Jeffed Car Talk - Now with Trainwrecks, Formerly with Manual Gearboxes
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And I have a suspicion that people who end up driving miles with the brake on also have badly worn brakes.
Rears at least; the handbrake doesn't operate on the fronts.
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Forgetting it's in gear leads to lurching forward when you turn the key
I can't recall the circumstances — it's been about 14 years since I even owned a manual — but I have done this intentionally, but mostly ...
you can always waggle the gearstick from side to side before starting it.
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And never start it without the handbrake on so if you do start it in gear you'll only go a few inches and then stall.
Or just hold down the brake pedal at the same time. No reason not to with a modern car that does not require (or even forbids) pumping the accelerator while starting.
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You winked at me. Why did you do that? My friend explained to me that people on the internet don't wink to just mean something was funny...
I'm confused, I don't people skills well.
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Change "can't be made" to "is far less likely".
I checked when I got in the car this morning. In mine, not only can the key not be removed, the ignition switch cannot be turned to the removal position. If you're driving a car you're accustomed to (muscle memory), this unexpected behavior will likely alert you to the fact that something isn't quite right. "Far less likely" is probably true. If you're driving a rental or other car you're not familiar with, you might not notice if you don't try to remove the key — a combination of circumstances with a fairly low probability, but not entirely far-fetched.
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My hometown doesn't have curbs. Nor sidewalks. And neither did our farm.
Doesn't really matter. If the steering is locked at an angle, then the most likely way a rolling car is going to stop is by turning until it's parallel to a contour line. You have a fair chance of avoiding that whole business of thundering out of control down the hill at an ever increasing pace until interrupted by blunt force trauma.
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to the kerb when parking downhill, and away from when parking uphill
Nope. To the kerb in both cases.
The aim is to avoid the car rolling out into the traffic lane. If you're parked far enough out from the kerb that the front of the car is going to swing into traffic on a backward roll before the rear wheels are arrested by the kerb, you're parked too far out.
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until interrupted by blunt force trauma.
Which would be someone's house or LP tank.
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Nope. To the kerb in both cases.
Not the way I was taught, and not by the Highway Code
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Probably depends on how much faith you have in the prospect of the kerb stopping the wheels. If it's a nice tall one, your method is probably better. If it's the kind of shortass inadequate kerb that most of the roads near me have, I expect mine is.
Either way beats leaving the steering pointed straight ahead, anyway.
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If the road has a curb/kerb, you want the car to roll (if it rolls, which of course you don't really want) to roll so that the tire/tyre presses against the curb/kerb and stops the rolling. If there is no curb/kerb (or if the curb/kerb is low or rounded, so the tire/tyre is likely to roll over it rather than stopping), you set the steering so that, if it rolls, it rolls off the road rather than into other cars.
If the car is facing downhill, in both cases turn the wheels toward the curb/kerb or edge of the road. If the car is facing uphill and there is a curb/kerb, turn the wheels away from the curb/kerb/edge, so that the tire is aimed at the curb/kerb for backward movement. If there is no curb/kerb, turn the wheels toward the edge so that the car is directed in a circle around a point off the road.
Edit: Somewhat Hanzo'd, but I think my post explains the reasons better than the previous ones. ;P
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It's simple: turn to the kerb (or road edge) in both cases so that the arc that the car will move along intersects the kerb soonest, and in a way that is not likely to bounce you back into the road. It doesn't matter whether it is the front or the rear wheels against the kerb which stop the car: what matters is that it get stopped before it goes more out of control.
So I agree with @flabdablet this time. :)
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Alternatively you can always waggle the gearstick from side to side before starting it.
When my first car was out of action I borrowed a knackered old peugeot off a friend. On receipt, I waggled the gearstick, noticed plenty of lateral movement, turned the key and lurched forward. That car was interesting to drive...
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high performance car.
has a power to mass ratio of greater than 130 kilowatts per tonne, or
That would limit my current vehicle to about 3/4 its current output. That said, I wouldn't let any youngling near the driver's seat. S/he can learn in a beat up old used car, like I did.
has an engine that has been modified to increase performance (other than a modification made by the manufacturer in the course of the manufacture of the vehicle)
Clever on their part. Although, you guys have the W427, so those strict restrictions can't be all that bad.
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Ms. flabdablet's Hyundai has a switch on the clutch pedal that enforces that rule.
My Opel requires pressing the clutch before the turn will actually result in motor being started. The citrus flavored car before also required that.
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The citrus flavored car before also required that.
…and I can't think what that car would be. Some weird freaky Belgium car I don't know about?
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I'm guessing Citroen.
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Did it go over your head, petrolhead?
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My Opel requires pressing the clutch before the turn will actually result in motor being started. The citrus flavored car before also required that.
Every manual I've driven required the clutch to be depressed for the starter circuit to work, with the exception of a 1980 Dodge pickup we had as a farm truck that had a worn-out ignition lock and had a redneck-installed pushbutton on the dash that engaged the starter regardless of ignition status or safety interlocks.
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Every manual I've driven required the clutch to be depressed for the starter circuit to work
I've only ever encountered it on hire cars. (Woah! Duelling anecdotes!)
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I've only ever encountered it on hire cars. (Woah! Duelling anecdotes!)
I've never encountered it. To be fair I've only ever driven my driving instructor's teaching car and my current car, but it was also never mentioned to me as a possibility by any of the people who contributed to teaching me to drive. Maybe it's a cross-pondian thing?
