Vehicle Electronics and Water[1]

[Rod Speed]

Depends on the age of the kids.

But much more risky of a woman or a kid to use and very few of those carry one of those.

[Davey]

Snip for brevity.

snip

There is always this:

[Colin Bignell]

Pre-teens and teens don't count as kids.

Even fewer travel in my car, so it is not a problem I need to worry about.

[Colin Bignell]

Pity it is bright yellow though.

[Jethro_uk]

That's all very well. However when Mythbusters played around with ways to escape a submerged car, the biggest problem was the disorientation of [Adam Savage] going in. And as they pointed out he was expecting it and prepared.

IIRC there are also some CoG factors that will try to upend a car going into the water - certainly an ICE with a heavy engine and gearbox at the front.

[Davey]

At least you can see it in murky water.

[Nick Odell]

Without having followed the link, I presume that it is similar to the sort of thing extreme watersports people carry to hack themselves out of their kayak/raft/buoyancy aid/whatever in an emergency and they are usually bright yellow to aid visibility in the murky depths of fast rivers.

Just meandering back on track, these are all jolly useful ways of getting around the problem of being able to get out of a locked car: does that mean we concede modern car electronics make modern cars more difficult to escape from than older, simpler models?

Nick

[Andrew]

My Astra H Estate failed its MOT three years ago because the centre lap belt had jammed after I put the rear seats back up for its MOT. Had to pay £285 for a new belt/reel despite never carrying passengers in the back (seats down all the time the rest of the time).

This model of Astra had interlocked the centre belt reel with the button used to lower the split seat, with a bowden cable connecting the two. Over the years the grease had dried up and it was actually that that caused the problem. No chance to investigate the day before an MOT and the centre reel was so locked that any attempt to free it locked it even tighter.

The purpose of the interlock was to prevent use of the centre belt, if the seat back had not locked into place. Haven't seen this attention to detail on other estate cars with split rear seats

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had a similar problem with my old Freelander. The MOT tester had carefully twisted the seat belt and let it retract and jammed it I bought the right Torx bits removed the shroud and untwisted it

Another time my windscreen washer mysteriously stopped working a few weeks after a service. I removed wipers and the panel to find the washer tube had been pulled nearly off the plastic nozzle, and had become fully detached on first use.

That is usually electric sensing now.

[Andy Burns]

It's also phosphorescent.

[Colin Bignell]

With a knife connected to my belt with a chain, I don't need to see it, only feel it :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am not sure that is the right word for dayglo Fluorescent is the term I think

[alan_m]

I had a MOT failure for the same reason on a Ford Focus.

The belt was designed to lock if the bottom of the back seat was incorrectly seated in the locating lugs. In my case putting the seat to its vertical position had moved it forward by about quarter of an inch. It took me about 30 minutes to find out about this and I was back at the MOT station for my MOT within the hour.

[Davey]

Most people will have this in the glovebox, not connected to them. Except for the folk who keep it in the boot.......

[tony sayer]

In article <uue0ab$cn6g$ [e-mail], Jethro_uk <jethro [e-mail] scribeth thus

Begs the question what about an electric car?

Or has no one done that yet?..

On an ordinary car, wouldn't you be able to wind the windows down?

I mean 12 volts and it'd take a while before the water got anywhere that sensitive surely?..

[Rod Speed]

Corse pre teens do.

We weren't discussing you

[Rod Speed]

You hardly ever see cars lost in a flood upended.

[Rod Speed]

Of course they are given that the dinosuars have manual wind down windows.

[Rod Speed]

Yes they have. There is one of facebook that managed to end up floating in the water with flames coming out when the stupid woman driver managed to end up like that after attempting to launch a couple of jet skis on a trailer.

Fortunately for her her hubby managed to rescue her using the jet ski.

I thought that but wondered if you could end up with the water shorting something involved in delivering

12V to the motor that moves the window particularly if you end up in sea water.

[Tim+]

Probably better balanced due to the battery pack.

I would have thought so. Numerous videos of cars submerged in fresh and sea water show lights still working. I imagine most of the time electric windows will still work.

Tim