10 ways you are unknowingly damaging your car

[BusinessTech]

10 ways you are unknowingly damaging your car

You’ve paid a small fortune for your wheels and generally treat it with the TLC it deserves - but there are a few 'innocent' things you could be doing that will ultimately prove harmful to your car.

 

[Fulcrum29]

I disagree,

7. Speeding

Not only is speeding illegal and one of the most cited reasons for car accidents, but it has terrible consequences for your car’s engine too.

I would say over-revving has terrible consequences.

 

[HapticSimian]

Some more MyBuzzfeedBand rubbish, ranging from the banal to the downright wrong.

Gearing down to control speed? Srsly? We're talking cars, not 18-wheelers with 15-speed gearboxes and massive diesel engines. Given even a modest downhill most cars would quickly accelerate past the legal urban limit thanks to nothing more than gravity, unless you happen to like the sound of an engine screaming against compression at 5,000 rpm in 2nd gear... you can almost hear the fine metal shavings being blown out the exhaust. Speeding has terrible consequences for your car's engine? Like what, exactly? Further, letting a car idle before you drive off in winter isn't a great idea either; you're warming the engine oil but every other lubricated bit in the car remains cold, until you hop behind the wheel of your (partially) warmed up cabbie and fly down the road. It's a far better idea to turn the key and drive off, keeping things calm until the car has reached operating temperature. We don't live in northern Alaska, for pete's sake.

As for the weight of one's hand damaging the handbrake... just, how? 'Sliders' in, on or as part of a handbrake system? Now you're just making **** up.

Also, who is cyberstoep, and why are you reposting the same nonsense they published 2 weeks ago?

 

[genetic]

Slowing down with brakes is a lot cheaper than slowing down with a gear box. Brakes are meant to be replaced frequently. A gearbox isn't. A gearbox isn't a brake.

 

[Mavix]

Some more MyBuzzfeedBand rubbish, ranging from the banal to the downright wrong.

Gearing down to control speed? Srsly? We're talking cars, not 18-wheelers with 15-speed gearboxes and massive diesel engines. Given even a modest downhill most cars would quickly accelerate past the legal urban limit thanks to nothing more than gravity, unless you happen to like the sound of an engine screaming against compression at 5,000 rpm in 2nd gear... you can almost hear the fine metal shavings being blown out the exhaust. Speeding has terrible consequences for your car's engine? Like what, exactly? Further, letting a car idle before you drive off in winter isn't a great idea either; you're warming the engine oil but every other lubricated bit in the car remains cold, until you hop behind the wheel of your (partially) warmed up cabbie and fly down the road. It's a far better idea to turn the key and drive off, keeping things calm until the car has reached operating temperature. We don't live in northern Alaska, for pete's sake.

As for the weight of one's hand damaging the handbrake... just, how? 'Sliders' in, on or as part of a handbrake system? Now you're just making **** up.

Also, who is cyberstoep, and why are you reposting the same nonsense they published 2 weeks ago?

Wut :wtf: You're doing something very wrong if you do it that way :erm:

 

[HapticSimian]

Wut :wtf: You're doing something very wrong if you do it that way :erm:

Urban... 60km/h...

 

[Hamster]

Slowing down with brakes is a lot cheaper than slowing down with a gear box. Brakes are meant to be replaced frequently. A gearbox isn't. A gearbox isn't a brake.

Actually, if you go read some car and bike manuals they recommend engine braking.

 

[genetic]

Actually, if you go read some car and bike manuals they recommend engine braking.

You shouldn't need to downshift to reduce speed temporarily (the function of brakes). The only instance you should do this for is engine braking in a lower gear, when you need prolonged speed control (say on a downhill) and want to reduce excess brake usage and possible overheating. If the hill is shorter than 10 seconds it probably isn't worth it though.

Brakes are very cheap and meant to be worn away via friction for reducing speed, while clutches are very expensive relatively and when you downshift without rev-matching, you will wear away (friction) clutch by slipping. If you do use a rev-match, that rev-match blip will burn some gas, and thus downshifting to slow down will ironically either use gas in the process or burn clutch unnecessarily (unless you plan to speed up immediately after, i.e. cornering in racing).

https://www.quora.com/Driving-What-...-brakes-versus-engine-braking-to-reduce-speed

 

[BlindMelonChitlin]

You should be combining engine and brakes when slowing down - your gearbox should be engaged as much as possible for safety and traction sake. If you're doing one without the other with the intention of slowing down, you're either between gears or doing it wrong. Safety first.

