Your brakes fail while you are driving a car with a manual transmission. What does the manual tell you to do?
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A.
Shift into a lower gear, release the clutch pedal, and apply the emergency brake. Correct
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B.
Apply the emergency brake and move the gear lever into the low-range position.
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C.
Shift to neutral and apply firm pressure to the brakes without locking the wheels.
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D.
Hold the clutch pedal down and coast while pumping the brake pedal firmly.
The answer is "Shift into a lower gear, release the clutch pedal, and apply the emergency brake."
For a manual transmission the manual lays out three actions: shift to a lower gear, release the clutch so the engine pulls on the drivetrain, and apply the emergency brake. The low-range answer is the trap because it's the automatic-transmission sentence printed right next to the manual one in the same Brake Failure section, and readers who grab the first sentence that mentions the emergency brake can land on the wrong transmission's procedure.
The traps in the wrong answers
B. Apply the emergency brake and move the gear lever into the low-range position.
That line is the sentence right next to the keyed one, written for cars with automatic transmissions. Reads the Brake Failure block as one combined procedure, missing that the manual gives separate drills by transmission type.
C. Shift to neutral and apply firm pressure to the brakes without locking the wheels.
That step belongs to the Gas Pedal Sticks procedure on the same page, where the brakes still work. Reaches for the one-size emergency stop drivers rehearse for any sudden trouble.
D. Hold the clutch pedal down and coast while pumping the brake pedal firmly.
Pressing the clutch disengages the engine, so you lose the slowing effect the lower-gear step is meant to use. Falls back on the driving-school habit of pressing the clutch at every stop, a reflex ingrained from day one behind the wheel.
This question tests your knowledge of Emergencies in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Driver Handbook, "Brake Failure," p.75..
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