DOH....., I can never have anything nice. Options

[bloodMoney]

So as two of you know, I was startled awake by the wifey yesterday cause she missed her bus for work. She told me that it was snowing outside and that I needed to get up and start and clean off Abby so that I could drive her to the train station for work. Without even thinking, I hit the button to start the car and several seconds later, I hear it.

BOOM.

Yes she was in gear when I started her and she took off down the block. She got about 50 feet before pushing a Jeep Liberty halfway down the block. Eventually, Abby got under the rear end of the jeep and pushed it out of the way and stopped about 300 feet away from my house, at the end of the block. Now I'm in the process of picking up parts to piece together my once perfect Abby..... *facepalm*











The moral of the story? Always keep good parking brakes on the car and try not to leave it in gear......

~Chris

This post has been edited by bloodMoney: Dec 23, 2009 - 7:29 PM

[SwissFerdi]

Ouchouchouchouchouchouchouch.





This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 23, 2009 - 11:33 AM

[lagos]

You're lucky you didn't kill someone .
Remote start and manual cars dont mix.

[marco-polo]

^^ x2

hope you can get her back the way she was.

[blu94gt]

You're lucky you didn't kill someone .
Remote start and manual cars dont mix.

There's a reason remote start systems say specifically not to install on a manual car. Glad no one was hurt.

There was a guy in a college motorsports club with me who was working on his car and somehow leaned on the remote in his pocket, car started and pinned him against his house.

[95CelicaST]

Yeah. This is exactly why shops do not want to install remote start on a manual car., but your insurance will repair the Jeep and your Celica and then you get elevated premiums for the next 3 to 5 years. Quite a price to pay to learn to leave the car in neutral.

[BonzaiCelica]

ouch man I feel your pain. My brother did that with his 95 camry dx stick shift. It was parked facing the garage and Im sure you can figure out what happend next. We needed a new garage door. ya just make sure you have a good e-brake and that wouldnt of happend.

[BloodyStupidDave...]

Without even thinking, I hit the button to start the car and several seconds later, I hear it.

BOOM.

Yes she was in gear when I started her and she took off down the block. She got about 50 feet before pushing a Jeep Liberty halfway down the block. Eventually, Abby got under the rear end of the jeep and pushed it out of the way and stopped about 300 feet away from my house, at the end of the block.

Remote start?

The moral of the story? Always keep good parking brakes on the car and try not to leave it in gear......

Nope, moral of the story is don't fit mods to your car unless you know what you are doing. It is perfectly possible to safely fit push start or remote start to both manual and automatic cars, but you have to use the right kit with the appropriate safety devices.

In the case of remote start, the feature must only work when the car is in neutral, which for a manual shift means correctly fitting gear select sensors to each gear including reverse.

Like others have said, you are damn lucky not to be sitting in a jail cell this evening, having accidentally killed somebody with your car and mod. And two days before Christmas, too. Phew!

I know the above sounds harsh and I am thankful that you, your family and neighbours are all safe and unhurt. You were brave to post your story and I really hope it serves as a wake-up call to others that have either fitted a similar mod or are thinking of doing so.

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Dec 23, 2009 - 1:36 PM

[HaysoosKreesto]

At least she still lives. Got to be happy that she didn't flat line because of an oops. As my father said to me when I was young, "Once oops and your out." Thankfully, your oops didn't make get her out (I hope).

[Random_Stranger]

I am sorry that happened man. But she isn't that bad off, she can be fixed and looks as good as new.

[ajmorris1977]

ouch, sorry to hear about this one, i did it myself with a friends peuguot diesal back in the day but a neighbours rv put a stop to it for me, hope you get her all fixed soon.

[nics]

yeah me and my friend had one too but the thing is, he was in front of the car and he accidentally started it. his legs were sandwiched between two cars. good thing he wasnt hurt cuz i was there.

[presure2]

that sucks.

edit your title.

[DGAF]

MAN YOU ARE SO LUCKY. THANKFULLY NOTHING REALLY BAD HAPPENED.... HOPE YOU FIX IT SOON...

[richee3]

That really sucks man. It looks a little worse than I imagined. At least nobody was hurt.

[bloodMoney]

lol @ Manny.... I'll do it now.

Thanks for the support folks. She still runs like a champ and I've already got most of the replacement parts on the way.

