My Senic rolled into a lampost!!!

[gtech]

Yesterday started out as a good day as it was my daughters 4th Birthday, everything was going well until i went to my mother-in-law's and parked the senic (which is y reg and paid £1800 3 weeks ago for it).

I had parked it on a steep hill, handbrake was def on, came out 10 mins later and it had rolled 20 meters down the road and hit a lampost on otherside of road, 10meters in front was a porshe and a main road at the bottom of the road with cliffs very near by so it could of been a hell of alot worse, no one was hurt, no other veichles involved, only 3rd party as well, so got it recovered today and the garage will give me a cash price to get it fixed rather than go through insurance and them to write it off. Damage is quite bad but more cosmetic - new bonnet,bumper,headlight,rad.

Not sure if kids had got in it (cus it was unlocked), or if the handbrake failed, i was able to click the handbrake up a few clicks but you always can. Still my wife was very understandable (which was strange) although she was getting me to admit it was my fault but i wasnt even there!!!!!!

So there you go, thought i'd share my eventful afternoon with you guys as i'm sitting here at work with it going over my mind, needed to share with someone.

[sleepyhead]

Did you remember to leave it in gear (if it's a manual) and turn the steering wheel so if it does decide to roll, it rolls against the kerb?

Hopefully the damage is minor and you can get it repaired Going without a car these days is quite troublesome when you live out away from a major city.

[gtech]

thanks,

two of the most helpful bits of advice io got yesterday was leaving it in gear and wheels towards the curb, def didnt do them two things and if i did things might of been okay, but an expensive lesson has been learnt.. never even thought about it as i was stopping for 5 mins... but that's all it takes.

Thank god it didnt hit the porshe (or killed anyone)

[GoNz0]

my new van decided to go off on its own a few days after i had it, handbrake was on. all i could assume was the shoes got hot so they stuck on well on the slope, 20 mins later it had cooled down and decided to roll back into the middle of the road, 1st i knew about it was the bin men honking there horn for me to move it

[Andeh13]

One rumour iv heard is that you've rive it hard (race spec senic!?) the brakes warm up and expand slightly. When you stop and put the handbrake on, they cool down and shrink slightly, allowing the hand brake to slip.


iv read a few stories of this happening where that's^ what people recon has happened, but im not expert!


Dont let it eat you up though, i drove into the back of someone at 30mph because i was too busy looking behind me a few months ago. Wrote off my car a few days before my 21st birthday (also a write off). That could have been much worse, if id hit a big expensive car (like the one i was looking at behind me - Merc S-class), or had they not been wearing a seat belt & got wiplash etc. S*** happens, all we can do is live & learn from it!

[Guy]

Bit late I know, but yes if ever you think the car may roll forwards or backwards just leave it in gear, and as sleepyhead said point the wheels towards the curb.

Auto's are nicer, you can usually get away with just using the handbrake but for extra peace of mind leave it in P, and it aint going anywhere.

Glad to hear that nobody was hurt.

[MadduckUK]

thread title far more interesting than reality

[Gordy]

I still remember working in an office over the summer whilst on holiday from uni. I'd driven in and it was about 11ish. One of my mates came in asking why I'd parked across two spaces? I looked at him and was very confused, I'd parked ok that morning, I've never park across two bays. He was insistent that I had.

So I went out to the car park to find my car in a completely different place. It had rolled down the very slight gradient of the car park into a different space (Well two). The scary thing was that the car park was normally completely full the chance of finding a single space let alone two was very small.

The handbrake was on, but not fully up so it had clearly not held the car after a while.

Lesson learned that, I now leave it in gear.

[kalniel]

Yup it'll be the warm brakes thing. The opposite applies in winter if you strongly apply the brake when it's cold you can struggle to remove the handbrake if they warm up later!

[Gerrard]

thread title far more interesting than reality

So I wasn't the only one who thought that as well!

When I was at school, we used to park on a hill. I came out one day to go home only to find my car was supporting itself and the car behind; which had its handbrake fail. Luckily no damage was done (only rolled a few centimetres).

[gtech]

Cheers lads, reading about other unfortunate events have cheered me up a bit, didnt know about the warm brakes thing, once it's repaired if the missus lets me drive it again i'm going to be so aware about parking on hills that i'm going leave it in gear, wheels pointed towards curb with chocks!

I feel lucky though cus i keep thinking about the things that could of happened, i'll just pay the price and have learned an important lesson.

[badass]

Admitted it was your fault yet to yourself?

[gtech]

Admitted it was your fault yet to yourself?

lol, my missus is on some crusade to get me to admit it's my fault.