it's recommended to keep arms and legs INSIDE the car

ive 1 of most every hand held tool in the booth of my banger...


only when i take em out it breaks down

Don't forget a pack of Trebor Softmints, no car is complete without one.

Quote from 5haz :

Don't forget a pack of Trebor Softmints, no car is complete without one.

So true

Set of spare fuses

Cheap, expensive, doesn't matter. Get a long set of jumpers. Many times I've helped or needed help with a battery only to find that the cars can not get near enough due to other cars parked around it. There's always the ability to push the car out of a parking spot, but it's just easier to use longer jumpers.

Quote from Jakg :

Today at School someone's battery was dead - they needed jump leads, and no-one had any so they had to go down the local garage and pay some silly price for them - made me think I should probably get something like that...

why didn't they just bump start it?

Here is a emergency car kit list: clicky

The car park is waaaay to small to manouvre cars around in using pushing power.

Get one of those emergency packs from Halfords and have fun.

My old man keeps some jump leads, water/oil, first aid kit and basic tools in his boot. There's no need to carry anything else really.

Of course I would have this in my boot if I had a car.....

It sure sucks to have a licence and no car!

So if I resume this thread, I should fit my garage inside my car so I'm sure I wont be effed up if something happens. Nice!

Quote from speedway :

dead battery?

car in 2nd gear - check
at least one guy around who is willing to help - check
give the car a little push - check
dump the clutch....

...there ya go, problem solved without even lifting the bonnet


edit: the above can be applied for real cars, not those with fancy automatics :P

Quote from anttt69 :

why didn't they just bump start it?

Because it could get unburnt fuel into the catalytic converter (if the car has one, obviously) which is bad... That's pretty much all the info I get from my cars manual. It's just one of them "don'ts where you don't need to know why" for cars with catalytic converters.

I guess it could ignite due to the high temperatures later and kind of blow the cat to pieces or maybe a film of whatever doesn't evaporize from the fuel sticks to the filters. Anyway, if your car's manual says don't do it, just don't do it.

When im not drifting.. lol

I have some water a towel hi octane engine oil spare parts but I probably should keep some jumper leads I dont even have a Spare in the back lol

Quote from morpha :

Because it could get unburnt fuel into the catalytic converter (if the car has one, obviously) which is bad... That's pretty much all the info I get from my cars manual. It's just one of them "don'ts where you don't need to know why" for cars with catalytic converters.

I guess it could ignite due to the high temperatures later and kind of blow the cat to pieces or maybe a film of whatever doesn't evaporize from the fuel sticks to the filters. Anyway, if your car's manual says don't do it, just don't do it.

Wait, you mean people don't WANT flames?

My car flames when the exhaust gets hot and i back off the acceleration slightly.

I always carry spare fuses (should really carry a relay as well), a torch, a roll of tape, a foot pump and a few spanners and screwdrivers. It's very important to check you're jack works and you've got everything needed to change wheels, I had a flat tyre in the Focus once returning from Snett, when I found there was no wheel brace in the car having just about managed to make it home stopping at every services to fill up with air and not being able to find a single place selling a wheel brace I found my Dad had firstly used the horrible spare wheel brace to change a wheel in the garage and then left it on the floor, could have killed him!

Other than that I've just got a fire extinguisher, which every car should roll out the factory with as far as I'm concerned. It really is worth having one to hand but worrying how few people have one to hand, I remember a car next to ours catching fire in the paddock at Mallory and quickly finding out that there weren't any obvious fire points in the paddock, then realised we didn't have a fire extinguisher in the truck because the last one had been used (even more reason to get another!) and with the plumbed in extinguishers in race cars now nobody can actually fight a fire on anything but there own car, by the time somebody had found a weak and feeble water pistol the fire had grown beyond it and we had to wait for the circuit fire car. In this rather sorry scene a bunch of racers had failed to extinguish a small slow burning easy to put out fire that would have undoubtedly burnt the car out had it been anywhere other than a race track, a single small hand held extinguisher would have had it out in seconds so long as it had come quicker. Always have it to hand, if you can't reach it from your seat then there's not a lot of point in having one, and for gods sake don't put it in your spare wheel well.

