2015 PHEV Handbrake & Motor Lock Failure

[A4est]

Hi there folks.
1st time poster here.

Looking for any pointers / advice if anyone has anything it would be appreciated.

I seem to have had a bit of an issue with my Outlander taking itself for a short trip down my driveway and in to the fence / wall at the bottom of it yesterday afternoon.
As you may or may not be aware there is some snow here in Scotland.
Nothing much to worry about if I am honest as I have a good set of all season tyres fitted and can’t think of the last time I failed to get to where I wanted to be due to snow on the roads.

Anyway after I returned home from the office yesterday afternoon and parked the car up the driveway (partially clear of snow).
1: Applied the handbrake.
2: Pressed “P”. (I know it comes on automatically when you switch off the car but it’s habit)
3: Turned off the car.
4: Got out and locked it.
5: Plugged in the charging cable.

I then went in to my garage to get my snow shovel and bag of grit & salt.

However while I was in the garage I heard a smash and a car alarm going off, when I looked out you can imagine my shock to see it was my car.
It was now sat attached to the metal fence & wall at the bottom of my driveway.
Charging cable still attached to the socket on the car but cables and charger ripped from the wall of the house and bare 7kw cables open to the elements.

So I am completely confused as to what has happened here.

It’s going to need a new Passenger side front wing, front bumper respray, front windscreen pillar re-painted.
Not sure if there’s any damage to the passenger door yet as the wing has been pushed in behind it so I can’t open the door.

I am also concerned about the charging socket on the car as the plug was turned at least 45 degrees to where it should be, although I think the plug took the worst of it I still want it all checked out.

When I got in to the car to reverse it back up off the wall I noticed the handbrake did not seem to hold anymore either.

Cheers for any pointers

A4est

 

[DAUK]

Hi A4est,

Very worrying, and expensive. Could it be that the handbrake had iced up? but even then "P" shoud have held it.

I too live in Scotland and have just cleared another 5 inches of snow of the drive, but in spite if having new all season tyres on the car it is staying locked in the garage today!

Good luck getting to the bottom of it and getting the repairs sorted out.

DAUK

 

[Tipper]

Seized rear calipers have been mentioned on here a couple of times, that's assuming your car has the old-fashioned mechanical handbrake lever. It's interesting that the parking brake didn't hold...but then it is probably only a 'little pin' into a small indent on part of the front transmission gears.

Electric handbrake is a whole different ball game of course!

 

[jaapv]

Judging by the impressive "clonk" the parking brake produces from time to time - which comes from the rear BTW-, it is more than a little pin in an indent.

 

[A4est]

Hi A4est,

Very worrying, and expensive. Could it be that the handbrake had iced up? but even then "P" shoud have held it.

I too live in Scotland and have just cleared another 5 inches of snow of the drive, but in spite if having new all season tyres on the car it is staying locked in the garage today!

Good luck getting to the bottom of it and getting the repairs sorted out.

DAUK

I am up in Aberdeen and to be honest buddy there is not a lot of snow here in the city at all (it's been more like the "Bunny from the East" than the "Beast from the East" :lol:
The shire is being hit pretty hard but not in the town.
I doubt I have had to clear 3" in total off the car over the last few days.

The temperature at the time was only -2 deg so not that cold either.

Spoke to the chief mechanic at the Mitsubishi dealer in Aberdeen so he's intrigued, he thinks the handbrake has failed as part of it but also said the Motor Brake should have held it.

Will drop it off to them today or tomorrow and let them deal with any warranty issues before it goes to the body shop.

 

[Tipper]

Judging by the impressive "clonk" the parking brake produces from time to time - which comes from the rear BTW-, it is more than a little pin in an indent.

Sorry, I'm talking about the transmission lock when 'Park/P' is pressed. On conventional auto gearboxes and CVTs (yes I know it's not one of either of these!) it's not much more than a pin that is dropped into a hole in one of the 'gears', hence my comment.

And it is most definitely located on the front transmission, there are diagrams showing where the actuator is located.

 

[jaapv]

You're surely right about the location, hard to tell the direction in any case, but my car does produce quite an impressive clonk sometimes when the lock engages.

 

[NightPHEVer]

So I am completely confused as to what has happened here.

I then went in to my garage to get my snow shovel and bag of grit & salt.

I'm guessing there's no possibility that 2 tonnes of PHEV actually slid down the driveway on ice, so the wheels were not actually rotating at the time all? How steep is the driveway and how much ice was there? I say this because I once saw the result of an incident of a Skoda 'sliding' on ice, about 50 yards down a carpark, through a hedge and on to the top of a conservatory. The driver had the brakes applied throughout.

 

[Uptodat]

I have both rear calipers replaced, a year apart, after the self-adjusting mechanism corroded and seized. Others have reported the same and there is a recall notice in Japan for this issue. I corresponded with MCS who say no recall is required in the UK.
I would have thought leaving the car in P should have held it anyway but, the recall notice translated from Japanese specifically mentions the danger of a vehicle moving if a caliper fails. If the dealer finds a defective caliper you perhaps should contact MCS. Link to recall notice:
http://recall.mitsubishi-motors.co.jp/Recall/displayselect.do?orderno=14168

 

[A4est]

So I am completely confused as to what has happened here.

I then went in to my garage to get my snow shovel and bag of grit & salt.

