I have only been driving since September and when I first got the car I was stalling at least once a day for the first week and then maybe once a week for the next month, but have not stalled it since, until today when pulling out into a main road.
Just made me wondered how often, if ever, you far more experienced guys and girls manage to stall...or whether it is just us beginners! :)
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Last week - too much multitasking....
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Last Saturday after a Madras and several libations!!
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Last week. Day dreaming in traffic, tried to move off in 2nd (like it was still snowy).
Cue embarrassed rapid start up and drive off, complete with embarrassed hand gestures to following traffic.
Thats the first time its happened in ages, mind you. I've been at this driving lark for 24 years now, so I should have got the hang of it really!
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16th of December before that - on the bike at a junction - cold fingers and forgetting that dumping a clutch on a BMW can only have one result.
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When I test drove a Mk III Mondeo TDCi. Coming out of the Ford dealership. The 48 hour test drive was fine in another car and the next 4 years in one too. Maybe an issue with that car.
Since that day in mid 2003.... not done again yet.
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1976 on my driving test. Passed though !
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Tuesday last week.
Bus stopped to let me out while I was busy looking the other way. When I realised what he had done I tried to make a quick getaway. However I didn't give it enough revs to cope with the slope and stalled it. Much embarrassment, a quick start, an apologetic wave and I was on my way.
Can't remember the time before that.
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Stupidly stalled my latest car for the first time ever a couple of weeks back in the deepish snow, I'd trickled down my road on zero throttle in 2nd gear, braked gently outside my house and forgot to push the clutch in :-/
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Not since I accidentally started the car in first gear a few weeks ago! Can't remember the time before that. Don't stall often at all.
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This morning, reversing into the drive. D'oh!
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Once a month or more often all my life.
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I do it occasionally as I prefer not to use too many revs when setting off. I usually (99.9% of the time) get it right (ahem).
I did go through a phase about three months ago where I stalled about 5 times in one week on the same bank in Durham City after stopping in 3rd and forgetting to switch to 1st (fast light change so no point in coming out of gear, just dip clutch).
Edited by primeradriver on 27/01/2010 at 19:51
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Once a month or more often all my life.
Likewise, we are too honest :-). Mind you, i have never needed new clutches.
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Last week, 2 or 3 times putting my neighbours manual 306 down my drive while she's away.
Not used to a manual now. 45 yrs don't make me an expert !
Ted
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All the time, when I went back to petrol from diesel.
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so long ago I cannot remember. Probably in the eighties when the clutch cable snapped on my Renault GT2 Turbo
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I have only been driving since September and when I first got the car I was stalling at least once a day for the first week
One thing I've noticed is the smaller cars (don't know what you drive SS) can be less forgiving of driving mistakes. When I've hired small cars I've stalled more often. Whereas the 2.0L 8v golf was incredibly forgiving and hardly ever stalled.
To answer your question ? last week. Forester has a 16v engine that is not ideally suited to the application and needs to be revved higher to pull away without stalling; sometimes I forget...
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Would have been about 2004 for me......when I bought my first automatic Toyota Avensis.
Scared the wits out of me as I pulled out onto a main road for the thing to stall on me. Took a few visits to the dealer until they upgraded the software and it was fine after that.
I have a vague memory that when I bought my Skoda Octavia (I wanted a DSG) but for the first test drive they only had a manual and I stalled that, so that would have been more recent than the Avensis, so maybe 2007.
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I can't remember - not because it is so long ago, but because I stall so frequently that it isn't a particularly memorable event. I would imagine that I stall, on average, once a month or more*.
I put it down to the fact that I don't like to use a lot of revs when I am pulling away - or at any other time.
There is no question that some cars and engines are easier to stall than others. I hired a Seat Altea with a 1.9 PD engine a few years ago and stalled it several times a day for the first few days. I gather that it is more of a problem on diesel engines than petrol ones, but not all petrol ones are equal.
