All righty... here's the thing... I have my 04 sitting on jack stands (all four corners) to keep the tires off the pavement (letting a car sit for a period of time is terrible for tires)... anyway, I have been going over to the storage unit where my car is located and starting it every few days to keep things in check (fluids moving, battery charged, etc. - espec. since it's been so cold here)... the thing is, the car is in "neutral" and the parking brake is engaged - but, occassionally - the front tires still rotate forward very slowly... I can stop them from spinning with my foot (or hand) but as I let go - the spinning continues. If I run the car through the gears (keeping my foot on the clutch) and hold the brake pedal down the tires stop spinning...

any ideas?? I am guessing something with the clutch??

 

nope that's normal. all our cars do that, don't worry about it.

 

really?? why is that Amy? if you happen to know... after thinking about it too, it wouldn't really be a clutch issue anyway... but still... that's odd to me...

but thanks for the input it's good to know it's "normal"

 

ok let's see if i can explain this so that it makes sense.....

bascially the tires are moving because there's no resistance against them. when you start the car, the engine is moving around 1k/min, and the flywheel is also moving. the clutch is very close to the flywheel on our cars (1/4" or so), so it moves just due to the movement from the flywheel because of proximity. because the clutch moves the wheels subsequently move because the ground isn't there to keep them steady.

does that make sense at all or did i do a bad job of explaining it?

 

no, that makes sense Amy... rotational inertia... I would have assumed with the car being in "neutral" though, that the drivetrain would be "disconnected" from such forces... but my knowledge of the inner workings of a manual transmission are limited...

if I am understanding this right, it could be a safe bet to state that there are minimal drivetrain losses in the car then... ?

 

theoretically it would seem so. but since we don't have an engine dyno to compare fwhp readings to, it's very hard to say for sure. it would be interesting to see the differences in the dynos...anyone want to pull their engine and try it??? [sm=lol.gif]

 

now where did I put my 12mm socket at??? hahahaha...