Last night my car rolled across the street and hit a house(not directly, it grazed a colum and then hit a door). Thank God the People were not home or it would have hit their car. But now I have to replace the driver side front fender, the rear bumper, and the front bumper, not to mention the dents that will have to be taken out of the bodywork that can't be replaced.

 

WOW...I'm sorry but -
I just had that same nightmare last night...

 

I think my car had it comming anyway, Tuesday I got rearended but it didn't do any damage and now this. Oh well **** happens. This is an excuse to get a new front end though.

 

How did your car start rolling?

 

Parking Brake Failure

 

yeah our 95/96 cars have crappy impact ratings in the back

 

well that just plain suxs..

 

Just for this reason I leave my car in gear when I park it.

 

isn't it that the law anyways?

 

Even if it is not, I have never known anyone who drove a 5-speed to NOT leave it in the gear that opposes gravity...

In 8 years of driving a 5-speed, I know I never did.

 

I don't park in gear and the reason why is.. i don't want to get into that habbit.. because if i get a remote starter.. its going to be hard to get out of the habbit of parking in gear..

 

that stinks .. be glad it didn't go directly into the house

 

Good point, but when you are like me and drive cars that don't even have power locks or windows (Jeeps) you don't have to worry about that...

 

I've never put my car in gear when I park it, even now I probably never will, It was a freak accident, and like sprint said I am probably going to get a remote starter so I don't want to get into the habit. Also if the car had have hit the house directly it would have destroyed the car and the house would have come out better.

 

haha, well said.. ive ALWAYS parked in gear. especially in my jeeps

 

same thing happened to one of my friends a while back,parked his wrangler and the ebrake failed and it coasted back through the neighbors garage door.

 

thats too bad man! sorry, hope you get a nice kit or somethin out of it...

as for parking in gear, i never have - never will. i dont have to push clutch to start my car, plus i have remote starter - so between those two things, I know I'd end up driving my car through something if it was left in gear - oh , and no one ever drives my car besides me, so someone else leaving it in gear isn't too much of a concern either...

 

I don't really see the benefits of a remote starter, to justify the cost. At least in my cars, the heat really only warms up after you're operating the engine....it will some if it's just sitting there idling, but it has to idle for a while, and extended idles to warm up a car have been debated as a bad process to follow. I think it's just fo' tha ho'z...walkin up to your ride and kickin it on...

Count me in to the "park it in gear" club.

 

you don't live in hte North do you? you try going out in 15 below weather to scrape your windows and defrost your car

 

why not put it in gear? i use the hill break and leave it in 1st/reverse
Just imagine not putting the break high enuf, everytime.

 

i always pull it as high as I can and dont put it in gear. I usually put the brake on so high that people cannot undo it because of the angle.

SuDZ

 

yeah uhm, i once parked my car and while i was unlocking my apt door i heard a light creeking sound coming from my car...
i look at it and it's really really slowly moving foreward.
initial thought.. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

luckily it was going slow enough for me to press my body against it and stop it fully. with my body holding the car and my left hand free, unlocked the passenger door, jumped in the car.............

............
.......

and pulled up my hand brake... yup i forgot to pull it up...

so sad... so sad.

 

I would seriously be upset - at least no one was injured though. Doesn't it seem right out of a National Lampoon movie? I too put it in gear - I FEAR THE ROLL

 

Good point.

I am sort of the opposite. I rarely use my emergency brake when parking. The reason why is because a friend of mine with a Jetta VR6 5-speed parked with his e-brake on last winter. He didn't drive the car for a couple days. When he finally did, the rear brakes were frozen to the rotors. I know they usually should detach after warming them up with the friction and all, but his didn't. He had to get new pads and rotors. Ever since then, I usually just park mine with it in first.

 

I have always driven a manual transmission car, and I have always parked with the car in gear (opposite of the grade of road) and pulled up the e-brake; and I have yet to have any problems. As I live in the south (Alabama), and we rarely have winters harsh enough to justify spending the money on a remote starter; I will contintue to use and trust the gear/e-brake method for keeping my max in the spot where I leave it.

 

I had this happened to me once. Luckily, it didn't roll that far backwards but I have been cautious ever since that happened. What I do now is to pull up parking brake, put it in gear and pump the brakes until the pedal effort is stiff.

Iilac

 

Reminds me of the time my friend had his mustang roll on him about two days after he bought it. He could barely afford it as it was , still can't actually.

Well anyhow he parked his car in my friends driveway and we came out about 15 minutes later to find his car in the woods across the street. Fearing he forgot to E-brake it he ran down seeing through the window that the brake was up.

Was not a good day for him.

SuDZ

 

Why pump the pedal until it's stiff? What does this do for you? It does nothing in any car I've ever heard of.

