Not just floormats

It's quite easy to stall an engine with the brakes driving in top gear at any speed, though some handbrakes are not too efficient. Most decent car handbrakes can lock the wheels at 30mph at least if applied fast.

Haven't done the sums, but would think that stored energy in the vehicle weight would have more of an influence, especially at high speeds. iirc, a square law relationship...

Regards,

Chris

Agreed, modern cars are getting to the point where it can be hard work to fix them yourself as well. Too clever by half, too much electronics and not enough info.

Both our cars are over 10 years old. The Isuzu 3.1 has 230 k Miles, while the audi has 113k. Both use almost no oil and just keep going. Have only needed a few hundred pounds worth of parts over years of ownership.

Isn't it .de where it's against the law to do your own maintenance ?...

Regards,

Chris

Good point, my Q45 has a 5-speed, and I can go all the way down to low-low simply by tapping the shift lever to the right... used it recently for the first time going down a very steep old stage coach road. ...Jim Thompson

When I was a kid I thought it was cute to turn off the ignition, pull the hand-brake, step out of the car and let it slide into the driveway. One day it hit the house :-( Not badly, just enough to chip paint. ...Jim Thompson

It might block you from getting into 2 or 1 above a certain speed. But N should never be blocked.

A friend wasn't used to automatics and once accidentally shifted an old Dogde into P, at freeway speed. He left a looong pitch-black streak on the pavement and an impressive blue smoke plume. The amazing thing: While the tires had instantly aged by 10,000 miles or so and were now rolling with a distinct ka-thump ... ka-thump, the Dodge was still ok.

That's why I'll never understand how people can have loose empty soda cans rolling around the floor in their car.

Nope. There is a switch somewhere. Starter stops when clutch pressure drops.

Yup. I drove my first one in Scotland. Jumped in, key in hand, now where the heck is .... ah, next to the shifter. Then it wouldn't come back out until in reverse. In America most cars with automatic transmissions are similar, they key won't come out unless in the park position. Also, you can't switch from "P" to "D" or any other position unless you press the brake pedal.

When I rented at PHX last time I think it was Enterprise. They let you walk up to a group of cars and pick the one you like. Very nice. The topper: I did not use the preferred rental company of my client and their corporate rate. For a reason. When at the meeting I asked an engineer from the client who had the very same model from "their" rental place what he paid. "About $50/day". Then I told him I paid $30/day, sans corporate rate ...

Ye aren't s'posed to turn it all the way ...

Nope, not unless that changed recently. You just can't put any aftermarket parts in there unless they are type-certified for the particular vehicle. Major stuff will also have to be added into the registration papers.

I wonder what would happen if you park next to a powerful transmitter and the fob receiver gets all choked up by too much RF. I can't imagine car electronics guys being too clever in that domain, at least not after having seen some "solutions".

Yep. You have to shop. The best rate is usually is the government-employee-per-diem-limited rate, with academic close behind. ...Jim Thompson

IF you've been Californicated ;-) ...Jim Thompson

I don't know. I've done a lot of RFID tag design, but none specifically for automobiles... mostly pallet tracking and inventory control.

Frequencies as low as 130KHz all the way up to 1.9GHz. ...Jim Thompson

I meant Germany. CA is remarkably easy. Remember the VW beetle with the jet engine? It's _registered_ here. Or at least was.

I found receiver design in some consumer areas (and even that of a "professional" RF module vendor) often to be between sub-optimal and outright daft. I mean, how much smarts does it really take to build a receiver that automatically throttles an input amp when it sees excessive "weird" noise? It should come as natural to an RF engineer as turning off the high beams when hitting fog because else you blind your self. But it often doesn't :-/

There is a well known dead zone near the BMEWS phased array radar at Fylingdales not far from where I live. Certain luxury models were notorious for engine failing on that particular stretch of road and being no-fault found after being towed away.

Recommended way in the UK to get in is put the key fob over the rear view mirror to give it the best chance of overwhelming local interference. AA are fed up with early carlock crosstalk faults.

Another one is that some cars will not let you drive them away unless you enter by the drivers side door. Or at least will trigger the immobiliser and go to alarm state if you enter by the passenger side door and try to start the engine (eg because the only spot in the carpark was an awkward one tight against a concrete buttress).

It only really inconveniences the owner since thieves tend to know this sort of stuff.

Regards, Martin Brown

Is it really a jet, or just a flamethrower? Once, at a tractor pull, someone had entered a turbine-powered truck. You could tell by the sound that it was a turbine. Well, he started his run, you could hear the turbine spin up, and then he really stepped on it, and the exhausts threw flames about 5 feet into the air, as if he had an afterburner.

But, having seen USAF planes take off with AB (afterurner) on, I could tell it wasn't that, but just flamethrowers.

Right next door to the shop where I sit, there's a performance shop; I've seen dragsters that feed raw fuel into the exhaust pipes. That's clearly only for the "wow" effect. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I should probably have done this the time I had a stuck throttle on a rental. I don't remember what brand of car it was, but I think it was domestic. I was exiting the freeway, and when I took my foot off the gas, the engine didn't slow down. I was standing on the brakes - really pushing hard, to get it to stop; I got to the light and dropped it into neutral. The revs popped up to redline, and then the motor settled down. At the time, I didn't know I could/should have called them; I only needed the car for the rest of the day, so I kept driving it, but when I took it back to the rental place, I read them the riot act. "You have to ground this car before it kills somebody!" that sort of thing.

Cheers! Rich

It makes the motor redline, even at a dead stop while standing on the brake. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I knew there was some wrinkle in Germany, though in some ways not such a bad idea. There are many aftermarket parts suppliers in the uk, but you need to be selective about which ones you deal with. One replacement track rod end wore out after nine months, whereas the original had run for the life of the car previously. Either wrong grade steel or bad heat treatment...

Regards,

Chris