Those people who run their car engine for ages before driving off "to warm it up"

[newbie]

I have one of them. Doesn't do it till the engine is warm

ah right, smart.

People idle their engines in our road to eat their lunch, talk on the phone or do their makeup. Must be a pain to keep revving the throttle under those circumstances, but I'm pretty sure that's what was going on the other day.

 

[cybershot]

aye, I was wondering what happens with flash modern cars that turn themselves off at traffic lights.

It won’t turn off if the engine is not warm enough. It also won’t turn off if the temperature set inside the car has not been reached as it knows it needs the heat from the engine to warm the inside of the car.

It also won’t turn off if you’ve got too many gadgets going off the power sockets.

It won’t turn off if the battery is not at least 70% charged

Also if you have a diesel it won’t turn off during a dpf cycle.

Mine goes through spells where the engine may not ‘stop/start’ for over a week!

I’m assuming because it thinks the battery is not sufficiently charged.

 

[cybershot]

ah right, smart.

People idle their engines in our road to eat their lunch, talk on the phone or do their makeup. Must be a pain to keep revving the throttle under those circumstances, but I'm pretty sure that's what was going on the other day.

People doing their make up while driving is as much of a pet peeve for me as people dicking about on their phones. Just pay attention to the road ffs!

 

[mojo pixy]

D) It's illegal to get out of your car while the engine is running.

You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road

Getting out of a vehicle isn't the same as leaving it unattended. If I'm scraping ice off the windscreen while the engine runs, the car is still attended.

 

[Slo-mo]

I'm dead against idling in any other circumstances but I'm afraid until I can afford a newer car with a heated windscreen I'm going to continue to do it in very cold conditions until the heater gets going for the reasons I described above.

Anyone who disagrees, well in fairness I only do about 3000 miles a year anyway.

 

[Duncan2]

I'm dead against idling in any other circumstances but I'm afraid until I can afford a newer car with a heated windscreen I'm going to continue to do it in very cold conditions until the heater gets going for the reasons I described above.

Anyone who disagrees, well in fairness I only do about 3000 miles a year anyway.

In Warwickshire we have a less sophisticated approach which involves a tarpaulin weighed down with some firewood placed over the vehicle on any night when 'the gritters are out'.Seems to work.

 

[Slo-mo]

In Warwickshire we have a less sophisticated approach which involves a tarpaulin weighed down with some firewood placed over the vehicle on any night when 'the gritters are out'.Seems to work.

That might save some screen scraping but it doesn't solve the problem I described though. Like I say, on an old fashioned car without a heated windscreen the windscreen can remist very quickly and leave you pretty much blind.

That's why in the most extreme conditions I'm going to continue to wait for my heater to start working. I'm talking a single figure number of times a year because I catch the bus to work on most weekdays.

 

[newbie]

It won’t turn off if the engine is not warm enough. It also won’t turn off if the temperature set inside the car has not been reached as it knows it needs the heat from the engine to warm the inside of the car.

It also won’t turn off if you’ve got too many gadgets going off the power sockets.

It won’t turn off if the battery is not at least 70% charged

Also if you have a diesel it won’t turn off during a dpf cycle.

Mine goes through spells where the engine may not ‘stop/start’ for over a week!

I’m assuming because it thinks the battery is not sufficiently charged.

I had no idea! they really have thought this through.

 

[Duncan2]

That might save some screen scraping but it doesn't solve the problem I described though. Like I say, on an old fashioned car without a heated windscreen the windscreen can remist very quickly and leave you pretty much blind.

That's why in the most extreme conditions I'm going to continue to wait for my heater to start working. I'm talking a single figure number of times a year because I catch the bus to work on most weekdays.

you're right of course Slo-mo you also have to be sufficiently wrapped-up to drive to work with a window open-or until the heater kicks in.

 

[stavros]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

It sounds like the best target market for stopping idling are those who've already driven somewhere, perhaps to pick someone up, and warmed their car up, and then leave the engine running while waiting. With the windows obviously shut, turning the engine and hence the heating off shouldn't affect the ambient temperature in the car, right?

 

[cybershot]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

It sounds like the best target market for stopping idling are those who've already driven somewhere, perhaps to pick someone up, and warmed their car up, and then leave the engine running while waiting. With the windows obviously shut, turning the engine and hence the heating off shouldn't affect the ambient temperature in the car, right?

Depends on how long the car has been running and how long you're waiting for.

On the flip it's a good tactic in the winter months when you drop off someone who is overly chatty and keep talking and you being polite you don't want to just tell them to get out the car. Within 15 mins I'd say the temperature drops significantly enough to make them want to go inside and find some heat!

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I has dilemma:

My car turns the engine off if up to heat, so long as I keep my foot on the brake. If I take my foot off the brake the handbrake is applied automatically, it is an automatic car. So I either save the planet but keep the brake lights on, or take me feet off the pedals and keep the engine ticking over but not annoy the twat behind with my brake lights.

What to do?

