E30 Zone

looked out the bedroom window last Sat afternoon only to see my car rolling down the drive onto the main road!??!? after I careered downstairs at 500mph amazingly my car had rolled across the busy main road in bromley cross without hitting anything/anyone until it collided with a stone wall on a house across the road!

Turns out my dog Jasper had sat on my keys and pressed the automatic start and the car was in 1st gear so just made it lurch forward! Cracked their york stones and a couple of flags somehow but amazingly NO DAMAGE to my car apart from a scuff on the numberplate!

How lucky was I haha! Thank fk for those dampers at the front and 1980s german overengineering!

Automatic start???

scjimbo wrote:Automatic start???

used to be quite popular back in the days of max power, . remote start and you could have alarms that kept the car running for a few minutes after driving if it had a turbo if i remember correctly.

i prefer to use a key though, bit old fashioned like that

scjimbo wrote:Automatic start???

Hmm isn't that illegal in this country?

LOL, that would be a funny story to tell your insurance company if your car had hit some one else's car , they would never insure you again

Rich320I wrote:

scjimbo wrote:Automatic start???

used to be quite popular back in the days of max power, . remote start and you could have alarms that kept the car running for a few minutes after driving if it had a turbo if i remember correctly.

i prefer to use a key though, bit old fashioned like that

Well you learn something new every day. I know you get it on some modern motors, but I never knew you could get them on old turds.

I'm the same as you mate. I think the good old key is the way forward.

Auto starts are useful, it was fitted to a golf mk3 i owned when i bought it. A bit of a novelty item to show off with to your mates but it does come in handy on cold mornings. You can start your car and leave it running so it warms up by the time your ready for work, rather then having to sit in your car freezing you bollox off until it warms up

kangman wrote:Auto starts are useful, it was fitted to a golf mk3 i owned when i bought it. A bit of a novelty item to show off with to your mates but it does come in handy on cold mornings. You can start your car and leave it running so it gets pinched by the chavvy git down the road, rather then having to sit in your car freezing you bollox off until it warms up

kangman wrote:Auto starts are useful, it was fitted to a golf mk3 i owned when i bought it. A bit of a novelty item to show off with to your mates but it does come in handy on cold mornings. You can start your car and leave it running so it warms up by the time your ready for work, rather then having to sit in your car freezing you bollox off until it warms up

True! I would never have fitted it by choice but it came with the car when I bought it last year and yep its handy in the winter, however I'm contemplating derigging it now though haha!

scjimbo wrote:

kangman wrote:Auto starts are useful, it was fitted to a golf mk3 i owned when i bought it. A bit of a novelty item to show off with to your mates but it does come in handy on cold mornings. You can start your car and leave it running so it gets pinched by the chavvy git down the road, rather then having to sit in your car freezing you bollox off until it warms up

LOL it cuts off if you try driving it without the key in the ignition, i think you need to go over 20mph before it does so if the crook makes off with your car at 15mph then your fooked.
I don't know if the remote start makes it easier for thieves to hot wire your car tho..

Dweller wrote:

kangman wrote:Auto starts are useful, it was fitted to a golf mk3 i owned when i bought it. A bit of a novelty item to show off with to your mates but it does come in handy on cold mornings. You can start your car and leave it running so it warms up by the time your ready for work, rather then having to sit in your car freezing you bollox off until it warms up

True! I would never have fitted it by choice but it came with the car when I bought it last year and yep its handy in the winter, however I'm contemplating derigging it now though haha!

Or get it wired in correctly. There should be a circuit that disables the starter when the car is left in gear to stop exactly this problem!

I bought an XR3i with remote start fitted, but never got to use it on a winters morning due to a steep driveway and shite handbrake - the car had to be left in gear anyway!

diable wrote:On the way back from Glastonbury 1999 we a couple of mates we felt "peckish" so stopped at some services for an all day breakfast at 21:00 came back to the car with a "oh f u c k it's been nicked" but I didn't pull up the hand brake properly (3 days no sleep and copious amounts of alcohol and sex and......... didn't help) and it had rolled halfway down the car park missing all the parked cars

Hope they were girls you were having sex with...

