An interesting experience

Yesterday, her car wouldn't start. Didn't surprise me as I'd planned to replace the battery but just not got around tuit. So today, as the car was on the drive and it was of course raining, I thought I'd just jump start it from my car. Fail! So I've an immobile car on the drive and a nice warm garage waiting. That was when I discovered the other benefits of modern car design. As this is an auto, you cannot get it out of park unless the engine is running! As it is electric power steering, you cannot turn the steering wheel unless the engine is running! There was a certain amount of disappointment at this turn of events. So off to buy a new battery on the basis that this was a good starting point. Tried the main dealer who said "we'll have to order a battery which you can have tomorrow". Went on line and Euro car parts have a branch locally, had stock and were £20 cheaper and could offer a choice of about 6 different batteries of the correct type. So purchased battery, retired to the wet car and looked at the replacement problem. Ah, another piece of modern car design. The battery is mounted under the windscreen fascia, which you have to remove to get the battery out. Years of bad experiences were put to good use as I removed enough bits of the car to do the job. Also fortuitously, I had a bungee cord of the correct length to hold up the fascia whilst removing the battery as I had run out of hands and hers were not considered suitable. So forced it all back together, replacing one of the screws holding the fascia together which the person who replaced the battery 7 years ago had managed to lose. Fortunately it was just the battery, as I wasn't sure that it wasn't a poor connection on the starter motor and I really didn't want to jack the car up on the drive in the rain. I've now moved on to trying to find conduit connectors for IP55 boxes for another project so life still goes on!

Reply to
Capitol
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In message , Capitol writes

You missed out having to re-code the radio and then discovering that the radio fitted does not coincide with the code written in the handbook.

Reply to
Tim Lamb

Then there's the loss of data from the EMS, so it starts off in limp-home mode whilst it re-learns the engine tuning characteristics. Mine says it takes 5km to relearn, but in practice, it's only noticably rough for the first few hundred yards.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

This is the fault of the Americans - in the same vein as mandatorily having to depress a manual's clutch to start it. But I've not met one that won't release the gearstick on 2nd stage ignition (often with the brake pressed) which is the same position as "engine running." Unless it's a particularly strange car. Or French.

It's a fallacy that power steering makes turning the wheel harder. Get the front wheels off the ground and you'll find that the steering wheel can be twizzled end to end easily with one finger. Width of tyres is the main culprit and a firm grip will steer a rolling car - you just need to get the thing moving!

Reply to
Scott M

Strangely enough, the radio did not lose it's coding and the clock managed to keep the time and date.

Reply to
Capitol

This is electric power steering, not hydraulic. If you cannot get the car out of Park, you're buggered.

Reply to
Capitol

Not at all the fault of the Americans. I was taught to do this on a Police driving course when I was learning to drive a few decades ago. Much safer than not dipping it and finding that the last driver has left it in gear for some unnecessary reason.

Reply to
F

And you mean the car and its radio still work despite changing the battery? I thought all these modern items were craftily designed so only a dealer could come up with the bit of wire needed to stop the voltage being lost as it was changed, thus resetting every bit of brain in the car. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Meh... A good driver always tests the stick for neutral before starting.

And I always leave in gear on any sort of slope. I wish others would. Like the person who parked outside my house on a hill. After his handbrake slipped, the only thing stopping his car from rolling down the hill and maybe hitting a schoolkid (this was the morning and the entire school population walk up my road) was SWMBOs car!

Not entirely his fault I suppose - there have been problems with handbrakes that work via the discs when the discs are hot. Then they cool and contract a fraction and lose traction.

Reply to
Tim Watts

We were taught to check for neutral *and* dip the clutch. Part of the reason for dipping the clutch was to avoid any drag from the gearbox's cold oil.

That wasn't encouraged. The Police instructor's 'official' advice was to park with the front wheels turned so that if the car rolled they would be rolled towards the kerb. Parked facing uphill on the left, the wheels would be turned so that they were steering to the right.

Reply to
F

However, my car can't be started without the clutch depressed, and it's not an automatic. It's one of those new-fangled ones with keyless ignition. The clutch depression is used to differentiate between 'I want to turn the electrics on to energise some circuit' and 'I really want to start the car'.

Reply to
Bob Eager

The thingy that fits into the lighter socket with a small 12 volt battery in it? The one that a lot of car shops sell for under twenty quid?

Reply to
John Williamson

I was taught, since I lived in a hilly part of the country, always to park in gear.

Reply to
charles

Aye, I've done that with a 12 V SLA I had kicking about but make sure that the socket you choose is actually "live". On my car with the ignition switch in "off" the ciggy sockets are also off. They only come live in "Accessory".

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I always park in gear, mainly because the parking brake is a transmission brake and may or may not hold the vehicle on a hill unless you really haul it on.

That may have been a small problem in the days of poor starting, and oils that changed viscositiy rather a lot with temperature but I don't see it as a requirement now.

Kerb? What are kerbs? Plenty of verges but a car will just roll up that and unless it's quite a large kerb (> 4") I suspect my car would also roll over a kerb.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

"a firm grip" - understatement. It takes considerable effort in any of the cars I've tried to steer in the rolling engine off mode. So much so that I doubt many would be able to do it.

Never had that problem with cars that didn't have power steering only those with it. So to the great unwashed power steering makes a car very difficult, if not impossible, to steer without the engine running.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

A Saab we had on evaluation caught me out. Handed it at the end of a busy week drove home OK only to discover I could not get the keys out of the ignition. Put it in the garage and tried in vain to extract them.

Next day went off to test drive it and arrived at destination. Reverse parked into a fairly tight space and muttered about not being able to get the keys out and have a walk around. To my amazement the keys came out of the ignition. It would only let you take the ignition keys out if the car was in reverse gear!

My present car has smart "keys must be in car" to start but the logic is defective as once started it will let you drive away without any keys. This could prove embarrassing when you next switch it off.

Reply to
Martin Brown

You wouldn't want the engine turning itself off if it lost communication with the "key", Getting out of the car to open/close the garage door, or just a short loss of contact for some reason at 70MPH on the motorway. But, if the person with the key is a passenger you drop off somewhere ... at the railway station or airport ...

Reply to
Paul Herber

BMW want £400 to replace a battery (and introduce it to the computer). Does this mean Kwik Fit etc can't do the job? Sod that, I'll stick to old cars

Reply to
stuart noble

Yes the fault of the Americans. I don't disagree that it's good practise to dip the clutch when starting but it was the Yanks that introduced a bloody interlock switch that actively makes you (note the use of the word "mandatorily"!)

Reply to
Scott M

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