Starting/parking car - advice required

JustinR1979

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

or just leave in neutral.

I don't understand why he used to leave it in gear then?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

he like many others have used to have a habbit of putting it in 1st turning it off leaving then coming back clutch in start turn the wheel to pull off and drive away many people do it its suprising until the clutch gives a fault at that moment like it did on him. I have always left it in neutral, always check its in neutral.

vqmismatch

I always leave the car or motorbike in first, wheels pointed in such a way as to chock it on the kerb if on a decent slope. I rarely apply the handbrake as its a faff to adjust and wears reasonably quickly so I save it for steep hill starts.

I'm sure one could go a few lifetimes leaving cars in neutral all the time without incident but I've seen enough incidents of cars rolling that leaving in gear would have prevented to know how I am most comfortable leaving my car.

Richard53

I think a lot of these ideas come from the early days of motoring, when mechanisms were a lot less reliable than they are now. Dipping the clutch before starting might have helped before the days of multigrade oils, and turning the wheels into the kerb might have been necessary when handbrakes were a bit hit-and-miss. But if you think about a modern (mechanical) handbrake in good condition - if you park it on a hill and the handbrake holds, why would it not be holding the car 6 hours later? I've never heard of a handbrake springing off all by itself, unless it was badly maintained. My starting technique has been waggle gear lever - start engine - dip clutch - engage gear - drive off, I have done this for 40 years, and I have never had a clutch go, or an engine fail to start because of it.


Each to his own, and we all have reasons for doing things differently, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of these 'old tricks' are in fact relics from a bygone age. But keep doing them by all means, because variety is what makes motoring interesting.

Ectophile

I follow the advice given in the Highway Code (section 226 in my 2004 edition), and always have done. If parking on a hill, leave the car in gear - first or reverse as appropriate - and turn the wheels so that the car would roll into the curb. Does nobody bother to read the Highway Code these days?

I wouldn't trust a handbrake alone to hold a car on a hill. It may seem to be on properly when applied, but that doesn't mean the car won't start to creep as the brakes cool down.

When starting, I always dip the clutch. It puts less load on the starter, as it doesn't have to turn the gearbox, and it also provides a fail-safe in case you forgot to take it out of gear.

forgotmyname

Always in gear when parked. Never in gear when starting.

Strider590

Richard53 wrote: »

I think a lot of these ideas come from the early days of motoring, when mechanisms were a lot less reliable than they are now. Dipping the clutch before starting might have helped before the days of multigrade oils, and turning the wheels into the kerb might have been necessary when handbrakes were a bit hit-and-miss. But if you think about a modern (mechanical) handbrake in good condition - if you park it on a hill and the handbrake holds, why would it not be holding the car 6 hours later?

Modern cars have rear disc brakes and these are terrible for handbrakes, in fact some cars employ a hybrid disc/drum system where the inside of the disc is offset so as to use it as a drum for the handbrake.

Hand brakes can let go, most manufacturers have had issues with this, my Vectra had a recall on it for the handbrake, Citroen/Peugoet had issues some years ago too, where the hand brake would release as the residual heat dissipated from the brakes after parking, causing enough shrinkage to release the brake. Even the modern electric handbrakes can be a bit hit'n'miss......

Richard53

Actually, I do put the car in gear if I am parked on a steep hill, and I turn my wheels too. I learned to drive in the late 60s/early 70s, when these things were considered vital precautions. I just wonder how much motoring lore is carried over from each generation of drivers to the next without taking account of technological advances.


And then I am contradicting myself, because I am one of the first to complain about switches and interlocks that prevent you from doing things that drivers ought to be doing as a matter of course - checking neutral before starting, wearing a seat belt, checking lights off when leaving the car, etc etc. I sat in my wife's new C-Max for about quarter of an hour before I realised that to make the car *start*, you had to apply the *brake*. Intuitive, that.

arcon5

AdrianC wrote: »

No, it doesn't - the dual-mass flywheel is attached to the engine. All pressing the clutch does is reduce the drag on the engine from turning the input shaft in the gearbox. And that's minimal, as you can tell by pressing the clutch with the engine idling. If there was significant drag, the revs would rise briefly, then drop briefly when you release the clutch.

Some cars have a clutch switch which means you need to press the clutch to start. Apart from that, there's no benefit.

If you need to leave the car in gear parked on a hill, fix your handbrake - because it'll fail the MOT like that...

As for turning the wheels towards the kerb, a neighbour had his MX5 written off precisely because he did that. A car rolled away from up the hill (handbrake not on), hit his car, and - because the steering was turned - it mounted the kerb and hit the lamp post. If it'd been pointed straight, it'd just have been pushed down hill a bit.

If it's side-swiped whilst parked, there's also a much greater risk of steering and suspension damage if the steering's turned, presenting the tread of the tyre to be caught by the other vehicle.

And had the run away car turned his wheels this whole fiasco probably wouldn't have happened in the first place

AdrianC

Strider590 wrote: »

Citroen/Peugoet had issues some years ago too, where the hand brake would release as the residual heat dissipated from the brakes after parking, causing enough shrinkage to release the brake.

That was the Xantia, with the handbrake on the front discs. The recall did no more than remove the first couple of teeth from the quadrant on the lever, so that drivers were "forced" to pull the handbrake on more fully. This was, let's not forget, after 40 years of Citroen having the handbrake on the front discs... (Saab had also had many years of the handbrake on the front discs with similarly few problems)