I'm guessing there's no possibility that 2 tonnes of PHEV actually slid down the driveway on ice, so the wheels were not actually rotating at the time all? How steep is the driveway and how much ice was there? I say this because I once saw the result of an incident of a Skoda 'sliding' on ice, about 50 yards down a carpark, through a hedge and on to the top of a conservatory. The driver had the brakes applied throughout.

I appreciate what you are saying but it's not a particularly steep driveway.
I have attached a couple of pictures of the driveway at the time.
At worst the front wheels were on some snow but not a whole lot and the temperature was only at about -1 so no hard ice or compacted snow.

 

[NightPHEVer]

Seems unlikely it would have 'slid' down the driveway then. The conditions that would allow that to happen would be evident if you tried to walk on the surface - ie. you'd fall over fairly quickly. The iced surface conditions under which I witnessed the sliding Skoda were almost impossible to walk on.

When I got in to the car to reverse it back up off the wall I noticed the handbrake did not seem to hold anymore either.

I appreciate it probaby wouldn't have been the first thing you'd have thought of in the circumstances but did you happen to notice the status of the 'R,D,N,P' indicator when you got back into the car. Presumably as the car would have been switched off it must have been in 'P'. In which case was there any indication that it was 'locked' in P whilst parked in the wall? Again, I appreciate it may well have been rather hard to determine this at the time.

The 'P' lock does seem to be quite a substantial thing - noticable if you select 'D' or 'R' if you're on a hill without pressing the brake pedal hard enough. ie. as previously mentioned by jaapv there's quite a 'clunk'. Although I for one would never rely on just the 'P' lock whilst on a hill, always use the handbrake too. So if the handbrake has failed then that could well be a contributory factor, but still doesn't entirely explain the total failure of the 'P' lock.

 

[A4est]

Hi NightPHEVer

Am afraid I never noticed if the 'P' was illuminated at the switch on the center console, or on the dashboard. Wish I had.

As the car was turned off and actually charging I would have naturally assumed it was in Park mode.

I need to get the car dropped off to the dealer this week, so will see what they have to say for themselves.

 

[Hypermiler]

How awful! What year is the car. Sounds like a failed calliper to me which means they should pay for all of it given there’s supposed to be a recall. No idea why the p didn’t work but its rather worrying. Presume they will foot the bill for a new chargepoint too. My 2014 handbrake has gone slack for the 2nd time... will be booking it in soon!
H

 

[A4est]

How awful! What year is the car. Sounds like a failed calliper to me which means they should pay for all of it given there’s supposed to be a recall. No idea why the p didn’t work but its rather worrying. Presume they will foot the bill for a new chargepoint too. My 2014 handbrake has gone slack for the 2nd time... will be booking it in soon!
H

Hi Hypermiler,
It's a 15 plate with 28500 miles on the clock. Serviced by main dealer as required.

Am struggling to get it to them as they don't have a courtesy car available for me. As a father of 3 it's not ideal.

But it needs to get in to them this week by hook or by crook.

 

[A4est]

Well after all this time I finally managed to get the car delivered in to my Local Mitsubishi Dealer / Workshop last week.

So They have confirmed that the handbrake had failed and that both rear calipers require to be replaced (no idea when as they are on back order)

So they had their warranty guy call me to get the full story.

You can guess the response from them:
"The handbrake failure could not have caused this damage as the front motor locks are still operational"
"There is no way that Mitsubishi Aberdeen would be able to accept any liability for the consequential damage"

Even after I explained that the front wheels were on light snow and the handbrake failing caused the front wheels to be pushed to sliding point and taking the car down the driveway.

So over to Mitsubishi UK customer services to see what they are going to do about it.

Will be looking at getting some legal advice in the meantime.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

Good luck! I'm sure they'll fight, but it sounds as though you have a case...

 

[jaapv]

Isn't this a case that your insurance company should fight?

 

[A4est]

Isn't this a case that your insurance company should fight?

I would have thought that should be the case. But as Admiral are a shower of buggers they just said it would be a fault claim against me.

So I told them to forget it and have moved my insurance from them 100% all cars & home.

I doubt any insurance company would have been any different but it made me feel better :lol:

That's now 2 weeks since I emailed Customer Services at Mitsubishi UK and have followed it up several times to be told someone would call me back in a few minutes..
Still no one has called me back!!

 

[NightPHEVer]

Mitsubishi really can't wriggle out of this one. If the handbrake failed then it failed. If you'd parked the vehicle in these circumstances, not applied the handbrake, and then complained to Mitsubishi that the 'P' lock alone had failed to stop the vehicle from moving I wonder what Mitsubishi would have said? Most likely - 'you should have applied the handbrake' I would think. I haven't looked but I can imagine that the handbook will tell you not to rely on the 'P' lock alone, always apply the handbrake. So if the handbrake fails...

I recently didn't renew with Admiral - plumped for Mitsubishi (Original Insurance) as they use OEM parts. So considering the circumstances, if you were insured with Mitsubishi that would be and intriguing scenario.

 

[jaapv]

Isn't this a case that your insurance company should fight?

I would have thought that should be the case. But as Admiral are a shower of buggers they just said it would be a fault claim against me.

So I told them to forget it and have moved my insurance from them 100% all cars & home.

I doubt any insurance company would have been any different but it made me feel better :lol:

That's now 2 weeks since I emailed Customer Services at Mitsubishi UK and have followed it up several times to be told someone would call me back in a few minutes..
Still no one has called me back!!

I would have called another insurance - my legal one... Showers of buggers deserve sharp aps on noses.