Ouch that hurt!

Ebe_Scrooge

neilmcl wrote: »

I always leave in gear.

Me too. Though that's a habit I picked up way back when with my very first car - the handbrake was ... shall we say, suspect, at the best of times LOL.


But handbrakes can fail unexpectedly. It's not common, but it can happen. Better safe than sorry I reckon.

Aylesbury_Duck

NBLondon wrote: »

Do some of you routinely leave your car in gear then?

I do. It's one of the little things I was taught by a very old-fashioned (and old) instructor years ago. He was proud that he taught his students to be mechanically sympathetic as part of being good drivers. Some of them might not be necessary or recommended any more, but here's a few of them:

- Always park in gear. In reverse gear if facing downhill.
- On my flat drive or in my garage, park in gear but don't bother with the handbrake (so as not to stretch the cable!)
- When parking facing downhill, turn the front wheels to the kerb.
- Engage neutral and depress the clutch when starting to minimise the load on the engine.
- Don't turn on electrical accessories until the car is running, to minimise load on the battery.
- check everything every weekend - oil, water, lights, screenwash, tyres, even battery electrolyte level(!) He wouldn't let me apply for my test until I'd proved I knew how to check all of these and demonstrated changing a wheel!

Fat_Walt

JP08 wrote: »

And hire cars are for practising clutchless changes in :j

Or works ones.

Dead easy in a Ford Focus.

Ebe_Scrooge

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

- Always park in gear. In reverse gear if facing downhill.
- On my flat drive or in my garage, park in gear but don't bother with the handbrake (so as not to stretch the cable!)
- When parking facing downhill, turn the front wheels to the kerb.
- Engage neutral and depress the clutch when starting to minimise the load on the engine.
- Don't turn on electrical accessories until the car is running, to minimise load on the battery.
- check everything every weekend - oil, water, lights, screenwash, tyres, even battery electrolyte level(!)

All of those are sensible things, and I do all of them ( with the exception of the electrolyte level, not necessary with sealed batteries - but used to do it back in the olden days ). Particularly depressing the clutch when starting - it feels very odd to me if I consciously try to start without the clutch pressed. You're right, it reduces the load on the starter motor and battery, because the starter only has to turn the engine over, not the gearbox as well. Particularly helpful in the winter months when the battery tends to take a hammering anyway, even more so if the battery is on its last legs. Plus of course, it prevents the risk of the car lurching forward if someone's left it in gear and you don't realise / fail to check :rotfl:

neilmcl

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

All of those are sensible things, and I do all of them. Particularly depressing the clutch when starting - it feels very odd to me if I consciously try to start without the clutch pressed. You're right, it reduces the load on the starter motor and battery, because the starter only has to turn the engine over, not the gearbox as well. Particularly helpful in the winter months when the battery tends to take a hammering anyway, even more so if the battery is on its last legs. Plus of course, it prevents the risk of the car lurching forward if someone's left it in gear and you don't realise / fail to check :rotfl:

Not only sensible but I've yet to read an owner manual that doesn't say that this is the way to to start the car.

Joe_Horner

neilmcl wrote: »

Not only sensible but I've yet to read an owner manual that doesn't say that this is the way to to start the car.

Several cars from the 70s said to start without pressing the clutch, don't remember seeing it since then.

By pressing the clutch you put a large end-load on the crankshaft at a time when the (usually plain) thrust bearings have no lubrication. That can dramatically increase wear and lead to excessive end play of the crankshaft. I've seen Triumph engines with over 1/8 inch play at the pulley because the (semi-circular) thrust washers have worn to the point they've dropped right out!

On some the extra load of the thrust bearings can even be a bigger strain on the starter than turning the gearbox - you can hear the cranking slow down if you press the clutch on a reluctant start. Doesn't happen so often now because the days of 10 second crankings in the morning are mostly gone

neilmcl

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Several cars from the 70s said to start without pressing the clutch, don't remember seeing it since then

Way before my time

securityguy

Almost anyone who drives an auto leaves their car not only in gear, but with a pawl locking the gearbox, because you have to put it in Park to get the key out, usually. Exceptions are old, weird or, in the case of DAF-derived variomatics, old and weird.

I leave manuals cars in gear because I've driven a lot of Saabs. Including column-shift 96s, which had a free wheel to make clutchless changes much easier, picking up another point.

American cars often don't have handbrakes, only the inaccessible and often useless "parking brake", because they're only made as autos and people use the Park position as the primary restraint.

I really can't understand any reason to not leave a car in gear: what's the downside?

pompeyrich

I always leave mine in gear, combination of dodgy handbrakes and more recently living on a hill. Some newer cars won't start unless you depress and hold the clutch down while starting, well insignias use this and a Toyota I hired was the same. The Insignia has an electrically operated handbrake that only releases when pulling away or if you put your foot on the brake pedal while you operate the switch.

Rubidium

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

I do. It's one of the little things I was taught by a very old-fashioned (and old) instructor years ago. He was proud that he taught his students to be mechanically sympathetic as part of being good drivers. Some of them might not be necessary or recommended any more, but here's a few of them:

- Always park in gear. In reverse gear if facing downhill.
- On my flat drive or in my garage, park in gear but don't bother with the handbrake (so as not to stretch the cable!)
- When parking facing downhill, turn the front wheels to the kerb.
- Engage neutral and depress the clutch when starting to minimise the load on the engine.
- Don't turn on electrical accessories until the car is running, to minimise load on the battery.
- check everything every weekend - oil, water, lights, screenwash, tyres, even battery electrolyte level(!) He wouldn't let me apply for my test until I'd proved I knew how to check all of these and demonstrated changing a wheel!

Good valid points practiced by savvy motorists but they obviously do not apply to Mr Not Bothered, who is unlikely to change after this totally avoidable incident.

Exemplar wrote: »

I have never checked the oil in the chav wagon.

The computer has a readout showing level and time to change.

2.5 years old and I don't even know where the oil filler cap is!

I'm just not that bothered.

If it was the OP's children waiting at the boot of this car, parked on a sloping drive while he locked the house or nipped back for something forgotten, then they would have been injured if the handbrake had failed, not him!

The car could have rolled back and hit an innocent pedestrian pushing a buggy etc. or an elderly person not agile enough to get out of it's path with far worse consequences.

The only reasons not to leave it in gear when parked is ignorance or laziness!