[quote=Impunity][quote=simonkabz][quote=sparkly][quote=simonkabz][quote=Impunity][quote=simonkabz][quote=washiku]Wololo...I jumped on to this looking forward to an answer to questions I always av in mind. But now am more confused than before. Sasa nani anasema ukweli #-o #-o Hata yangu ni 2000cc and I av been experiencing CLK's "problem". Eg I would fill the tank when going shags, uphill to Nyeri, get home when its not even half tank, do some rounds...my trip back, esp if I start it when the fuel is below half, will require I top up immediately I get back to town or somewhere around Thika road. This baffles me coz ideally it shud consume more uphill to Nyeri than on the way back. Maybe the gauge is not a very accurate way, that is my conclusion.

I av also wondered about about the neutral thing. Does it really save fuel? Experience tends to show me it doesnt...or if any, the saving is negligible.

I have a near-bad experience with neutral though. One day I was driving my older car, an NZE, along Langata Road when I was younger. I was running low on fuel and since there was jam I thought I could save on the neutral thing. Then ujinga kidogo ikaniingia. Now that if your engine is off u save more, I switched off and the jam opened(we started moving). I decided to continue with the neutral without switching on. Ujinga mingi sana...About 30 seconds after releasing the hand brake, the breaks were "dead", the car started moving faster and I was losing control completely. I immediately directed the car to the side to avoid hitting the car ahead. Nikapanda juu ya pavement...was already panicking. I engaged the hand break but it didnt stop immediately. There was a stone ahead and I "pimad" one of the wheel to hit it and that way it stopped. I had learnt my lesson on the road and I no longer want the car in motion when on neutral.[/quote]

Mimi niko na hii tabia ya free wheeling. I once free wheeled an old premio on a steep slope with corners kule Embu. Gari zimika! Hiyo steering afadhali mawe ya mjengo. Makueni flashed right infront of my eyes but I controlled the car n the EMERGENCY Brake as Americans call it saved the day.

Which begs an important question, why didn't the engine restart when I reverted to D? [/quote]

For Toyotas you can only re-start the car when the gear lever is at N or P...and not any other position.

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Wewe hujanielewa. For a manual car you can jump start with the gear. Can the same be done on an auto by engaging D while running?? [/quote]
Boss you cant jumpstart an auto by Kinetic. For a start there is no "clutch".
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Very good. Now we are together. .Kindly explain to me what exactly happens when you do that. [/quote]

Automatic drives have something called Torque converter, this is an hydraulic clutch! It has turbine vanes and guides which can only allow motion in one direction; so the design is that it can only allow motion from the engine to the gearbox and not vice versa...so there was no way you could restart the car by kinetic energy by engaging the gear to D...that was a futile attempt.

I have explained the Auto-shift in the most layman language, if you cant grasp it then please just drive and forget what happens in the bonnet.
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I think the driving school curriculum should be reviewed so that students are taught about the workings and operations of automatic cars since they comprise the majority of cars on our roads today.

Also, I have always wondered why i normally see lots of relatively new cars being towed back to the city with damage that appears like they just went off the road and ended up in "shambas". The accidents could be caused by drivers switching off the automatic cars (to free wheel and on save fuel) without knowing it will make the cars uncontrollable.

interesting and i think its true, from Nairobi to Gilgil the fuel gauge shows F, from gilgil to Nyahuru inafika 3/4.

from nyahururu to nairobi iko 1/4, this shows that from nairobi to nyahururu the vehicle consumes 1/4 but when back from nyahururu to nairobi the vehicles guzzles 1/2
Saitan!

[quote=sparkly][quote=faa]interesting and i think its true, from Nairobi to Gilgil the fuel gauge shows F, from gilgil to Nyahuru inafika 3/4.

from nyahururu to nairobi iko 1/4, this shows that from nairobi to nyahururu the vehicle consumes 1/4 but when back from nyahururu to nairobi the vehicles guzzles 1/2
Saitan![/quote]


fuel gauge is designed to make you happy

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/14/gas-gauge/ [/quote]

Ata zile digital meters mimi huona kwa screens za Mark X, ISIS etal are all estimates and not exactly what they display.