NOT Re: AAA

[urq]

I must say watching the cars bucking on the dyno under the direction of a 
tech making minimum wage makes me glad that all my cars are quattros ... 
when I took V8 #2 in to get smogged a few months ago I got the old style 
static test ... but they had a dyno in the next bay.  Of course I got to pay 
the same amount for the test as if I were using the dyno, but just to know 
that my car is not exposed to that risk makes it worth it!

Of course there are other situations where there is a similar risk ... I 
remember *years* ago when I was at the parts window at the local dealership 
the guys in the service area were all chuckling ... apparently some of the 
Porsche automatics (44?) have a tendency to nudge themselves into gear 
during tune ups from time to time, and some of the testing for a tune up is 
done at a high enough RPM for the car to launch itself into the work bench 
... and my little brother's nearly new FWD manual tranny Chrysler product 
got put into the toolboxes when a tech cranked it over in gear ...

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)

> This is somewhat related;  one of the reasons for specifying flat bed tows
> is that they got tired of the tow drivers dragging the driving wheels on
> front wheel drive cars.  Front wheels are supposed to roll free, right?
> Then a further related problem that occurred in California was that of the
> Smog people having to delay using dynamometers to test for NOX at "highway
> speeds".  You see, they had a rash of startup problems because the 4 wheel
> drive cars, mostly Audi, would run throught test equipment and walls.  The
> delay was so they could publish a complete list of models and the drive
> train types and do the necessary training of the smog techs.  Even now I
> have to chuckle at the image of a smog tech engaging the gears and finding
> that the car wants to run away instead of stand still on the idle rollers.