Crawling along in traffic

That's interesting - it means it's a straight function of the ECU and any car can have this feature.

Daytona

Yeah, we've covered me forgetting idle control in cars, but the OP's car is petrol. Dunno how we got onto diesels aside from guy reference to a Monty TD.

The ECU will usually open up the idle control valve to compensate for load to try and keep the idle at a fixed rate. Try holding the car on the handbrake and bogging the engine down with the clutch in 1st then quickly push the clutch in and the revs will shoot up before the ECU has a chance to close the idle control valve again!

Will

Very gently when you've got an 899cc engine idling at 850rpm.

The amount of power from most engines at idle is also minimal.

Well I've stalled my car enough times to know it isn't fool proof when it comes to anti-stall :-)

1, maybe 2 at the most, I guess before the clutch is fully engaged. I would say it takes roughly double the time I take when I press the accelerator to move off (which I do 99% of the time), but only because I'm being extra cautious so as not to stall.

It's certainly not *very* torquey, in fact everything about the engine is pretty average.

It appears to be a function which can be achieved at all at times, hot or cold. It's more just a curiosity to me really, after stopping outside my house once just to see if it can be done, and was suprised that it was relatively easy! So got to thinking if it's something I could use to my advantage.

The idle of the car is usually between 750-1000rpm, depending on the temperature, if I've got the A/C, heated rear screen running, etc.

Never tried it on an incline. Your right it does take slightly longer but not *that* much longer.

Peter wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance on 4 Dec

2004 11:03:41 -0800:

Um, of course the amount of power is minimal at idle. You _need_ minimal power to go slowly. Going slowly does not damage the engine.

Did you have a point?

It's always been a feature of diesels, nowadays it's a feature of almost allpetrol injection cars as well, mainly due to increased electrical loads & tighter emissions regs.

The main disadvantage of this practice is those behind you. I find it a particularly irritating practice. If I am following you doing this, and my crawl-on-idle speed is higher than yours, it means I am having to ride the clutch in order not to crash into the back of you. PLEASE, just move forward to the back of the stationary queue and stop (this particularly for traffic light queues).

I find this practice at traffic lights annoying wit folk driving automatics, where there's this constant shuffle shuffly shuffle up to the lights. One of my big grips when living in the US when I would be in the very small minority driving a manual, when everyone else drove automatics.

Also sprach "Graculus" :-

If it bothers you then stop, wait for a gap, then pull forward and fill it. Or, since it rarely works perfectly and eventually the queue will stop briefly, just be a little late joining the roll.

It's far more fuel efficient to roll gently forward and imposes less wear on the vehicle and on the driver. I shall continue to do it.

message

Why not just wait a second or two before moving off yourself?

See above?

Best wishes all, Dave - alias TripleS.

I can understand it if they never came to a stop and were thus unable

Out of curiosity today I tested the trusty Xantia hdi at tickover on level ground, with the speed being indicated by a gps unit. In first gear, 4.5 mph. 2nd gear 9.5 mph. Tickover is 900rpm. In top it's only doing about 2200 revs at 60mph. DaveK

Like I give a s**t about wear & tear and fuel a) it's pretty minimal b) company car + fuel card = fixed price motoring (i.e. big tax bill) regardless of distance travelled, traffic levels etc etc

Also sprach "Graculus" :-

Good for you. Many of us do. I can only think then that your driving or social skills aren't up to the job.

Why should I waste my fuel just for you?

If the minimum speed of the car following you is higher this is extremely annoying!

COs it'll use hardly any fuel & save you wearing your clutch out.

Don't understand. How will crawling along vs racing along cause any more wear on my clutch? When crawling the clutch is fully engaged, same as when driving quickly, except you have to stop less often so the clutch is probably used less, not more.