A few lads sharing a tent in a field

Your not a bum bandit are you diable?

The latest clifford and toad systems come with the "All windows up" and " remote start". I think it costs +- £120.

I will definately be fitting these once when I get me car back from being resprayed.

scjimbo wrote:
Well you learn something new every day. I know you get it on some modern motors, but I never knew you could get them on old turds.

you can buy clifford etc alarm systems to install it in any car

There is no way I would trust a Clifford alarm with remote start!

You normally have to tell the insurance if you have these systems installed, as they make you sign a waiver form for instances like this one.

I had remote start fitted to my mine. I fitted it myself and there are no "in gear" safety features with the alarm, but it will only start with the hand brake on.

My hand brake isn't the strongest - once walked out the local shop to find the car kangarooing down the road!

Needless to say that feature has now been disconnected!

Christ these things sound like a liability after some of these stories.

I too am a victim of a driverless car causing a problem, mine ( My old R5) rolled across the drive and caused 2k damage to the neighbours car,nothing to do with auto start, all to do with dimwit not putting handbrake on

trojen wrote:I had remote start fitted to my mine. I fitted it myself and there are no "in gear" safety features with the alarm, but it will only start with the hand brake on.

My hand brake isn't the strongest - once walked out the local shop to find the car kangarooing down the road!

Needless to say that feature has now been disconnected!

sounds like a crap system.

i had an alarm which could do remote start, but for it to work you had to arm it while the engine was still running, get out and alarm the car with the remote, which would then switch the engine off, making it impossible to accidently leave it in gear and remote start it.

I bought an instrument pod and some other bits and pieces from a guy who had loaned his son his pride and joy, an immaculate 90 325is. Said son, mind fogged with thoughts of porking his new girlfriend parked it on her super steep drive with only the hand brake on and it rolled backwards across the street and into a stone retaining wall destroying everything up to the drivers seat. He was not amused but I got some good deals on what was left.

I bought an instrument pod and some other bits and pieces from a guy who had loaned his son his pride and joy, an immaculate 90 325is. Said son, mind fogged with thoughts of porking his new girlfriend parked it on her super steep drive with only the hand brake on and it rolled backwards across the street and into a stone retaining wall destroying everything up to the drivers seat. He was not amused but I got some good deals on what was left.

Am I the only e30 owner whose handbrake will hold the car on any gradient?

Mine work well, however the 306 handbrakes are normally a different story!

Isn't a handbrake something you only use to go around corners? This parking and the use of the handbrake thing, I'm unaware of this concept. Does it involve smoking tyres and a screaming girlfriend? If not, then I'm going to have to leave it I'm afraid . . . .

Honestly, you guys with your far out wacky ideas. Using the handbrake for parking. Honestly. Next you'll be trying to tell me that this country has speed limits.

Well I rebuilt it with all new shoes, discs, cables and backing plates entirely for handbraking so the ability to park is a secondary benefit.

But then I bought a hydraulic handbrake

ross_jsy wrote:Am I the only e30 owner whose handbrake will hold the car on any gradient?

No, mines fine as well, they only need basic service now and again.

Mines fine too, but hardly ever used for parking.

Just park mine with a gear engaged.

ross_jsy wrote:Am I the only e30 owner whose handbrake will hold the car on any gradient?

Both my E30s handbrakes work fine - one has been sat for almost 3 years and still works as it should!

Andy325i wrote:Mine work well, however the 306 handbrakes are normally a different story!

Tell me about it. My old 306 had brand new rear calipers, discs, pads and cables, everything was replaced by Peugeot and it still wouldn't hold on a hill, passed the MOT but would not hold its own weight.

Morat wrote:There is no way I would trust a Clifford alarm with remote start!

I can just imagine chasing your own car down the road, while it is trying to remote start itself with the alarm siren going nuts. And the f&*^ing key fob in your hand that just wont work