Congrats and welcome. This usually occurs when you engage and you are on a downhill slope. Its just the weight of the car settling against the rear brakes.

 

Nope. Occurs on the flat. My BMW has a similar feature but doesn't cause the car body to squat down. Other idea?

 

That should only occur, if you apply the parking brake before fully stopped on the footbrake, or you have an Automatic gearbox car and your leaving it in Drive when you put the parking brake on

 

the electromagnet brake system actually does make the rear squat slightly, the magnetic brake housing is actually housed above the hub which has to push downward so it feels like it is squating. not exactly sure how much it squats, but it does feel like its loading up.

 

I don't think this is it. The Electric Parking Brake (EPB) is contained within the rear calipers, which is supported solely by the unsprung portion of the suspension. Consequently there are no forces transmitted from the EPB into the body of the car that would cause the car to "squat." Stated another way - the only factors that influence the height of the car body above the ground are (a) spring stiffness, (b) weight distribution over each corner of the car, and (c) dynamic forces due to acceleration or deceleration. If you are fully stopped when you apply the EPB there should be no "squatting" of the car whatsoever. I double checked this last night on my drive home - when I operated my EPB the car made absolutely no squatting motion, and I didn't expect it to.

The only thing I can think of is as S4 EVV suggested - if the EPB is on while the car is in gear and you ride the clutch a bit (or rev the engine if it's an automatic) without having your foot on the brake pedal you will feel the car move a bit under you, not squatting so much as straining against the EPB.

 

That's the kind of more technical explanation I was looking for. Thanks!

 

I'll call it a mystery, then. Thanks, all.

 

Just to add a little to the mystery, my car does this as well. It's especially noticeable if I've been using Hill Hold Assist to stop the car, then want to get out of the car. Having stopped and the HHA brings on the temporary brake (green P symbol comes on in the dash), knock it into neutral (mines a manual A5) and then undo my seatbelt. At this point, HHA is disabled and the green P turns to a red P (parking brake engaged).

One of the pre-conditions for HHA to be engaged is driver's belt done up, so undoing the seatbelt or opeining the door automatically brings on the EPB. There's a noticeable mechanical noise from the rear of the car (somewhere between a squeel and a squelch is about the best I can describe it, but not that loud). The car 'squats' at this point, especially noticeable if parked on a slope, and I've always assumed (maybe erroneously) that the HHA uses the front brakes whereas the EPB uses the rears, hence the slight squat.

Anyway, just my 2p that may go some way to explaining what you've seen.

 

i actually took the rear tire off to rotate it and just for kicks wanted to see if it actually does do it, and it does, the mechanisim actually does push downward but very slightly it looks like maybe 1/4 inch thats it.

 

it is about to take a poop that's why.