*p.s. Is there anyone else who can't believe that Lud is such a frequent staller?
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It's always annoying to stall, but it isn't often a serious matter. I do avoid certain dangerous, difficult uphill exits onto low-visibility fast A roads. It's just commonsense. In a place like that you have to punish the clutch and not even that can guarantee safety.
Erring on the side of gentleness and low revs, combined with a moment's inattention or a random very fast distraction instantly forgotten, will do it sometimes though. That, statistically, economically, aesthetically and so on, is preferable to over-revving every time to be on the safe side.
Cars vary of course. With a modern injected car functioning properly you can feed the clutch in gently on the flat and the thing will take off at an idle in first. A lot of carburetted cars wouldn't trickle along at an idle foot off (one notable exception I can remember was a 1947 Buick straight eight). They would usually start to shunt, and would stall all by themselves. There's a lot to be said for technical progress.
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One thing I've noticed is the smaller cars (don't know what you drive SS) can be less forgiving of driving mistakes. When I've hired small cars I've stalled more often. Whereas the 2.0L 8v golf was incredibly forgiving and hardly ever stalled.
A 2.0L Diesel Mondeo, so I can't really fall back on blaming it on the size of the car :( Mind you, the salesman stalled it when doing a 3 point turn during the test drive - so I don't feel too bad!
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I can't remember but tend to stall every couple of months. It is very difficult to stall my car but then I have adjusted the biting point fairly high.
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Yesterday,
forgot i was driving a petrol and tried to pull forward in traffic on tickover
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Every day of the week, especially with small petrol cars though some Diesels can be just as bad.
Is there a worst car for ease of stalling i wonder.
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3 pot Corsa, I drove one once as a learner car and just kept stalling it, there was do damn torque in that engine. If you didn't get the clutch down at the exact time or you lifted it up too quickly it would stall.
One of the easiest I have driven is the old push rod Fiesta engines, they are very difficult to stall.
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3 pot Corsa
Never had a problem with them stalling Rattie, true they're as flat as you know what though, and you have to get a run up to put 'em on the top deck..;)
It's a certain brand's small petrols which i stall the most, even when fitted to other makers cars they are still as bad, most frustrating.
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Funnily enough I found the Corsa particularly easy. It has a fairly long bite point.
Worst I've driven was our old 1994 Sunny. Very little space between bite and full engagement, low bite and easy to mess up.
Best was the 2001 Hyundai Accent. Bite point precisely half way and still not fully engaged until the pedal was almost fully up. Didn't like this arrangement much though, tend to prefer sudden clutches...
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17 December. Hire car from Stornoway airport, a 1.6(?) petrol Scenic. Stalled more times between the airport and the Co-Op, all of three miles, than I've done in nine years in my own HDi Xantia.
Nice enough car, I just couldn't get the grip of how to feed in the revs corrrectly.
Mind you, the Xant's party trick is to pull away with no throttle at all!!
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Cleverclogs answer coming up but I passed my test in April 1962 and don't think that I have ever stalled since. Honestly. I can't even remember stalling when I was learning but probably used an awful lot of revs in those early days.
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One of the easiest I have driven is the old push rod Fiesta engines, they are very difficult to stall.
Not in my experience. I drove Mk III Fiestas for years, and managed to stall them regularly. Might be just me, of course, but I'm sure I remember someone else telling me that he found them easy to stall.
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Injected or carb?
Dunno. It was the old 1.1 engine, and I had three in a row - 1990, 1994, and then one of the last ones that was sold. (I chose it over the Mk 4, because I preferred in interior of the Mk 3.)
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Never in the Rio Diesel, way too much low down torque.
The brand new courtesy car (Picanto) had no torque at all but it only had 9 miles on the clock.
12 months later had the same courtesy car and it was harder to stall but then it had nearly 10,000 miles on the clock.
just goes to show that an engine that has been bedded in produces more torque / power.