 

[T & P]

I don’t think brake lights are annoying at all when cars are stationary

 

[mauvais]

They are annoying, but there's no point actually getting annoyed because it's now ubiquitous.

Anyway you can just turn off start/stop.

 

[weltweit]

I like all these modern cars that are fitted with stop/start.

It gives me a whole raft of cars I can easily beat from the lights in my 1.2 Corsa

 

[stavros]

I've realised one of the larger groups who I would like to take their keys out are taxis. They seem to leave the car idling in the rank regardless of the weather. Hopefully I can explain rationally and diplomatically that turning off makes sense, and that they'll thank me for the advice...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Modern cars with stop/start are a bit like hands bluetooth headsets; Once you could spot the loon babbling away to himself as he ambled down the street, today though everyone's yabbering away to themselves, presumably chatting on their hidden phones. Same with stop/start; you are at the lights and the engine in the car next to you shuts down (or indeed starts up again) and you could safely sneer at the loser stalling his car. Not any more. Another of life's pleasures snatched away.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Modern cars with stop/start are a bit like hands bluetooth headsets; Once you could spot the loon babbling away to himself as he ambled down the street, today though everyone's yabbering away to themselves, presumably chatting on their hidden phones. Same with stop/start; you are at the lights and the engine in the car next to you shuts down (or indeed starts up again) and you could safely sneer at the loser stalling his car. Not any more. Another of life's pleasures snatched away.

Having driven many crap vehicles with dodgy clutches prone to stalling at hill starts, I can't see the percentage in having a gizmo that recreates the experience in an otherwise functioning car. My driving instructor was clear about stop/start: turn it off and leave it off.

 

[Teaboy]

Having driven many crap vehicles with dodgy clutches prone to stalling at hill starts, I can't see the percentage in having a gizmo that recreates the experience in an otherwise functioning car. My driving instructor was clear about stop/start: turn it off and leave it off.

Cos' they have electric parking brakes as well so the utter joy of stalling it on a hill start and getting beeped at by the line of traffic behind you has gone. Anyway its just so the manufacturers can make lots of untrue claims about fuel consumption and emissions because they are switched off in traffic. Its bollocks but hey at least they didn't do a v-dub.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Never understood the purpose of beeping your horn at someone who has stalled their car. Most likely thing you're going to achieve is to make them more flustered than they are already, meaning they'll take longer to get their shit together and drive off.

If people are beeping to say, 'you're not supposed to stall your car' well that's a statement of the fucking obvious if ever there was one. I'm sure someone has deliberately stalled their car at some point in human history but I reckon it's a good 3, 4 million times rarer than people stalling when they didn't intend to.

Only time I'll honk is if someone stalls on a hill and then forgets to put the brakes on. In that situation there's actually information that needs to be conveyed to the other driver, namely 'your car is rolling backwards and about to hit me, please apply the brakes at your earliest convenience'.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Never understood the purpose of beeping your horn at someone who has stalled their car.

To increase their humiliation, of course.

 

[Poi E]

Have to go aftermarket for a decent horns these days.

 

[A380]

Never understood the purpose of beeping your horn at someone who has stalled their car. Most likely thing you're going to achieve is to make them more flustered than they are already, meaning they'll take longer to get their shit together and drive off.

If people are beeping to say, 'you're not supposed to stall your car' well that's a statement of the fucking obvious if ever there was one. I'm sure someone has deliberately stalled their car at some point in human history but I reckon it's a good 3, 4 million times rarer than people stalling when they didn't intend to.

Only time I'll honk is if someone stalls on a hill and then forgets to put the brakes on. In that situation there's actually information that needs to be conveyed to the other driver, namely 'your car is rolling backwards and about to hit me, please apply the brakes at your earliest convenience'.

How else would they know I was a better person than them?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

How else would they know I was a better person than them?

By driving an Audi?

 

[Poi E]

 

[T & P]

I've realised one of the larger groups who I would like to take their keys out are taxis. They seem to leave the car idling in the rank regardless of the weather. Hopefully I can explain rationally and diplomatically that turning off makes sense, and that they'll thank me for the advice...

In Spain i’ve seen the extreme opposite... All the taxi drivers would be outside their cars chatting and their vehicles would switched off, and when the taxi at the front of the rank got hired and drove off, the taxi drivers would manually push every taxi one car space, so nobody had to turn on their engines.

I suspect the motive might have been purely financial though

 

[hash tag]

To increase their humiliation, of course.

Especially if they are driving something ike an Audi

Have to go aftermarket for a decent horns these days.

I have not had that many complaints

 

[Poi E]

I have not had that many complaints

See? Not loud enough.

 

[hash tag]

You of course know it's illegal to use your horn in a built up area between 07:00 and 23:00, or some such.

 

[Looby]

Luckily this prick has moved but the bloke across the road was running his shitbox car for 45 minutes every morning and coming out every now and then to aggressively rev it. He left it running for 2 hours one evening until my neighbour went round to tell him to turn it off. He’d forgotten about it. Fucking twat.