When does parking break auto engage / disengage?

Matt Radochonski · May 7, 2023

Hi folks, new 2023 sierra 1500 owner here, and my first GMC. Question about the parking brake. The times at which it engages automatically when I shift into park versus not, and disengaging automatically when I shift a reverse or drive, seem to be somewhat random. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and I have to manually do it. Are there any tricks here or something I’m not noticing or a setting somewhere? Thanks for your help.

silveradosid · May 7, 2023

mine works the same way, i have a steep driveway and sometimes i pull in i let it creep to a stop to see if it will roll backwards, most of the time the brake will come on and other times it does not and the truck will roll

repairman54 · May 7, 2023

Taking foot off the brake or just a slight touch of the gas pedal should release it if shifting doesn't.

Edited May 7, 2023 by repairman54

SFLTruck · May 7, 2023

9 hours ago, Matt Radochonski said:

Hi folks, new 2023 sierra 1500 owner here, and my first GMC. Question about the parking brake. The times at which it engages automatically when I shift into park versus not, and disengaging automatically when I shift a reverse or drive, seem to be somewhat random. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, and I have to manually do it. Are there any tricks here or something I’m not noticing or a setting somewhere? Thanks for your help.

I think GM is trying to keep owners from using the "parking pawl" in the transmission to hold the vehicle in place on anything other then flat ground. I have noticed the same thing. If the ground if flat it won't engage, park on a hill and it will. Also, I noticed if you're stopped at a light you can press the park button and then you can take your foot off the brake. The truck will stay in place and all you need to do is touch the go pedal and it will turn off the parking brake and you're off.

Silverado4x4 · May 7, 2023

58 minutes ago, SFLTruck said:

I think GM is trying to keep owners from using the "parking pawl" in the transmission to hold the vehicle in place on anything other then flat ground. I have noticed the same thing. If the ground if flat it won't engage, park on a hill and it will. Also, I noticed if you're stopped at a light you can press the park button and then you can take your foot off the brake. The truck will stay in place and all you need to do is touch the go pedal and it will turn off the parking brake and you're off.

If you park on flat ground without applying the parking brake then get out and rock the vehicle back and forth the e-brake will auto apply. Happened to me several times.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Silverado4x4

SFLTruck · May 7, 2023

8 minutes ago, Silverado4x4 said:

If you park on flat ground without applying the parking brake then get out and rock the vehicle back and forth the e-brake will auto apply. Happened to me several times.

oh that's cool I haven't noticed that one yet.

silveradosid · May 8, 2023

interesting, i was hooking up to my boat and put the parking brake on and put it in park. hooked the boat up and when i put the truck in drive i got a warning about the brake being on and had to release it manually

jaxcam02 · May 8, 2023

No need to manually release the parking brake. Just bump the throttle once and it'll release.

onewheat · May 10, 2023

I haven't completely paid attention but I believe if it auto-sets (due to an incline), it will auto-disengage when you put it in gear. If you set it manually, it will disengage when you touch the gas, if you don't manually disable it.

Matt Radochonski · May 11, 2023

Thanks for the replies. Onewheat that makes sense about the if-auto-engage, then auto-disengage.

Mshawn · August 13, 2023

On 5/8/2023 at 5:42 AM, silveradosid said:

interesting, i was hooking up to my boat and put the parking brake on and put it in park. hooked the boat up and when i put the truck in drive i got a warning about the brake being on and had to release it manually

I believe it senses went trailer is hooked up and will make you manually release the brake. This is how mine is. When I have nothing hooked up the parking brake will set and if I need to release it I put it in drive or reverse it releases, but when I’ve got my trailer hooked up I always have to manually release it. When I have the trailer hooked up it will set the parking brake no matter if I’m on flat ground or incline/decline but I have to manually release it.

Jim-GA · August 13, 2023

I was confused about all this when I first got my 2022. I went back and reread the Owner's Manual section about the parking brake and they describe all the ways it gets automatically set and released.

I don't really like it. I have had situations where the truck sets the parking brake itself and then out of habit, I pressed the Park button (intending to set it) and unintentionally released it.

Part of the problem is having the same press-in button being used to set AND release the Parking brake. That's a very bad design. There should be a switch or lever that has an ON and an OFF direction that is not the same. So if the truck turns it ON and I press the switch in the ON direction again, it stays ON (instead of releasing).

I doubt any GM design engineers read all this stuff here, but they should change it. I predict they change it AFTER they lose a big lawsuit where the victim proves their faulty design caused a serious accident.

Rob Mugs · August 15, 2023

On 8/13/2023 at 10:11 AM, Jim-GA said:

I was confused about all this when I first got my 2022. I went back and reread the Owner's Manual section about the parking brake and they describe all the ways it gets automatically set and released.

I don't really like it. I have had situations where the truck sets the parking brake itself and then out of habit, I pressed the Park button (intending to set it) and unintentionally released it.

Part of the problem is having the same press-in button being used to set AND release the Parking brake. That's a very bad design. There should be a switch or lever that has an ON and an OFF direction that is not the same. So if the truck turns it ON and I press the switch in the ON direction again, it stays ON (instead of releasing).

I doubt any GM design engineers read all this stuff here, but they should change it. I predict they change it AFTER they lose a big lawsuit where the victim proves their faulty design caused a serious accident.

The whole refresh is a bad design in my opinion. Wish I would have stuck with my 2020.

Piano black=sucks
Shifter is unintuitive (full forward should be PARK, not reverse)

This G damned parking brake automatically turning on. Save a parking pawl, ride an e-brake?
Loss of space due to floor shifter
Front end's Chevy logo is up too high
Front end missing the turn signal lamps, independent of the DRLs isn't as nice looking

But hey.... we have a pretty screen