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Maybe it's a cross-pondian thing?
Could be; that's where the huge majority of cars I've hired have been located.
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I drive an old Fiat Uno and I can turn on the engine however I want. I was taught to press the clutch anyways as to not lurch forward if I left it in gear (and I manage to screw up that part rather consistently, which worries me).
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My VW also requires the clutch to be pressed to start the engine. And a few other cars I've had as hire cars. It's a pretty common thing these days.
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My VW also requires the clutch to be pressed to start the engine. And a few other cars I've had as hire cars. It's a pretty common thing these days.
Every manual I have driven in the last 10 years was this way.
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south-american fiat Uno?
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Yep. Argentina '97.
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compañero!
those things have 0 extra features, the fiat idea of a car was: 4 wheel, 4 four seats and an engine. everything else is luxury.
my first car was a 91' 128
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I have a 2008 Citroën and doesn't have the clutch protection, neither a '91 Blazer nor a 2005 Opel. Only car I drove with that protection was a Chrysler Neon. It's silly.
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I have a 2008 Citroën and doesn't have the clutch protection
Hmm. Volvo got into big trouble for not equipping a car with one.
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Please, in the USA you can be sued if you breath too fast.
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Yeah, but it's cheaper to have one base version of a car and only change what you need to change for each market. Since most car manufacturers sell in the US, a clutch/starter interlock should be a part of the base package.
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a clutch/starter interlock should be a part of the base package.
Only in the US. Nobody seems to put them in as factory-fitted features elsewhere.
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Commonly known trick if you need to move a couple of meters but your engine won't start: Turn the key so the starter motor is running, then carefully release the clutch. This can be useful, for example, if your engine died on a railway crossing.
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This can be useful, for example, if your engine died on a railway crossing.
Don't forget to call the railway (in the US, there's a blue sign at railroad crossings that has a suitable emergency phone number on it) if this happens to you...
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(in the US, there's a blue sign at railroad crossings that has a suitable emergency phone number on it
TIL.
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Don't forget to call the railway if this happens to you...
That's a very important and high priority step, more so than getting the engine restarted. The railway really doesn't want to have any trains go through a crossing while you're stuck on it. (I think that in the UK there's normally a phone in high-visibility yellow right there. They've also tried to eliminate as many level crossings as possible, which has been a lot of investment over many years.)
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They've also tried to eliminate as many level crossings as possible, which has been a lot of investment over many years.
I dare them to try that through, say, Iowa.
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I dare them to try that through, say, Iowa.
<deliberate-misunderstanding> You're going to transfer control over Iowa to the UK? :D </deliberate-misunderstanding>
That would actually have a lot of similarities to how railways are operated through the Fens (farmland that's very very flat former marshland, for people who don't know them) and yes, a lot of those are not at-grade. Either the railway is elevated — pretty common because of flooding problems — or the road goes on a bridge over the railway. There are really very few at-grade crossings.
Which isn't to say that there are none. They're just a lot less common, and of those that exist, most are farm tracks.
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You're going to transfer control over Iowa to the UK?
I wouldn't mind so very much, if it would end Iowa's tail-wagging-the-dog influence on presidential elections.
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I dare them to try that through, say, Iowa.
Probably easier than building a big, fat trench smack through the middle of Los Angeles, CA......
Consider that highways pop up only every so often in the countryside, and most farm roads are so lightly trafficked that it's hard to justify anything more than a passive crossing by any measure, as well as being able to work without bothering almost anyone. Now compare that to having to work under noise curfews, in a busy urban area, with very limited space for construction easements, and massive queues of cars snaking around every single worksite....
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That's a very important and high priority step, more so than getting the engine restarted. The railway really doesn't want to have any trains go through a crossing while you're stuck on it. (I think that in the UK there's normally a phone in high-visibility yellow right there. They've also tried to eliminate as many level crossings as possible, which has been a lot of investment over many years.)
While the US doesn't go that far -- it doesn't really make sense to stick a public phone at a crossing out in the middle of nowhere, especially when:
- mobiles are a dime a dozen
- there are places on the RR (still) where you don't have anything to backhaul that phone with
the blue signs are a definite improvement, even if people don't seem to notice them for some odd reason...
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Probably easier than building a big, fat trench smack through the middle of Los Angeles, CA......
Probably a lot easier...
If you run the big fat trench, you find your self managing grant lotteries to replace old 15 trucks with 15 new trucks at a $25K subsidy each.
http://www.acta.org/truckgrant/Grant Solicitation.pdf
Any guesses about how much it cost[s] to put this together?
More than the grants?
I wonder how much grant money was awarded to the folks putting together the figures to put this thing into motion?
Gads.
Filed under: look! it's grants all the way down....
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Don't forget to call the railway if this happens to you...
That's a very important and high priority step, more so than getting the engine restarted.
Stepping out of and away from the car is good too.
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Now they are, yes.
Yeah: however, point 2 was worse back then...
Stepping out of and away from the car is good too.
Tip: if you get stranded on a crossing and see a train coming at you:
- Get out of the car and off the tracks!
- Run in the ditch alongside the tracks, in the direction opposite the train's movement -- i.e. towards the train. This keeps you out of the path of the debris from the ensuing impact.
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Be sure to keep several meters of distance there. Do not walk right besides the tracks, you'll get sucked under the train and die a horrible death.