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Hi there, i have a '93 Corolla.
And after driving it for years and years I guess i just found out today that if i set the gear to neutral (auto tranny) and then engage my parking brake , let the foot off the foot-brake .......the car rolls forward in a downhill environment as if nothing's holding it at all !

I heard that the parking pawl isn't really designed to hold the car and if you only put it in 'P' and don't use the handbrake then it'll stress the pawl and eventually break it.

But as of now , basically if I only put it in 'P' ...it works, holds the car downhill or up.
But if i put it in N and use only the parking brake it rolls forwards.

It recentlly passed its WOF a week ago. The noted strength was [100% , 100% ] for the parking brake. (used to be 200 afew years ago)

Are all cars like this ? What's the use of parking brake if it can't even hold the car ?

It definitely sounds like something it wrong with the hand brake. It should hold the car on a hill, even in Neutral. Obvoiusly, it's safer to leave the car in Park with the handbrake on when parked on a hill, but as you say, you shouldn't have to rely on the transmission to hold the car (no different that the advice to leave a manual car in gear when parked on a hill).
It seems strange that it passed a WoF so recently, but maybe something has failed since. I'd get your mechanic to check it out.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'll try pulling the handbrake even further as when I tried it a few days ago I pressed the button till the ( ! ) sign comes on ...it probably needs adjusting. The previous owner i got it from many years ago said it's been adjusted once because it was travelling too far, maybe i need to adjust it again.
I was just afraid that pulling it too far might snap the cable, especially on a hill. But i'll try that and get back with the result.

By the way, i've looked online and many people differs on whether you should press the button to pull-up ..or just yank it up till you hear the ratchet make that ugly awkward sound. What's your opinion on this ?

The (!) sign with the warning light will come on as soon as the handbrake is applied even a little, so it definitely needs to be pulled up further. Pull it up until the amount of resistance is such that you would struggle to pull it further. If the cable is in good condition, you will not brake it no matter how hard you yank on the lever.
The argument for pressing the button is that it will minimise wear on the rachet mechanism. I normally press the button to apply the handbrake but once it is applied I still pull it up another notch or two without the button pressed in to ensure the handbrake is properly applied.

Thank Andrew ! Looks like you're right, I needed to pull the handbrake pretty much till i can't pull it anymore and it works. Car stops on hill on neutral.

Just the travel of the handbrake is a little higher than I thought it would be but everything is fine.

A friend of mine has an '08 corolla and he needed only to pull it abit and it holds on a hill. Though that car has disc brakes for all 4.

Again, thanks for your advice and guide.
Much appreciated.

mk.