 

[Venomous]

Slowing down with brakes is a lot cheaper than slowing down with a gear box. Brakes are meant to be replaced frequently. A gearbox isn't. A gearbox isn't a brake.

Actually, if you go read some car and bike manuals they recommend engine braking.

LOL,

My current vehicle is an. automatic. One great feature it has is that the vehicle won't roll back on an incline, while in drive.
Apparently that is all done in the gearbox.

Further brake control (other than normal pedal brake to slow down) by a human is made rather difficult by the fact that the park brake is a pedal and there is no handbrake in the vehicle.


Apparently the gearbox is "intelligent" whereby it learns your driving style. I'm not a mechanic, I just drive the vehicle, can't remember exactly what was said in this regard.

What I do know is that the gearbox oil is quite pricy, and gets changed every service, along with the engine oil.

 

[genetic]

LOL,

My current vehicle is an. automatic. One great feature it has is that the vehicle won't roll back on an incline, while in drive.
Apparently that is all done in the gearbox.

Further brake control (other than normal pedal brake to slow down) by a human is made rather difficult by the fact that the park brake is a pedal and there is no handbrake in the vehicle.


Apparently the gearbox is "intelligent" whereby it learns your driving style. I'm not a mechanic, I just drive the vehicle, can't remember exactly what was said in this regard.

What I do know is that the gearbox oil is quite pricy, and gets changed every service, along with the engine oil.

Huge difference between an automatic and manual transmission. Two completely different technologies.

We're talking about manual transmissions.

 

[freddster]

People who can see a traffic light red, and yet they speed at it until the last moment, then they hit the brakes HARD. Beats me. I always try and drive at such a speed in order to catch the traffic light green. Stop as little as possible.

 

[genetic]

People who can see a traffic light red, and yet they speed at it until the last moment, then they hit the brakes HARD. Beats me. I always try and drive at such a speed in order to catch the traffic light green. Stop as little as possible.

Traffic lights in cities are usually synchronized to a certain speed - say 50kph. If there is no to light traffic, and you drive at the prescribed speed, you can usually catch them all green.

 

[freddster]

Traffic lights in cities are usually synchronized to a certain speed - say 50kph. If there is no to light traffic, and you drive at the prescribed speed, you can usually catch them all green.

Don't know if thats the case in Cape Town, but up here in Joburg it doesn't matter what speed you drive the lights catch you. They're trying to make you lose your patience so you speed and they can generate income. No way these things are in any form of sync.

 

[genetic]

Don't know if thats the case in Cape Town, but up here in Joburg it doesn't matter what speed you drive the lights catch you. They're trying to make you lose your patience so you speed and they can generate income. No way these things are in any form of sync.

JHB CBD is all in sync. Most urban area's are. They only work in the ideal world where all traffic is flowing at a consistent speed. It doesn't work in congestion at all.

You can notice the sequence pattern where lights change in sequence one after another a few seconds apart, on a long stretch of road such as Strand Street.

They may display a sign similar to the one below;

 

[freddster]

JHB CBD is all in sync. Most urban area's are. They only work in the ideal world where all traffic is flowing at a consistent speed. It doesn't work in congestion at all.

You can notice the sequence pattern where lights change in sequence one after another a few seconds apart, on a long stretch of road such as Strand Street.

They may display a sign similar to the one below;

View attachment 359144

Have never worked in CBD. But coming out , going through newlands, those things can't be synced.

 

[Dan C]

Further, letting a car idle before you drive off in winter isn't a great idea either; you're warming the engine oil but every other lubricated bit in the car remains cold, until you hop behind the wheel of your (partially) warmed up cabbie and fly down the road. It's a far better idea to turn the key and drive off, keeping things calm until the car has reached operating temperature.

This ^^ ... bad idea to idle a car when it's cold.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Didn't understand the handbrake one...
Is it don't rest your hand on the handbrake when its down?
Or is it the gearstick, that was supposed to be substituted there?

 

[Dan C]

Didn't understand the handbrake one...
Is it don't rest your hand on the handbrake when its down?
Or is it the gearstick, that was supposed to be substituted there?

Think some women do that.

 

[Sinbad]

Yeah hand on the gear knob transfers pressure to the shift forks. Handbrake? Lol.
And I use engine braking. It places no extra strain on anything and prevents possibility of brakes overheating when you need them most.
Idle before start? Only if it's so fecking cold that the windscreen is iced over and I need to warm it up. Otherwise never.