This sounds like someone installed an auto start system in their manual transmission car and bypassed the neutral sensor.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/B79ANK/san-francisco-california-st...
If I'm worried about the car rolling, I don't particularly want it turning the engine backwards.
In terms of ratios I don't give it much thought. On pretty much every car I've driven first gear is shorter than reverse (typically first is > 4:1 vs reverse at < 4:1).
(Also, yes, the 2002 IS300 was available in stick.)
The handbrake can start slipping when the brakes cool and the car could roll, so both are necessary, especially on a hill.
Maybe it is not current anymore, but I have always been instilled a certain distrust of handbrakes. :)
It's a non-issue for the gears. You can turn a 4-cylinder crank with your bare hands. There's very little load, you're just overcoming the static friction of bearings, piston rings, and compressing valve springs. At the static to creeping rate we're talking, the cylinder fluids leak right through the piston ring gaps.
If you want to worry about something with regard to statically loading everything, it's a lack of lubrication that should worry you.
The engine isn't maintaining oil pressure when stopped. So you're leaving the crank bearings loaded in one spot while oil slowly squeezes out. "Frictionless" oil film bearings are made of relatively soft metals, so this isn't exactly good for the engine.
Also the gearbox isn't dispersing oil as it does when driving. So the gears are slowly drying up while loaded. I'd be more concerned about the engine bearings though.
I never leave my manual vehicles loaded in gear when off. It's pointlessly hard on the bearings. Starting is already harsh enough in that brief moment before oil pressure builds. Why add insult to injury?
There are oil pressure accumulators on the market in part for maintaining oil pressure when off for friendlier starting of high compression race engines:
An off engine is not unable to turn. Its resistance to turning is not constant either. All piston rings leak, even when new. So while you may have observed the engine in first gear holding the vehicle, minutes later the leaking piston rings may have allowed the crank to turn, and vehicle to roll.
The primary holding mechanism should always be the brake, and you need to load it to verify it's functioning and that you've pulled hard enough on the parking brake.
Putting it in gear is just a weak and largely ineffective form of redundancy.
Chocking turned wheels against the curb is much better redundancy (and legally required when parking on hills around here).
this happened in my 2005 mazda 3 and the habit carried over to my 2017 Golf (not sure if the brake design is similar or not, maybe it's not necessary on the vw)
So was it in gear or was it in neutral?
Handbrake should be used to keep it effective (so that the cable moves regularly and does not get stuck). And, if the gear is released accidentally, you still have the brake, and vice versa.
(Myself, I have always parked with handbrake on + gear in 1st or reverse; nowadays with my VW it's pretty automatic because it's DSG and you have to put the selector to P to take the key out, and electric parking brake activates automatically.)
> (unless on grade) to avoid the handbrake becoming less
> effective over time as the cable stretches.
Your justification for not using the handbrake for its intended purpose it that it may become less effective in the future? Seems counter intuitive unless I'm missing something...
If you believe your handbrake cable will stretch/break, just check it regularly. It really isn't that expensive to replace (compared to other car maintenance) and there's no harm in being extra cautious in this case.
The only emergency it is useful for is when you really have to pull a 180 right now and tight, as the automated systems do not expect this situation and will relax the brakes while you're deliberately trying to spin. I wouldn't trust even an above average drive with pulling that off - it's not being practiced. Usually it would be a desperation move when there's no space and a head on collision is likely.
Also depending on weather and temperature the handbrake can fail.
I’ve never seen anyone successfully start an engine from stand-still with it in gear (though I’ve seen people try). You get it rolling in neutral and only then engage the gear to start the engine without a starter or battery.
Your engine will lose compression over time so it's plausible that it'll roll a bit without the brake engaged.
And parking brakes by themselves are some of the most fail prone systems in the cars.
If you've ever changed tires on a fwd car and kept it in gear, you will notice you can torque the front tires far harder than the rear, as the front will be held by the engine and the rear wheels can spin surprisingly easily by your own power even when held by the hand brake.
We didn't know it until recently, which is how we ended up with blocked rear wheels after the car stayed parked for a couple of days, one of which was rainy. The process of unlocking the wheels damaged the brakes, so we also ended up with two visits to repair shop (one to hot-fix them before a trip home, another to fix them properly).
We drove the car straight to the mechanic after that.
Just be careful, and make sure your electrical cord is in good condition, and you should be fine. Bonus points in that you get an excuse to nab the Mrs./Ms. hair dryer for a good laugh when someone inevitably sees you giving your car a good blow down.
I'd be incredibly leery of trying to force anything through engine output/mechanical vibration alone. Always try undoing the environmental complication first. It's much less prone to causing costly repairs, and easier to do than it seems. A car cover that goes to the ground, and a beefy enough space heater underneath the cover in the morning might do the trick too. Although winds can make the heat gun/hair dryer + point heating work better.
Brake fluid doesn't freeze, but any water it manages to have pulled out of the air will. In fact if you have too much water in your brake lines from moisture absorption from the atmosphere because you were fiddling with the master cylinder, or using fluid that had a chance to absorb significant moisture, you could get large enough concentrations of water to get some crystallization started. Normally though, hydraulic brake systems in good condition shouldn't have a problem with that. In the unlikely event you do, the amount of ice shouldn't threaten the physical integrity of the system, and warming the brake lines would resolve it. Note that having enough water for that to happen gas probably made your braking sponge though, and you should really flush your brakes at that point when you get a good dry day.
They were just stuck on too hard. At that age I didn’t know any better, and my dad who was the one encouraging me to gun it was never that mechanically minded.
Over 10 years later I now do all maintenance and servicing on my cars myself, so yeah if it happened again I would not have been doing that!
Not sure how this applies to electric hand brakes, but I would hope they have a sensor to detect if the motor has engaged the brake or if it's just stalled out.
Learned the hard way when I saw my car in the middle of the street one day. Left it in gear every time after that.
> "I've never heard of this happening before," a police spokesperson told Gothamist.
> Multiple inquiries to Lexus were not returned.
I hope a software bug that missed checking for neutral in an avoidable edge-case isn't what's responsible for the young man's life. Lexus should respond to add clarity as to what really happened.