Most cars in Europe have manual trannies?

I've always heard that it was cold starts, and most specifically, the lack of oil pressure to all bearings on startup.

nate

That's the answer. I noticed right off the lack of engine braking in my '97 Lumina compared to the '88 Celebrity it replaced. So I get off the throttle sooner. It was irritating until I adjusted to it. No undue brake wear. With front pad/rear drum cars - Chevys I've had - you have to check the shoe adjusters as soon as you notice fast pad wear. The shoe adjusters might be screwed up, or even disconnected. When I was working too many hours to want to do my own I had Meineke do a brake job on the Celebrity when they replaced a muffler. Pads wore out within 3 years and when I pulled the drums the new shoes they had put on were barely feathered on the front edge. Had to get a schematic for the shoe self-adjuster mechanism, because what I saw didn't make any sense. A self-adjusting lever was missing from both wheels. Doesn't matter whether Meineke couldn't figure out how to get them back on or they were already missing. They did a half-assed job. GM wanted too much for an entire assembly so I picked up the levers at a bone yard for a buck. No excessive front wear after I put them together. That one tightened the shoes when braking in reverse. Pretty sure my Lumina adjusts shoes via the parking brake, which I never use. Have to check that out.

--Vic

In message , Vic Smith writes

They must be small or old, all decent cars now are discs all round.

Practically the same thing.

But that's only according to you. And I simply reject what you said.

--Vic

Not really. The car will *pick up speed* on a very slight downgrade, even at 40+ MPH. On a steep hill, even at highway speeds, manual second will not keep it from speeding up.

I've noticed this on several vehicles, so it's apparently not a fault, it's a GM "feature."

nate

yIn message , Vic Smith writes

You guess what you want, I know different.

If that's the case your cruise control won't work either. Mine does, except maybe on very steep grades like near Chattanooga where they have truck emergency run off lanes. Think that's 6% in some places. I say "maybe" because I don't use cruise there, but I know the car will pick up speed with my foot off the gas. But I go up and down "normal" hills on cruise and speed stays rock steady, even on the long grade down, so there's engine braking effect. Mostly I'm doing 60 or over, but i've also had it on cruise at 45. Never noticed it downshifting while on cruise. Mine is a 4T65E trans. "E" is electronic and cruise is an input to it. Don't know much about how these autos work, but you should check yours out if you intend to buy the car.

--Vic

Already have it :( company car... hit about 85 going past Mt. Weather when I just let it go to see what would happen... would have gone faster but I figured that was enough and braked. CC does *not* downshift trans like it did in my friend's Chrysler. I thought that was a thoughtful touch, don't know why GM doesn't do that.

nate

snick shifter action

Where I live there are ZERO DSG transmission specialists. And replacing DSG is more expensive than having a slushbox serviced or rebuilt. I dunno, maybe DSG is cheap to own in US of A or its homeland, but I suspect most other locales in the world are not so fortunate.

What are the problems with the BMW manual?

you need passing

Yeah, 9.3 seconds to 100kph(60mph) is impressive :-) That is if you clutch it just right. Nevermind the awd on rav4 with a mind of its own, sr180 spec or not.

I have an electronics specialist sitting right here who've bent quite a few rods after "tuning" some turbodiesels. I'm sure the same kind of geniuses would chip lowpressure turbo in rx-7 also. Wanna try that route? Bent rods need company.

In message , AD writes

The DSG shifts form gear to gear in >003of a second, BMW's gearbox is crap.

In message , AD writes

Which BMW gearbox are you referring to? The Steptronic or SMG or the regular six-speed Getrag?

I find the Steptronic terrible, the SMG okay, and the regular manual wonderful.

--scott

I've always heard that it was cold starts, and most specifically, the lack of oil pressure to all bearings on startup.

nate

yes, but the bearings don't suffer too bad. it's the pistons/rings that suffer because you get oil dilution of the surface cylinder wall film with the excess gas of startup, and the oil isn't hot enough for splash lubrication to be working properly. diesels generally last much longer for this reason - diesel fuel is a lubricant.

roughly 95% of wear in a traditional well maintained gasoline engine occurs during cold starts. that's why you should drive immediately on startup rather than idle it to warm up a cold engine. load heats the engine much quicker and thus reduces wear time. [don't gun it though.]

to be more precise, i should add that cold idle /is/ bad for bearings in that there's not enough oil flow for hydrodynamic separation. but warm idle can be worse if the oil thins out too much or pump pressure drops too much, so being pedantic, bearing wear is not strictly a "cold start" thing.

On icy roads around here, especially crawling down hill 5-10 mph, with automatics I always shift to neutral. Much better control, since the driven wheels always want to exert forward thrust, opposite to braking needs. With a manual, just depress clutch.

On the subject of freewheeling, reminded me of my 77 datsun 280z. On the Bosch system, going with foot off of gas would completely shut off fuel. There was a slight jerk depressing gas when the fuel turned back on. Mostly noticeable going on a downgrade. I don't know how modern systems work, except my truck switches off 4 cylinders.

Greg

I never counted how many times I would depress the clutch driving to work. Not fun at all. If it was anything less than a hundred times, I would be surprised.

Greg