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Driving Habits: What's Your Pauline Quirk, Guv?


UmBongo

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Guest Hooli

I'm assuming it's a bad thing to do and not advisable though?

 

Do it right so it doesn't make a noise & it's fine as far as I know. It's only when it grinds that you're putting wear on the syncro rings.

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Yo, gears Vs brakes brigade: what about cars with freewheel? As any aficionado will tell you, 'all cars should have it' because it allows you to maintain consistent speed whilst covering the brakes read to slow. Down changing (never with the clutch, it's redundant) won't slow the car because it doesn't mesh until the engine slows to optimum speed for that gear.

 

I do slow down with gears btw, but I also love freewheels

I hate freewheels. Possibly because I almost crashed a pre-war Morris Oxford Empire saloon as I didn't realise it had one until it was a bit too late. I find huge comfort in gears. The Omega had a freewheel on its auto transmission, and I hated that too.

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I just realised the other day I slightly pull the steering to one side for a split second when I'm pulling away from standstill quite quick but it's such a small correction it's hardly noticeable and I've been doing it for years.

 

I wouldn't mind but I drive rear drive cars most of the time so I can't blame it on torque steer.

 

I guess it must be caused by all those 80s fwd hot hatches I had back in the day.

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I thought I'd seen paddles on the wheel in some pics? I just assumed as it's the same box as my Saab it'd have the same.

Nah their the cruise control/speed limiter buttons.

 

I think, ill have a feel up the back of them, but the shifter pushes to the left then up and down for manual, so I can imagine it does, unless the v6 had them?

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Depends on the car-I check that the choke and handbrake are off on the 2cv every so often, no idea why as they've never ever come on by themselves.

,

In the fiat it's just general driving habits, but in my merc I if I notice the gunsight is askew I have to stop and centre it.

 

Digital displays are worse thought- in my c5 the temp had to be the same for passenger and driver. And had to have the vents symmetrical.

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As soon as I get in a car I get a sudden urge to pick my nose. It drives SWMBO mad when I get bogeys on the steering wheel.

 

I try not to use the brakes too much as I don't want to get brake dust on my alloys.

 

I suffer from massive road rage.

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Guest Hooli

Nah their the cruise control/speed limiter buttons.

 

I think, ill have a feel up the back of them, but the shifter pushes to the left then up and down for manual, so I can imagine it does, unless the v6 had them?

 

I must be thinking of the wrong car then.

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This using the brakes instead of engine braking is it really a real thing ?

I just can't see the logic in not using the engine for slowing down or maintaining speed on a hill.

Clutch wear is just bollox. I recently changed the original clutch on my van at 360K and I always use engine braking.

Plenty of hills in this bit of Normandy, with DW8 "power" they get noticed going up the fekkers....

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I'm in an auto, I shouldn't have to do anything. I don't read about junkman having to manually make his auto drop down!

I enjoyed reading this recently.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100566230@N04/sets/72157635333551936/with/9647312640/

 

I still use my right foot for braking in the LS400.

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Hi, Not riding the clutch comes from the days of cars having Carbon release bearing which would fail in fairly short order with that practice. There are not many other ball races that get a break from service on a car so they can cope. Anyway as it's me that will have to do the work, I will decide, so I do.

 

Colin

Same here, avoided this habit when I got my first Morris minor and it's stayed with me ever since. I also have oil checking OCD from having heaps that leak or burn more than they should; even when it's unnecessary. Hmmmm yes the oil level is exactly where it was the last 27 times.
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As I own two of Rover's finest I am OCD about coolant levels. Sometimes checking twice a day. This has now migrated to keep checking the coolant level on the Saab. Which never alters, but is checked daily. Just in case.

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I never switch anything off before I kill the ignition, even the wipers, they are always on the first notch up for the intermittent setting because on my car that's the auto setting, and my previous 3 cars have had auto wipers too. I guess if I had a car that didn't have the auto wipers I'd turn the wipers off before killing the ignition though just incase next time I went out it had dried up and I didn't have wipers on screeching up the window, but alas auto lights/wipers have made me lazy.

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I have to turn everything off before killing the engine. Radio, fans. And if I start a car and find the previous driver has left the wipers going, I basically have to scrap the car.

I tut and shake my head at every driver I see put their headlights on before even starting the engine, and I cringe anytime Mrs CW switches off the engine before turning headlights off. But this is due to owning a continuing succession of heaps with weak batteries and/or charging issues - where opening the glovebox before cranking the engine could be enough to drain that little bit of juice from the battery that will make the difference to whether they started or not.

 

Opening the drivers window, killing the sounds and having a listen when emerging from all blind junctions

 

Deactivating lane change indicators on moderns, cos they're the work of Satan.

 

Not leaving keys in the ignition when getting out. A company Civic with an aftermarket alarm and central locking interface taught me that one.

 

Obsessive checking of wheelnut tightness after some work that needed a wheel off. Twice ever I've left them loose, the first time on the way to my first car's first MOT. I was early and troubled by the noise I had been hearing all the way to the garage, I found/remembered the cause and surreptitiously did the necessary doing up in the MOT parking area. (It passed, no advisories). Can't remember the second time, but I was old enough to know better by this stage, hence the current obsessive behaviour.

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

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But the real OCD starts to show when it comes to tools with their own cases. Socket set? Even the piece of card over the impact bits has been retained and is put back over them at each closure. Mini drill/grinder? Every cutting disk/mandrel/arbor has to be back in its proper slot. Because that's where it's supposed to be, right?

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

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