I see mechanical sympathy as consisting essentially in not abusing the car you are driving and being fairly prompt in diagnosing its many foibles and imperfections.
Yet there are also apparently intelligent people who imagine that the anal, obsessive habit of pressing the handbrake button when applying the brake and keeping the car externally clean and polished are evidence of 'mechanical sympathy'.
They probably think shaving keeps you healthy as well. Tchah!
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Shaving kept me healthy on the Cold War. If I hadn't shaved my respirator would not have worked, and I'd have been dead in seconds from Sarin or similar.
I do press the handbrake button and I change the oil more often than I wash the car. I'm sure my car responds accordingly.
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I'm sure it loves the oil onb, but I doubt if it notices the button. Probably wonders why it can't hear the ratchet when you are applying the brake.
And of course when in the military and not on active service shaving keeps you out of the book, point taken there.
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Lud, pressing the button when applying the handbrake is neither anal, nor obsessive. Surely, it is good practice which definitely falls into the category of "mechanical sympathy".
Is this really only in my imagination?
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Now I've had words with you about this before Lud. A gentleman such as you should know better than to allow his handbrake to breach the peace. It's just not polite. I urge you stop stop it at once. Affect a bohemian personal appearance by all means but handbrake misconduct is quite beyond the pale.......
;-)
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Heh heh heh...
:oP to all of you...
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Surely one has to ratchet the handbrake to get the satisfaction of hearing it being applied and to provoke response from those that are 'emotionally' (this is a diagnosable form of OCD by the way) mechanically attached to their vehicles to assist them in feeling sympathy for such an inanimate material object?
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When I was learning to drive 9 years ago, I was told you'd be failed for pulling up the handbrake without pushing the button in - under insufficient control of the car!
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I sympathise greatly with the poor old h/brake cable - all that stretching and tension, and all for what? If used a lot it will inevitably need tiresome adjustment - or even replacement if becomes fatigued and snaps.
Just leave in P or 1st unless on a hill. If someone carelessly nudges your parked car it might just move slightly rather than denting/cracking a bumper.
If parked for a long time you will avoid the excruciating thunk of the rusted-on pad/shoe suddenly detaching itself from the disc/drum.
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The handbook of the CC3 says do NOT push the button when applying the handbrake.
I think handbooks for other cars say the same.
We had a thread on this a few weeks ago.
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On a slight aside why do some people do their utmost to detach the handbrake from the floor? Indeed I have welded a few where they have succeeded,old Minis are a favourite.
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On a slight aside why do some people do their utmost to detach the handbrake from the floor?
Good point, a friend of mine managed this a few years back in my (then) 18-mth old Mondeo. He moved it 10 yds, parked it, handbrake on - when I came to move it later the handbrake was about twice as far up as I had ever pulled it. Car was in for a service 2 wks later - dear old Ford replaced the handbrake cable (unprompted) under warranty.
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The ratchet mechanism will suffer more wear/rounding-off if the button isn't pressed - whether or not, in the great scheme of things over the lifetime of a car, this matters much, I don't really know. It does irritate my sense of mechanical sympathy (not being practised) though.
People, in my experience, who slam doors, rev cold engines, cuff kerbs & generally clatter around in an ungainly & brutal manner in cars almost invariably clickety-clack their handbrakes too.
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I agree on the handbrake, I'm a button pusher & proud of it.
I think your sensibilities towards your car are much greater if you are some sort of engineer, like wot I is. You are aware of that heat, friction, stress & strain going on with all the oily bits as you drive, so are much less likely to abuse your car.
If you only know the engine as that noisy bit under the bonnet, you will not wonder or worry about reving from cold etc.
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I agree on the handbrake, I'm a button pusher & proud of it
I do too. It is clear to me that pushing the button reduces wear on the ratchet teeth, and saves making an unpleasant noise. But how much stretch will it add to the return spring?
:-)
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reduces wear on the ratchet teeth, and saves making an unpleasant noise.
I have never come across a car disabled by wear on the handbrake ratchet teeth.
And it isn't an unpleasant noise. I actually like it. It takes me back to my childhood when handbrakes didn't have buttons but a lever thingy designed to be squeezed, like the levers in an old railway signal box. A child could pinch its palm or fingers messing with one of those.
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I have driven cars and vans with worn handbrake ratchets, like you pull the lever but it will only lock if you pull it past its natural range of travel. How does the ratchet wear? Because drivers don't press the button when they pull the handbrake on.
Another one is keeping the clutch pedal pressed down while stationary. It used to be bad practice because it wore the release bearing. Why is that different now?
Also holding the car on a hill by slipping the clutch. Clearly that not only wears the clutch driven plate but can cause it to burn out or glaze over.
Double declutching in a modern car is one thing that is not only pointless but counter-productive, since all you are doing is operating the clutch mechanism twice as many times as you need to, causing wear and tear.
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In days of relative yore the clutch release bearing was often a ring of a kind of solid graphite stuff, possibly sintered. This wore quite badly if you kept the pedal down a lot. these days the bearing is a ball race designed for thrust which lasts longer. Holding the pedal down will still place undue wear on it though, and the clutch diaphram.
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Another button pusher here.
Judging by the reaction I get from bemused passengers, I think I'm the only person on the planet who bothers to let a turbo simmer as well. Probably completely unnecessary with modern engine oils, but it makes me feel better, and allows me to bask in smugness at someone having to ask why I'm doing it. ;-)
Mind you, if I said it was to realign the gangle pin with the glib shaft, I'd probably get the same blank, vacant response.
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Double declutching in a modern car is one thing that is not only pointless but counter-productive since all you are doing is operating the clutch mechanism twice as many times as you need to causing wear and tear.
Sorry,but I can`t agree with this. IMHO double declutching makes smooth downward changes easier. I used to have a car whose gearbox would crunch on changes up until the gear oil warmed up. Double decluthing up eliminated the symptom at least,if not a cure.
Anyway,I was taught to drive by a brother who drove lorries in the army and insisted on D/D. It`s a very hard habit to break after over 40 years!
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Double de clutching is very satisfying when you get it right but it is quite hard in modern Diesels cars and even modern petrols with their heavy flywheel effect. The pedal spacing on modern cars seems to make it hard as well. This is where I preferred the quicker response of my little Fiat with its carbs (see the carb thread)
Mechanical sympathy is not anal, it is just what it means. I still shudder at rich spoilt numpty who lives nearby who has a 911 turbo and rags it from cold. Why is it always the undeserving!!!!
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