Quote from morpha :

Because it could get unburnt fuel into the catalytic converter (if the car has one, obviously) which is bad... That's pretty much all the info I get from my cars manual. It's just one of them "don'ts where you don't need to know why" for cars with catalytic converters.

I guess it could ignite due to the high temperatures later and kind of blow the cat to pieces or maybe a film of whatever doesn't evaporize from the fuel sticks to the filters. Anyway, if your car's manual says don't do it, just don't do it.

I've totally ignored that gem that newer cars come with (though I've still got the very original sticker on my windscreen instructing me of this). Cars with a cat bump start fine, I have no idea quite why they're going to be damaged and anybody who phones a breakdown service rather than bump starting because they can't be bothered to push the car out of a car park or are frightened it'll blow up is a moron. Bump starting is fine and so long as there are a few people around I'd always choose to bump start rather than jump just to save time and to save lugging jump leads about (if you can find someone to jump off you can find someone to give you a push).

Quote from ajp71 :

I've totally ignored that gem that newer cars come with (though I've still got the very original sticker on my windscreen instructing me of this). Cars with a cat bump start fine, I have no idea quite why they're going to be damaged and anybody who phones a breakdown service rather than bump starting because they can't be bothered to push the car out of a car park or are frightened it'll blow up is a moron. Bump starting is fine and so long as there are a few people around I'd always choose to bump start rather than jump just to save time and to save lugging jump leads about (if you can find someone to jump off you can find someone to give you a push).

My car's manual clearly states that bump starting is NOT fine. I don't know the internal workings of a catalytic converter but I'm not going to ignore what the manufacturer says about the product, especially not based on the personal opinion of someone I don't even know. If that makes me a moron in your eyes, so be it.

And, if I may ask, how do you know your cat is still fine and doing what it's supposed to do?

It's all extra weight and utterly unecessary and simply results in an even slower car, burning more fuel, costing you more money, making more money for Saudi Arabia, and allegedly destroying the planet (but more likely just depleting a finite resource).

However, when I had an Alfa I carried jump leads, 2 litres of water, some hydraulic fluid and a spare key fob.

It was still the best car I ever had.

Quote from morpha :

My car's manual clearly states that bump starting is NOT fine. I don't know the internal workings of a catalytic converter but I'm not going to ignore what the manufacturer says about the product, especially not based on the personal opinion of someone I don't even know. If that makes me a moron in your eyes, so be it.

And, if I may ask, how do you know your cat is still fine and doing what it's supposed to do?

its all to do with them covering there backsides, there problem is with unburnt fuel and tbh if you dont take forever to bump it it will be fine. at the vauxhall garage i work at they are forverer bumping cat equiped cars

I keep Condoms, Chloroform, Rhypnol, rope, and a shovel in my car.

Quote from james12s :

its all to do with them covering there backsides, there problem is with unburnt fuel and tbh if you dont take forever to bump it it will be fine. at the vauxhall garage i work at they are forverer bumping cat equiped cars

I know what the problem is and that getting unburnt fuel into the cat takes quite some effort. I also know that it can't blow since there's (almost) no oxygen, no compression and only a tiny amount of fuel.

The risk of actually causing damage to the cat is negligible, so is the time it takes to use jump leads. Decide for yourself but don't blame the manufacturer if things go wrong

Personally I'd probably jumpstart some old banger too, despite a cat. Not the (feel free to laugh) Astra G with just 56k miles on the clock that always served me well and never ever broke down. I'm not going to provoke a breakdown by doing something the manual tells me not to do.

ROFL @ Klutch

yh if you have the option jump starting is the better option but what i was saying is that if the need were to arise you can do it without too much trouble.

and theres not much to laugh about with astra g's, there decent cars, only thing to watch depending on the engine is the ecu

Quote from Klutch :

I keep Condoms, Chloroform, Rhypnol, rope, and a shovel in my car.

Quote from morpha :

I'm not going to provoke a breakdown by doing something the manual tells me not to do.

If you don't have jump leads and refuse to bump start then you are broken down?

Quote from ajp71 :

If you don't have jump leads and refuse to bump start then you are broken down?

True, hope you got my point despite my clumsy wording.