Taking off the hand brake on Toyota

[ericmark]

Father-in-law has a Toyota which is garaged most of the time and only used for long runs. The garage has a bench at the end and the front of the car goes under the bench a little to allow door to close. So the bonnet can't be opened without moving it back a little.

The battery became flat likely purely due to not being used. So came to release hand brake and push it back a little but without power could not release hand brake.

Tried to charge through the cigarette lighter but even with ignition on no connection to battery.

In the end I had to jack up rear on two trolley jacks and using his other car as anchor with rope and waggoner's hitches pull the car 8 inches out of the garage to open bonnet and put charger on battery.

I am sure there is an easier way and since it will likely happen again question in how.

Question one if hand brake was left off would it stay off?
Question two can the cigarette lighter be made to stay active with ignition off.

If the lighter socket was active then simple to use a small float charger to keep battery topped up. I would guess on a relay since even with ignition on it was dead.

 

[Mursal]

I would have thought the socket would be live regardless of the position of the key.

Obviously an electric handbrake, you will have to try and see if it will stay off while the battery goes flat. Toyota may not have thought of this scenario, with the bench .....

 

[ericmark]

I would have thought the socket would be live regardless of the position of the key.

Most cars I have had the cig lighter only works with ign on but it is controlled by ignition switch direct so simply switching on ign would allow one to use socket either to put power into or out of battery. But must be a relay with his car as stayed dead.

Until charged can't test hand brake and even when charged only way to test would be to remove battery terminal which would clearly upset radio hence why I ask question no point re-inventing wheel.

It may auto engage when power is lost like wagon spring brake or may stay off like wagon brake where you move them sideways to hold on when air pressure drops. Can't remember name was a long time ago.

At moment best option seems to be cig socket where it is live all the time and can be accessed in garage. But don't even know if he can leave window open or if they auto close when ign is turned off.

Wind rain and security not a problem when in garage and battery charger cable across driving seat will hardly be missed by anyone going to drive car.

Once charged I can start looking and see where wires can be routed. But with wiring diagram it may be as simple as jamming a relay contacts to keep cig lighter live. Hence questions.

Back in 1980's I was an auto electrician but that was a long time ago and things have moved on.

 

[Burnerman]

It sounds like one of those 12v power sockets so frequently found in cars these days would be ideal......connected directly to the battery and mounted in the boot.
Electric handbrakes do fail safe 'on'......I guess that stops them coming off on their own. Ghastly idea!
John

 

[Avocet]

I have a Peugeot with an electric handbrake and if you need to release it manually, there's a little flap in the carpet under the passenger seat. You lift that, pull out a blanking pklug, and shove the wheel key in there then wind like mad for a while. It's possible the Toyota has some similar manual release mechanism?

 

[mfarrow]

You just need 12V somewhere accessible, forget the earth you can put that anywhere.

How about a 4mm in-line 'banana plug' socket mounted between bumper and wheelarch, with cable leading directly to the battery +12V? There's usually some kind of loom trailing down there already that you'll be able to cable-tie it onto.

 

[alan333]

How about fitting a battery optimiser like bikers do for the winter? You fit a cable to the battery terminals and the other end is a small plug which you fit/place somewhere easily accessible. When parking up simply plug the optimiser in and forget about it.

Obviously this would only work of you have power in the garage.