16, but I've used the EPB before when stuck in a slow-moving cue. Works great, you can take your foot off the brake and it disengages when you drive forward.
 
The 16 Mazda has a brake hold already, but it uses all 4 brakes by holding them on for about two seconds, common on cars for some time, my 2009 Xtrail had it. But it only works on a gradient.
 
It wouldn't matter, if you drove off with the parking brake on. It will automatically disengage itself.
 
Kellic said:
Hey folks. I just noticed a behavior and wanted to see if anyone has seen this with prior model years.

I use the auto hold feature, then continue with my drive. When I get to my destination I put the car in park and the parking brake comes on where my finger isn't anywhere near the switch. I can turn it off easily enough, but WFT? It does this consistently. Is this normal behavior? This is a 2017 CX-5 Grand Touring.

I've been going through my manual and while there are conditions where the Electric Parking Brake will enable, I don't think this is the case.

 Under the following conditions,
the electric parking brake (EPB)
is automatically applied and the
AUTOHOLD is released. The
AUTOHOLD is re-enabled when the
conditions before the AUTOHOLD is
released are restored.
 The drivers seat belt is unfastened.
 The drivers door is opened.
 When about ten minutes or longer




Which none of these are valid as the AUTOHOLD is turned off when I park. I'm not seeing any reason why this should be turned on when I park. The first time this happened I was freaking out thinking that I had been driving with the parking brake on. The second time I thought OK maybe I bumped the switch. This morning when I came into work I verified that nope, it just turned on, on its own. Thoughts?

PS- I've already called the dealership and talked with one of their service shop managers, he's going to go out and do some test driving to see if he can replicate this on another '17 CX5.
Click to expand...
Trust me, you won't accidentally drive with the parking brake on - try it.

There is one other reason why the the parking brake will automatically apply and that is if a fault is detected in the switch. There are a multitude of conditions that the parking brake will or will not work. Have a read
 
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