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Topic: Buying a new truck

Buck Wilson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 894
From: St. Joseph MO, USA
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 04-11-2013 01:23 AM

quote:
That's one of those questions like whether you should double-clutch a car vs. a truck or whether you should shift into neutral when idling at a stoplight. Arguments can be made for and against either.

When parking, I put the transmission into reverse. Some people say that you should put it into first gear. Others say it should be neutral. As long as the parking brake is engaged, arguments can be made for any.

Personally, I believe that, since reverse is the lowest gear, it is the best. Others have said that leaving the transmission in the lowest FORWARD gear is better. Still, others have said that leaving the transmission in neutral prevents the clutch, gears and engine from being ripped up should the car get hit.

Honestly, I don't know which is best. Maybe the real answer varies based on conditions? But reverse is my habit. I do it automatically, almost without thinking.

Randy

I prefer neutral. In my mind, it's 'rest'. Nothing is under any stress as it may be in a[ny] gear from motor mounts to shifter bushings. It naturally goes there, that's where I like to leave it. Except in my 88 Grand Prix in which case every single parking brake component is seized and I HAVE to leave it in a gear, but that's a whole different story LOL. Your logic is correct in that the lowest ratio will provide the most holding power. However the 'getting hit' possibility doesn't really hold water, it would either turn the engine over(no harm) or slip the clutch(no major harm) or both. Mounts may take a good brunt of force though as I was mentioning earlier.

quote:
They are supposed to be challenge-response but that makes no difference. The hack does not actually defeat the electronics or decrypt the code/signal. It merely extends the distance over which the fob and the car's computer can communicate.

Place an antenna and some other radio gear near the car owner which can receive the the signal from the fob and relay it to the car. The car does not know how close or far the fob really is to the car. It "thinks" the owner is close by. Anybody who wants to take the car can simply walk up, one the door, push the starter button and drive away.

This hack was published in Technology Review a little over two years ago:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/422298/car-theft-by-antenna/

I hope car manufacturers have taken steps to prevent this kind of theft!

Randy

Every factory equipped remote start vehicle I have come across will automatically shut off if you hit the brake without the key in the ignition and in the 'run/on' position...

quote:
Don't forget that the EPA changed the way they estimate fuel economy in 2008. I don't know how that effects the difference between automatics and standards but it is probably something to look into.

The "old" EPA mileage estimate for my car (2001, Mazda 626) is 26 to 32 MPG with 29 as average. I consistently get 28-30 MPG driving around town and 30+ on the highway. Mileage goes down in the winter, as low as 25, but, when I took it out on the highway on a nice, summer day and "hypermiled" I got almost 34.

The "new" EPA estimate for my car is 23-29, average 25.
I'm getting better than their "new" estimates on a bad day. The estimates on the same model car with an automatic is between 22 and 25.

Cripes! If I got mileage that bad, I'd have my car in the shop!

Randy

TOTALLY agree. Not to mention hypermiling in an automatic is nearly impossible. In a 5-speed Festiva(of which I have had 3 and am very fond of) I can do absurd magic in regards to that. Being very electronically simple cars, they bump start with NO hassle or hesitation, and I use that to my advantage regularly. The engine is off on a GOOD sized chunk of any drive I take, with no starter wear, and a huge jump in MPG. I love it. Also, no power steering so don't even have to worry about that. I got over 50 mpg on a hour highway trip and back hypermiling at an average speed of about 55-60 last year... Impressive for a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a brick! HA!

quote:
Well, live and learn. I rarely drive, so my new truck has been sitting for a week. I used it last exactly one week ago: last Wednesday. I went to take it out this afternoon and nothing doing -- all of the lights and display screens and doodads start, but the engine won't crank.

I had to call "Ford Roadside Assistance" to come and look at it. They sent the guy who has the garage and tow truck just down the street from me. He walked over with a hand-held battery booster doodad and said that he sees a lot of this with new vehicles that have all of this gadgetry. The battery was sufficiently dead that it would run the gadgets but not crank the engine. He boosted it and all was well.

I guess a lot of this stuff is never really turned off. It has a burglar alarm and who knows what that run continuously and I guess that's enough to drain the battery if if sits for a while.

He told me that I should get a "battery maintainer" installed, and just leave it plugged in when I'm not using it. So I now have one of those things ordered at Melville Motors.

