New drivers

[The Natural Philosopher]

correct.

[John Williamson]

Incorrect. What makes *any* vehicle unsafe is the loose nut behind the wheel. Autos are no worse than manuals, and I've driven enough of both types, both as cars and coaches/ buses to know how to deal with their foibles.

[Roger Chapman]

Modern ABS may well be more sophisticated but back in the 80s my first ABS equipped car ran away down a steep snowy hill with next to no retardation. OK so I could still steer but what good was that when the gap between the rubbernecker parked at the bottom and the van coming the other way was less than the width of my car.

If you are sliding downhill in snow it is only the build-up of snow in front of the wheels that gives you a chance of stopping.

[Chris Bartram]

Unless you make a ham-fisted effort, it won't be a lot. Put it this way, I routinely engine-brake. The only replacement clutch I've had was on a car that had 80k on the clock when I bought it. I *do* match the speeds, to some degree or another, though.

True, and hardly anyone will DDC these days. But how much *additional* wear over not doing it. Again, I've never had to replace a manual gearbox, apart from the one with a CV-shaped hole in it (long story).

Indeed. I was more aiming at the popular misconception that engine braking involves slipping the clutch against an idling engine in order to use it as a brake. That's clearly madness- brake pads are much cheaper and designed for it.

[Jules Richardson]

That's so if an accident results they can say "yes, but I had my indicators on" :/

aka "semi-controlled drift into traffic with delayed visual indication"...

It's worse over here because so many cars just pulse the brake lights rather than having separate indicators at the rear, so there's a very brief time where you have to decide if the driver is actually signalling or merely slowing down (and/or has faulty brake lights). That's assuming they have functioning lights at all - there's no equivalent of an MOT here, and some vehicle owners aren't particularly good at maintaining working lights.

cheers

Jules

[airsmoothed]

The vast majority of cars these days cut off the fuel on overrun, so the mpg trip computer has a divide by zero error, the car is still moving but using no fuel; most cars IMX present this as 999 like yours.

[Jules Richardson]

I've got drums on all four wheels on the ('60s) truck, and no servo- assist. Stopping it can be a little interesting at the best of times. Engine braking is a bit more tricky too because it's a column-shift, so it takes a little while to swap between gears (and there are only three of them, and forget trying to put it into 1st above a couple of mph anyway :-)

Never had anything with cable brakes, though. Most of my cars have been '70s and at least had floor-shifters and discs on the front - even then braking performance without using the engine in tandem with the wheel brakes wasn't exactly impressive.

TBH I'd expect to get 200,000mi out of a clutch these days, engine braking or not. At that sort of mileage I'm not too worried about it, as it's getting into the sort of territory where I'd start expecting other component failures anyway.

OTOH, I %$^*ing hate changing brake pads, I really do - of all car maintainance jobs it's always the one that never seems to go as smoothly as I think it should!

cheers

Jules

[Andy Dingley]

What is it, and when are you going to fix it?

[Jules Richardson]

I had several Stags over the years and they had a reputation for that, as well (it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't some sharing of design and components). I remember crawling underneath and tightening the tensioner just prior to an MOT on more than one occasion too :-)

cheers

Jules

[Jules Richardson]

Good luck driving on 3/4 of a tyre.

;)

[Tim Watts]

With a shotgun?

[Jules Richardson]

Hmm, well if they're slowing down, umm, slowly, and they're quite far ahead then I suppose it might be hard to judge based simply on the closing distance between the vehicles. But in that situation you're not close enough to pile into the back of them, and there should be other indications anyway - e.g. hazard up ahead, stop up ahead, side-road/ driveway ahead and their indicator is on etc., and that's without noticing the front end of their vehicle dip slightly as it slows.

Anyone who can't see that the car in front is stopped simply because they aren't showing any brake lights shouldn't be on the road anyway - other hazards that might be in the road, such as small children, generally don't have brake lights :/

cheers

Jules

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You can on modern ones too. Perhaps more so.

Coasting to a halt - as most autos do - is the most economical way of doing things. Provided you anticipate the need to stop where you can. otherwise, use the brakes. That, surprisingly, is what they're there for.

Well yes. It's great fun driving an old car where you do need those sort of skills. But rather tiring in London traffic these days.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? You've never driven a DAF, then. And *carbs* on an SD1? Did they make such a lowly model? ;-)

Which is why I asked the question. Just because it's meant to have a designed idle speed doesn't mean it's working correctly.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sounds like a make/model to avoid. What is it? I've never driven any that will go much above walking pace if you don't touch the accelerator pedal. At 30 mph in first gear my newer auto would be nearing maximum revs. And the idle never varies from 700 rpm.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's not the full story. They will cut off the fuel supply at fairly high revs on the overrun, but not at lowish ones. Otherwise they'd stall.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Pretty well every car made left the factory with a handbrake which is perfectly adequate. But most of its parts are in the most hostile environment of the car. An engine get a service every few thousand miles - but handbrakes are expected to work for ever with none.

[brass monkey]

When stopped at lights (handbrake) I keep an eye on the rear-view mirror for the numpty. When he appears I dab the pedal to suggest he might like to slow down. Prolly another futile excercise but it's chaos out there and full of morons, I'm just trying to protect myself.

[Huge]

Wrong. No performance driver ever engine brakes.

Indeed.

[Huge]

Hell, yes. My SD1 had twin SUs.