philmcneal
10-10-2006, 04:01 AM
There are two stories:
one) My friend let me drove his 1991 Nissan Stanza auto and gave me the ok for me to hypermile it. As old and problamatic the car is this is simply asking to get murdered on the road. I was approaching this stop sign so I put the baby into N and then waited for the revs to settle. I then keyed off/on and coasted towards the stop and stopped fully. By the time I turn the key to ignite, nothing happens. Its one of those hybrid moments except that the car doesn't move! Oh no there's a guy behind us coming up! My friend panically said, "Oh I didn't know you were going to do that! You have to put it in park!" Oh man I had to find out the hard way that these were one of those cars that you can't crank the engine in neutral. What's worse his park position sensor was a little messed up, so I had to jam it up there and at the same time the guy behind us was going, "WTF!!!!" A few more keys, and finally the engine came on, put the sucker back in D and never messed with the tranmission again.
two) I was hypermiling towards my way to work, everything was normal and then I coasted towards a light that turned red. I was first in line waiting to turn left, my car was off already so I ebraked up and a Ford 150 approached behind me probably wondering why my brake lights weren't on. I pulled out a small ciggarette and began enjoying my 30 seconds of silence as I wait for the green light to give me the green arrow. When the yellow came my smoke was done so I flicked that out of the way and turned the key...
A hybrid moment struck me, the car's not cranking. NO! NOT NOW not when the green arrow is about to show and there are 5 more cars behind me! The green light was on and I was still trying to turn the key hearing a, "whurr whurr". *HONK HONK* "C'mon, no not now! C"MON TURN ON CRANK ****IT CRANK!" More honks as i panic and decided to give up all hope, I turned the key all the way off, and then waited 3 seconds (oh yeah i was still hearing honking!) and then BAM the thing barely turned on and i throttled some more to revive the engine! As the green arrow was done I waited for the cars to pass before making my turn, when I finally did the Ford flew right past me and I just waved at him and making a "ok i'm so sorry dude I won't do it again!" and I didn't FAS anymore after that :( I idled anything I stopped at.
On my way home, I had my lights cranked and my voltage at 11.8 and my car cranked fine two times no problems. So I had to suspect either it was a) the basey music drained my battery (fasing with loud music is a no no!) and b) My car was very hot (95degrees C, normally would be at 86C) so maybe that weaken the starter and battery since outside temp was around 15 degrees C as well.
Either or it was a very embarrasing moment for me, those are the times I wish I never hypermiled in the first place due to the starter/battery randomly pooping out at me although that only happened if I failed my bump starts. And for that coasting with the Ford behind me, I"m pretty sure I didn't fail any bumps there... oh man I better keep a better eye on my car!
Either or... I'm glad my car started again in the middle of the warzone. I thought i was toast!
one) My friend let me drove his 1991 Nissan Stanza auto and gave me the ok for me to hypermile it. As old and problamatic the car is this is simply asking to get murdered on the road. I was approaching this stop sign so I put the baby into N and then waited for the revs to settle. I then keyed off/on and coasted towards the stop and stopped fully. By the time I turn the key to ignite, nothing happens. Its one of those hybrid moments except that the car doesn't move! Oh no there's a guy behind us coming up! My friend panically said, "Oh I didn't know you were going to do that! You have to put it in park!" Oh man I had to find out the hard way that these were one of those cars that you can't crank the engine in neutral. What's worse his park position sensor was a little messed up, so I had to jam it up there and at the same time the guy behind us was going, "WTF!!!!" A few more keys, and finally the engine came on, put the sucker back in D and never messed with the tranmission again.
two) I was hypermiling towards my way to work, everything was normal and then I coasted towards a light that turned red. I was first in line waiting to turn left, my car was off already so I ebraked up and a Ford 150 approached behind me probably wondering why my brake lights weren't on. I pulled out a small ciggarette and began enjoying my 30 seconds of silence as I wait for the green light to give me the green arrow. When the yellow came my smoke was done so I flicked that out of the way and turned the key...
A hybrid moment struck me, the car's not cranking. NO! NOT NOW not when the green arrow is about to show and there are 5 more cars behind me! The green light was on and I was still trying to turn the key hearing a, "whurr whurr". *HONK HONK* "C'mon, no not now! C"MON TURN ON CRANK ****IT CRANK!" More honks as i panic and decided to give up all hope, I turned the key all the way off, and then waited 3 seconds (oh yeah i was still hearing honking!) and then BAM the thing barely turned on and i throttled some more to revive the engine! As the green arrow was done I waited for the cars to pass before making my turn, when I finally did the Ford flew right past me and I just waved at him and making a "ok i'm so sorry dude I won't do it again!" and I didn't FAS anymore after that :( I idled anything I stopped at.
On my way home, I had my lights cranked and my voltage at 11.8 and my car cranked fine two times no problems. So I had to suspect either it was a) the basey music drained my battery (fasing with loud music is a no no!) and b) My car was very hot (95degrees C, normally would be at 86C) so maybe that weaken the starter and battery since outside temp was around 15 degrees C as well.
Either or it was a very embarrasing moment for me, those are the times I wish I never hypermiled in the first place due to the starter/battery randomly pooping out at me although that only happened if I failed my bump starts. And for that coasting with the Ford behind me, I"m pretty sure I didn't fail any bumps there... oh man I better keep a better eye on my car!
Either or... I'm glad my car started again in the middle of the warzone. I thought i was toast!