Posted on 02/04/2010 8:33:26 AM PST by Chi-townChief
At a standing start, you are correct. But if you are already doing highway speed, the brakes would be fighting both the engine and 2 tons of momentum. That's asking a lot.
Jump on the brakes AND shift to neutral. I wouldn't want to shut the key off until I was at a stop. I want the power assists on both still working for me.
At a standing start, you are correct. But if you are already doing highway speed, the brakes would be fighting both the engine and 2 tons of momentum. That's asking a lot.
Sure, it's asking a lot... but it's not beyond the capabilities of the brakes. To put it another way, it's asking of the braking system "more" than it would be if it were simply the kinetic energy of the car, itself, without the engine power applied to the wheels also -- but again, not more than the brake system can handle.
The car can go much faster than legal freeway speeds, and there is much, much more kinetic energy involved than legal freeway speeds in those higher speeds. You could conceivably be going at 140 MPH and you would expect the car to be brought to a stop by the brakes.
You can expect that the car going at 40 or 50 or 60 MPH will be brought to a halt, too, even while the engine is turning some wheels. The power of the brakes in bringing a 140 MPH car to a halt is a whole lot of energy dissipation, and is probably much more than the 50 MPH speed and the engine applied -- and bringing it to a halt.
And the brakes has to have excess capacity beyond bringing a car at 140 MPH to a halt, and can't be operating "right on the edge" of their capabilities, at that speed.
Jump on the brakes AND shift to neutral. I wouldn't want to shut the key off until I was at a stop. I want the power assists on both still working for me.
Sure, if you can do something to reduce the amount of energy that the brakes have to dissipate, then that would be fine to do it -- just on that basis alone. But, I would be hesitant to do that with my car, if the accelerator were stuck. I wouldn't want to over-rev the engine to the point where there would be engine damage, and I know the brake system could handle it just fine, by itself -- so I would use the brakes, come to a stop, and then turn off the engine.
DO NOT TURN OF IGNITION KEY! (That would disable power breaks, power steering, etc.)
1. Hit the break firmly, but not hard enough to lock wheels, increase pressure as you slow.
2. At the same time as above, immediately shift into neutral gear. (the motor will rev up, but ignore the noise - concentrate on steering to the side of the road.)
3. When the vehicle has come to a complete stop, turn off ignition key.
Ding ding ding - we have a winnah!
>>>I don’t have one, didn’t look at the video yet either, but if my gas pedal stuck, I’d shift into neutral. Was I close?
The ignition key is your best bet - but don’t turn it enough to lock the steering wheel.
Here is the story Rush was talking about today about the Unions pressuring Toyota last week:
http://dailyme.com/story/2010012700005151/unions-protest-toyota-japanese-embassy.html
At that point with a stuck accelerator, I vote to screw the engine. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but I heard that they have over speed protection on these newer engines and you can't rip them apart like your used to be able to do in the old days just by being an idiot an over reving them.
But even if that not is not accurate, so what? A have blown engines will not kill you or someone else. I want the transmission dis-engauged and you still have full steering and full breaking ability. Screw the engine that's trying to kill me.
As they say in the aircraft business, any landing you can walk away from was a "good" landing.
I can replace the engine if it goes beyond red line. But I can't replace lives.
Well, sure... if it’s between your life and the engine... LOL... [I don’t think too many people will dispute with you there...]
But, I don’t think it comes to that with brakes that work on a car (i.e., work properly). The brakes will stop you.
I suppose if you doubt that is the case, then you may want to blow your engine, just in case. But, I’m sure my brakes can handle it... (your mileage may vary according to the condition of your own brakes on your car... :-) ...).
That is life or death stuff. Screw the engine. Do the best you can to stop the vehicle.
As an aside, I wonder what percentage of drivers on the road today even know what the "N" on the dashboard actually means. They know P, D and R. But I'd bet that many have never purposely put their vehicle into "N", nor do they understand what that letter means.
They know P, D and R. But I'd bet that many have never purposely put their vehicle into "N", nor do they understand what that letter means.
Well heck! If you really don't care about your engine (or car) just slam it into "P" for Pray... LOL...
You were saying ...
I hope I am never in that situation, but unless you are on an open freeway, I can't imagine their is much time to think. My first "reptilian" reaction would be to stomp on the breaks and after a few neurons get a chance to click, I'd do my best to throw the damn thing into neutral.
There was a time that I got my car out of the shop, just had a brake job and had driven about ten miles and everything seemed okay, until I came up on a line of cars, waiting at a red light and I did a very normal thing and stepped on my brakes to come to a stop behind the line of cars.
Except, this time when I stepped on the brakes, I heard a "pop" and the brakes immediately went flat to the floor and I didn't slow down a bit. The light was still red, the line of cars was coming up fast and I reacted (fortunately) just as fast and pulled the handbrake on the car.
It didn't stop as fast as the regular brakes would and I could tell I was still going to hit the rear-most car, until the moment when I saw the light just turned green and the line of cars started moving slowly forward. There was enough movement that I finally stopped without hitting anyone... whew!
I was sweating it there for a few seconds.
That was a stick-shift, four on the floor, a sports car and a handbrake in the middle, between the seats. So, it all worked out for me in that case... :-)
The Lord was on my side that day. Down shifting and emergency brakes slowed me some, but not enough to keep me from blowing right through the light.
Seriously, when stuff happens, it's not like were sitting he posting (with spell check) and can pontificate. Stuff happens damn fast and even quick reaction sometimes are not enough to save your butt.
Maybe I need to find another St. Christopher statue for my dashboard. :~))
Stuff happens damn fast and even quick reaction sometimes are not enough to save your butt.
You bet... and that's when I'm glad to have God watching over me... :-)
Even R would work just fine. Just don't hit that bridge abutment at 70 MPH.
Again, easy to say here... but when if happens on the road, will panic set in? Mostly, the answer is yes.
LOL!!!
Actually, we can't bash Ford too much, these days. They aren't Government Motors, Chrysler Crap, or Toyota!!! They didn't take any of Bammy's money and they're hoding their own.
GM and Chrysler (Fiat) can't say the same thing and Toyota is so mired in its recalls, they can't even begin to think about producing quality automobiles!!!
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