I just need a 199 mirror and some paint.

[schmooot]

In the case of remote start, the feature must only work when the car is in neutral, which for a manual shift means correctly fitting gear select sensors to each gear including reverse.

Actually this is how manual transmission remote starts work: with the car running and the doors closed you put on the ebrake and put the car in neutral and then you push the remote button and the module takes over running of the car, at this point you turn the key off and take it out and exit the vehicle and close the door. Now the vehicle will still be running (under remote) Now you push teh button and it turns off and as far as the module is concerned it knows the vehicle is in neutral and can then be started via remote. As soon as the door is opened, the module resets to prevent someone getting in and putting it in gear. Now pressing the button will do nothing because the module can't be certain that the car is still in neutral.

So the only requirement for a remote start on a manual is for it to be installed correctly, which includes tying it to the proper door trigger wires and the ebrake wire.......and it must be one specifically for a MT vehicle of course

Unless you are referring to a brand new unit that needs to be installed that way....I haven't yet heard of measures that extreme though


In the case of the thread starter it seems whoever installed the remote start used one designated for an automatic, and yes he's lucky the car is the only thing that got hurt

This post has been edited by schmooot: Dec 24, 2009 - 6:39 PM

[flyinglizard]

That really sucks, but it was a mistake to install remote start on a manual tranny car in the first place. It is highly recommended that you always leave your car in gear while parked, since e-brakes can fail quite easily when parked on a hill. But since you can't leave it in gear you basically have a lose-lose situation. Ditch the remote start before you kill somebody.

[bloodMoney]

For those that I haven't spoken with on chat, I'm not some dumb young kid, I just want to make that perfectly clear. Being a 25 year old Mechanical Engineering student, I have a decent share of experience in the world. I understand that its not a risk that some of you would take, but I know how anal I am about my cars, which leads me to take care of them despite what 'risky' equipment I may have on it.

That being said, there were circumstances that morning that led to this mistake. Accidents happen. I am EXTREMELY grateful that there was no loss or injury to life and limb, no damage to the other car involved and no real extensive damage to my Abby. The circumstances of the morning are very rare considering my living situation while I'm in school. So I'm not terribly concerned with this type of situation arising again.

schmooot and flyinglizard:

I appreciate the comments and your concerns are well noted. I understand the risk of injury associated with having a remote start on a car with a manual transmission. I have had them on ALL my cars over the last 6 years, so I'm no stranger to them.

[BloodyStupidDave...]

For those that I haven't spoken with on chat, I'm not some dumb young kid, I just want to make that perfectly clear. Being a 25 year old Mechanical Engineering student, I have a decent share of experience in the world. I understand that its not a risk that some of you would take, but I know how anal I am about my cars, which leads me to take care of them despite what 'risky' equipment I may have on it.

That being said, there were circumstances that morning that led to this mistake. Accidents happen. I am EXTREMELY grateful that there was no loss or injury to life and limb, no damage to the other car involved and no real extensive damage to my Abby. The circumstances of the morning are very rare considering my living situation while I'm in school. So I'm not terribly concerned with this type of situation arising again.

You may not be some dumb young kid but I don't think you are being particularly responsible. Hopefully you are already aware that if an accident happens once there is a good chance it will happen again.

As a mechanical engineering student you have probably already or soon will do a module on human error and failsafe systems. For instance, if you've looked at any airplane crash case studies, you'll know that nearly every fatal 'plane crash in the last 40 years was caused by a chain of 5 or 6 different events which individually were fairly unlikely - taken together, the chances of them all happeining are astronomical. Yet they did happen, the 'plane did crash and people did die.

Put it this way - the accident has happened once. If it were to happen again and someone were to get hurt next time and then the police learn about this accident, what do you think the police and courts would do? Is it even worth the risk?

I'm not necessarily suggesting you remove the mod functionality. But clearly the specific implementation you have at the moment has either been installed in such a way as to bypass the safety systems or the safety systems are not present at all (as others have suggested, maybe this kit was intended for an automatic). Find and fit a system that is intended for manual-drive cars and that has the proper failsafe systems designed in. Until then, disable your existing mod. Please. I really don't want to log on at some future date and learn that this mod has caused another accident (or even to learn that such an accident happens after you sold the car).

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Dec 25, 2009 - 8:05 AM