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Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:20 pm

I realize I am opening myself up for criticism by telling this story but I feel I should share it in case there is someone else out there with the same setup. The story starts with my doorbell ringing this afternoon. My wife and I answered the door and my next door neighbor said your VW van has ended up in my front yard and it ran into my car in the process. :shock: I immediately apologised and went to view the damage. The bus had gone ever so slightly uphill :? over the curb and into her yard and my drivers side rear bumper had grazed the passenger side bumper and rear quarter panel of her Honda Fit. It stopped short of hitting a fence and was parked in her front yard. My first thought was to start it and back it back into it's parking spot. I immediately noticed that the E-brake wasn't on. :oops: Clearly, that is my fault. I then found that it would not start when I turned the key. Lights such as gen and oil came on but not turning the starter. :? I have a Bugpack hard start relay, so my first thought was to check that. It is mounted under the bus near the starter. I knew this was a bad place and had put it there before I ever read the Ratwell site which says I believe to mount it in the engine compartment. My intention was to move it as soon as the weather was nice enough to allow me to crawl under the bus, but I digress. When my eyes adjusted to the dark under the bus I realised that the relay was melted. The acrid smell of burned electronics confirmed this. Here is what I surmise happened. The last time I drove the bus I got stuck in the snow trying to back into my parking place. (Damn Nexen's.. I know Scott you warned me..) In the process of spinning my wheels in reverse and forward I must have thrown slush and goo on the relay. It was cold then and probably just froze to the outside of the relay. It got to almost 50F today and the snow and muck melted into the relay shorting the coil to ground and closing the contacts thus engaging the starter and driving the bus in first gear up over the curb and into the yard until the relay burned up and it stopped. Flame away if you must, but I hope someone else out there who has the relay mounted outside of the engine compartment reads this and moves theirs thus avoiding a dangerous situation.(or removes it and cleans/tightens the tranny ground strap...whatever your position is regarding said relay...)

Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:32 pm

Damn, talk about a one in a million chance. How bad is the damage?

Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:39 pm

That's a nutty story, but your deduction makes sense. Imagine if it pulled up to their living room window unmanned? :shock:
I have the ford style relay mounted underside. It's been working since before I brought it home 15yrs ago. Lots of folks don't like them, but they make sense in redirection of current, and sometimes.___ scaring the crap out of your neighbor :P .

Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:45 pm

Bet a Honda isn't smart enough to go attack an enemy all by itself.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:00 pm

calebmelvin wrote: Damn, talk about a one in a million chance. How bad is the damage? Mostly paint transfer. If there is any body damage to the Honda it is in the area of a thousandths of an inch crease. My driver front door skin is slightly creased where it brushed past her taillight. My newly painted bumper will need touched up. timo78 wrote: scaring the crap out of your neighbor :P . She wasn't as much scared as confused as to why I would drive the bus up into her yard and park it there!
Desertbusman wrote: Bet a Honda isn't smart enough to go attack an enemy all by itself. LMAO,I thought that myself! Did the bus have it in for that fancy young smartass Honda? But seriously folks, I was nearly certain until I tried the locked door that some punk had tried to swipe it and it all went wrong. My wife thought that too because it just made no sense that it would go uphill!

Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:19 pm

Ahh the hot start relay failure gig. Crank until it hurts.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:41 pm

I think your missing the point here: pulling some notches on that sucker would have saved you the embarrasment and left you alone to deal with your bus. dont just hang trash bags on it... wise up! :twisted:

Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:51 pm

Desertbusman wrote: Bet a Honda isn't smart enough to go attack an enemy all by itself.

Take the O.P.'s story and reverse it. My girlfriend parked her five speed Civic in the garage and left the freaking parking break off and out of gear...I was parked downhill from her. Same thing, neighbors came over and were like "Is everyone ok? We just saw that Honda hit that Bus." Honda damage..minimal to none, most of it popped out within an hour. Best price I got from a body guy for my bus was $1,200, there was considerable dent-age. Still with her....

Glad your Bus fared better than mine and that is certainly something to make note of, thank you for sharing.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:16 pm

El_Güero wrote: I think your missing the point here: pulling some notches on that sucker would have saved you the embarrasment and left you alone to deal with your bus. dont just hang trash bags on it... wise up! :twisted: Que? :?

Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:43 pm

notches as in pull the e-brake. Starter would not have overcome that but it would have cooked the starter.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:49 pm

What's the whole thing have to do with hanging trash bags on it?

Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:11 pm

Desertbusman wrote: What's the whole thing have to do with hanging trash bags on it?

Sometimes people use the ebrake handle to hang their trash bags.

Let me translate:

El_Güero wrote: I think your missing the point here: pulling some notches (pull the ebrake out a couple notches) on that sucker would have saved you the embarrasment and left you alone to deal with your bus. dont just hang trash bags on it (its not just for looks!)... wise up! :twisted:

:lol:

Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:17 pm

OK, understand now :oops:

But I don't set the E-brake to keep it from accidently rolling uphill. There is just that thing about gravity.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:44 pm

Desertbusman wrote:
But I don't set the E-brake to keep it from accidently rolling uphill. There is just that thing about gravity.

Clearly, you should worry about it going uphill!

:D

What a funny story, was the neighbor upset?

My roommate forgot to set the brake in his escort the other day. Didn't know about it until some guy knocked on the door to say that the car was sitting in the middle of the road! :)

Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:04 pm

Water+electricity=Baaaad. #-o :bay_red:

Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:25 pm

vwwestyman wrote:

What a funny story, was the neighbor upset?

No, she took it pretty well.

Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:46 pm

reminds me of a rittle by the guys on car talk (npr radio)

how do you get a vw bus up a steep, iced road ???

disconnect the coil & engage the starter untill you get to the top

Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:13 am

My current Bus had a hard-start relay on it when I bought it. I left it on thinking it couldn't hurt.

One day I was driving home though a crazy rainstorm - lots of big puddles on my way home. Fun drive, but the next day when I went to start my Bus it didn't do anything. Turns out some of the high water got to my relay which was tucked underneath the Bus right by the starter.

So I yanked out that relay and not only did my Bus start right away, but it seems to start better without the relay...

The lesson - keep it stock stupid!

Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:18 am

i went through 2 golf fp relays (1 inside engine comp) before i switched to the ford slave solenoid.

Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:03 am

When I lived in Heeney, Colorado, a neighbor woke me at midnight to tell me to move my van.. I already had issues with this neighbor, and was a bit drunk, so I told her to piss off, I was sure I had parked my van in my parking spot before I had started sipping Anchor Steams.. I woke an hour later to an angry Sheriff telling me that a tow truck was on its way, but I could make it easier and just give him the keys and he would move it.. I was drunk.. I had to see what was going on so I dressed in my winter gear and walked out to find that the ice under my van in my parking spot had melted just enough from the engine heat to leave a little slick between the tires and the icy driveway.. My van must have gotten a budge from the wind to start moving, but it spun about 200 yards down a hill where all my neighbors parked their cars. From the tire tracks in the snow/ ice, you could see the dance it did down the hill, missing every car on its way down.. Good thing, I had no insurance, and my neighbors cars were all worth more than I made in a year..