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Last week, I remember well because.
I have a 2009 new shape 2 litre diesel avensis tourer.
I have stalled it 4 or 5 times in 10 months.
Every time I stall it, within a week, suddenly I get 3 warning lights (Brake & traction related)on the dashboard & the fault message Check VSC System on the dashboard. The warnings are easily cleared by turning the ignition off & restarting the engine.
There must be a problem with either my car or the new avensis in general because stalling a car should not lead to spurious fault warnings. It has even been suggested that I am starting the car incorrectly.
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Quite often in the 170PD A4, it needed 1500rpm to take off 'dependably', meant regular use of first from a rolling start at roundabouts and often resulted in jerky progress. Never stalled (that I can remember) in the 330d, in fact it will happily pull up hill in second on the idle jets - which was really useful in the recent snow.
I was surprised that the A4 wasn't better, is this down to DMFs ?
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As bathtub tom and others have said:
All the time, [since] I went back to petrol from diesel.
My 1.8 petrol Escort is surprisingly torquey for an old girl and will pull away without throttle, with a little care. Sometimes I exercise slightly *too* little care however...
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All the time, [since] I went back to petrol from diesel.
Thanks for the English lesson Dave. ;>)
I'll be watching your future posts very carefully. ;>)
Edited by bathtub tom {p} on 27/01/2010 at 23:50
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So, people will answer like they do in surveys about how good their sex lives are OR people will answer like Yorkshiremen outdoing each other in how poor they were as children.
All it really achieves is a psychological profile of respondees!
Let's get back to impportant questions about those who bang their knees on car doors et al.
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I stall my engine once in a blue moon since I got fuel injected electronic ignition cars. I find that well maintained modern cars are almost impossible to stall. Perhaps you might expect to get problems if the engine isn't well maintained. I tried to stall my Focus deliberately by putting it into first gear with the handbrake on and then gradually releasing the clutch and without touching the accelerator. As I released the clutch the engine management system took care of things. When I pressed the clutch down again there was a temporary rise in engine speed. Carburettored engines with mechanical distributors would stall at the drop of a hat.
Edited by L'escargot on 28/01/2010 at 07:08
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Last time I remember stalling is when I hired a Sprinter to do a house move about four years ago. It had a vicious biting point and I stalled it three times without moving an inch in full view of the van hire staff... When the van was full, it was absolutely fine.
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Biting point is lower on my Punto van - than Mrs O`s Punto car. That often catches me out if I have been driving her car. But Mrs O is far more adaptable.
I seem to have less fine vernier control of my feet as time goes on....
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I don't understand how you manage to stall a modern car with a management system.
Even my Volvo 240 has an electronically set idling speed - if I just let the clutch up it adjusts the speed and pulls away. When I change into 2nd it does the same.
Stalling was in the days of carburettors and the need for careful coordination of clutch and accelerator.
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"I don't understand how you manage to stall a modern car with a management system."
Easy Cliff - It`s bungling ham-footed-ness. ;-)
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Stall? What's that then? The joys of automatics...
I seem to remember stalling quite frequently in my first car, which was a little annoying, as it was touch and go whether or not it'd restart again!
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I was debating whether to post this separately but embarrassment means I'll reply here. Last stalled last weekend when I was delivering a scaffold tower to a mate's house. I got bogged down in his field with the trailer on. I stalled twice rocking the car to try and escape the clingy mud.
Eventually I had to jack up the car and put some timber under each front wheel to get going again. [Looks in vain for the "blush" smiley].
Edited by Hawkeye {P} on 28/01/2010 at 09:56
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Mazda stalled last week at the garage exit, when I put some regular petrol in - no Ultimate. Stalled again the next day - so topped up with Ultimate and it is OK again.
Car must be spolied / take exception to regular 95 octane after about 7 years sipping the finer things of life.
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About three years ago in my last manual.
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