On the plus side I feel better knowing that there's nothing actually wrong with my new truck. But the lesson here is that if you buy a new vehicle and don't plan to use it every single day you should probably get a battery maintainer for it. I didn't have this gadgetry in my old truck so it was never a problem before.

Frank

At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old man, that is RIDICULOUS and a big reason I don't like really new cars. 2005 ish is about as new as I even want. Even then, as someone else mentioned, with a battery disconnect came a straight up retarded running engine and shifting transmission as it 're-learned'. That was in a 2004 and 2005 Grand Prix.(I've owned a lot of cars lol)

quote:
Ever listen to Car Talk on NPR radio?

I remember them telling a story about a problem in the 1970s where one out of every six new Cadillacs delivered from the factory to the car dealer's lots arrived with dead batteries.

Every car left the factory in perfect, working condition. When they arrived at the car lot, 1 in 6 had dead batteries. It took them months to figure out what the cause was.

Turns out, the light in the trunk was activated by a mercury switch attached to the trunk lid. Only six of these cars would fit on the car carrier. One of them had to be tipped at a steep angle to fit on the truck. It was that car, tipped so that the light in the trunk was on all the time that had the dead battery.

I wonder if there is some silly, little thing like that going on in your truck?

Randy

Thanks for sharing that, I found it quite amusing! [Big Grin]

Always interesting to hear how new designs can backfire

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Kris Verhanneman
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 182
From: Belgium
Registered: Dec 2009

posted 04-11-2013 01:38 AM

okay this is maybe a european point of view but when a car breaks down after a week of not using it, return the car to the shop.

All the explanations of install baterij things dont hold up. A car should be able to stand there for weeks/months without running.

Something in the car draings power. That is an probleme and should be fixed by the garage (they could at least replace the baterie or offer that baterie maintenance kit).

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-11-2013 10:40 AM

quote: Randy Stankey
That's one of those questions like whether you should double-clutch a car vs. a truck or whether you should shift into neutral when idling at a stoplight. Arguments can be made for and against either.

When I was taught to drive, I was told to put the transmission into neutral and apply the handbrake when at a red light, and for two reasons.

1. If anything happens to cause you to let your foot off the clutch (and/or brake, if driving an automatic and leaving it in D at a red light), the car will move forward and possibly rear-end the vehicle in front. If it's in neutral with the handbrake on, then unless you're whacked up the ass by a big rig doing 50mph (in which case damage to the vehicle in front of you will be the least of your problems), the damage will be limited to your car and the one that hit you.

2. You will not be dazzling the driver behind with your brake lights.

quote: Randy Stankey
When parking, I put the transmission into reverse. Some people say that you should put it into first gear. Others say it should be neutral. As long as the parking brake is engaged, arguments can be made for any.

The handbrake cable on my car is so flimsy that I wouldn't trust it to hold the vehicle on a gradient by itself if I was leaving it unattended. If the car is parked pointing uphill I'd leave it in first (assuming a manual transmission); in reverse if pointing downhill.

The other perennial one is parking head in or tail in to a space in a lot or parking garage. Personally I prefer to back in to a space, because (a) it's safer to be pulling off a main road with limited visibility rather than on to one, and (b) changing gear as little as possible when the engine is cold reduces wear. But I've noticed that many American car parks have their spaces at a 90-degree angle with one-way lanes around them, where it's impossible to do that. Some even have notices telling you not to back in to your space, on pain of a fine.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-11-2013 11:51 AM

Frank, I think you might have some other problem. It's not reasonable that a car drains its battery after sitting for just one week. After all....people frequently take trips of longer than that and leave their cars at airports for a week or two or three.

I don't know this for sure, but it makes sense that the computer systems in the car should go into "sleep" mode after a short period of time and require almost no current to keep the memory alive. There's probably no more "stuff" to remember in a car than there is in a desktop computer, but look how long a CMOS battery lasts.

Here's something to note: My Ranger has the dealer-installed remote start, which includes a feature where you can remove the key but leave the engine running (I think it's called "errand mode" or something like that. If you touch the brakes without putting the key back in, the engine shuts off. On these vehicles with "smart keys" (which includes the new Escape): The car will keep running and be drivable even with the key not in the vehicle! I figured it would shut down as soon as you touched the brake, but we did some experimenting....my wife held onto the key and I drove off. The only thing that happened was the dashboard lit up with a "key not present" warning. So if I was a car thief I could have driven indefinitely as long as I didn't shut it off.

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