I always use the ebrake, put it in gear, and curb the tires (when I'm on the street).

 

Hmm, I have read somewhere that this helps but I really dunno if it works or not. I do it for my piece of mind and I figure it has no drawbacks unless there is one then I will stop doing it.

Iilac

 

Pumping the brake after the engine is off simply drains the brake booster of residual vacuum. Thats it. It doesn't make the brakes hold the car.

 

I've drive only manual transmission cars. I never set the car in gear when I park. Last thing I want to worry about is a moron bumping into my car, chipping a gear.

 

I do the same thing, every once in a while my dad will have to drive my car and he can't let the brake off without using two hands. I learned last night why I don't put it into gear, I'll forget that I put it in gear and when I start my car I'll release the clutch and stall the motor because the car was in gear. This only happens in the winter when I go out to start it and let it warm up.

 

This is the best reason yet for not leaving your car in gear.

 

Nah, but the winters here in the plains are 90% of northeast winters. We have -30 to -40 degree windchill days every winter, and nice long periods where the highs dont break 20. *shiver*...don't remind me what's coming up

Usually it's not a big deal for me cause if I'm scraping, I'm usually coming home from work, so I'm not pressed for time. The cold...well, you just gotta deal with the cold sometimes. It builds character

 

The question is how many times does this happen? This thread if full of comments of 'this happened to me too, my car just started rolling'. I don't think chipping a gear is a REAL concern.

Now I've got a question. I always leave the car in reverse, its something about having the lowest gear ratio? Dunno... my mom taught me this.

Should I be putting it into gear opposite the angle of the slope?

And I've also had my brake pad freeze to the rotors on me from having the ebrake on.

 

In the UK where 95% of cars are manual I never heard ANYONE report transmission damage from being bumped by another car. My method is leave it in 1st (up or downhill) and pull the handbrake on until there's a good amount of tension, but the handle is not pointing through the sunroof...

On a steep slope I will put the handbrake on and then let go of the brake to see if the car will move, then apply more handbrake until the car is stopped, THEN put it in 1st.

I don't kerb the wheels or anything.

 

People with turbo timers can't leave it in gear. My friend has one in his Passat!

 

Chipped gears is a concern. This crap happens. Its harder to diagnose because a chipped gear will still spin. What you worry about is the metal debris floating around which will cause you more problems down the road, in the form of accelerated wear, noise, etc. I never had to pull out a trans for a rebuild/replacement/any problems with noise/differential bearing play ; and I don't expect to.

Crap like this can happen to some automatic cars too. My bro used to roll in an 86 Accord auto. Some phucker backed into it and the Accord rolled into a van parked behind it. The car wouldn't hold itself in Park so we took out the tranny. The tiny parking pawl (its inside the bellhousing but outside of the gear case) broke because of a moderate tap. BTW, I'm not suggesting you automatic guys park your cars in neutral. Since I don't pay attention to automatic Maximas I don't know how the trans locks itself from rolling when in "Park". It may be a hell of a lot sturdier than an old Accord automatic, but whatever.

 

I do that everytime someone moves my car (like if I block them in in the morning), once i get in it lunges forwards stalls and scares the crap out of me.

SuDZ

 

HOLY CRAP! That honda must have had the weakest park pawl in all of history!

I rebuilt a 4T60E Tranny once that had a bearing fail at the final drive ring gear, and the destroyed bearing damaged the park pawl retaining spring, causing the pawl to engage at about 35mph.

The park pawl showed almost no signs of damage, but the park gear on the final drive input shaft was all kinds of smashed up, rounded teeth and stuff... I'm amazed to hear of a pawl that was broken in a vehicle that suffered stresses infinitely smaller than this tranny had suffered.

Still, I have to believe that the tires would skid, or the bumpers would absorb/be damaged long before the tranny (especially an auto) was damaged.

in fact I could see an auto suffering more damage than a manual now that I think of it... In a theoretical situtaion in which the wheels of a parked car are forced to turn... The auto is locked, so if you forced the wheel to move you're forcing against a solid object in an interferance design ie the pawl engaged in the park gear. Something has to give if the stresses are great enough. In an auto that would mean the pawl would pop out of the ring gear, or if the energy was enough then the pawl or park gear would be damaged. In a manual what would happen is the tranny would transfer the power to the engine per it's design and there force the engine to turn over, much like engne braking with the engine off. The point is the engine would give the energy a pathway to be dissipated by the immense resistance of a stopped engine.

Kinda like the design of some Volvo steering locks. The old style locking tab cold be broken by subjecting it to stresses that exceed the design limitations. The newer style has a torque limiting mechanism that would allow he column to move if extreme force is applied, but then re-locks after that force is discontinued - hence the steering column was locked, and unbreakable by the same method as the older columns.