Accelerator when turning on engine?

Random

Does anyone put their foot down on the accelerator when turning on the engine to "give it a bit more juice" when starting up?

Alanstrainor

Nope!
Does it not start otherwise?
I start the car, with my foot on the clutch and car in neutral.

Random

Why would you put your foot on the clutch if your car is in neutral? What effect does that have?

I was just told that I should put rev the engine a bit while turning the key in the ignition so that the engine gets the power it needs quicker.

Alanstrainor

Random wrote: »

Why would you put your foot on the clutch if your car is in neutral? What effect does that have?

Good practice more than anything. It doesn't have an effect. Seeing that i'll leave the car in gear when parked, it's just to be absolutely certain in the off chance i forget to take the car out of gear before starting. The amount of times i've been a passenger in a friends car (all have full licenses btw), and they'll start with the car in gear and the car jumps forward, they wont depress the clutch before starting. It was actually my Dad that told me to do it, he's big into his good practices!

challengemaster

Random wrote: »

Why would you put your foot on the clutch if your car is in neutral? What effect does that have?

I was just told that I should put rev the engine a bit while turning the key in the ignition so that the engine gets the power it needs quicker.

Whats the rush? Will those 2 seconds quicker (if even) it takes make any kind of difference? I seriously don't think so. So why even bother?

Random

Re clutch - thanks for clearing that up, was just confused by the comment a bit.

As for accelerator .. why bother? I don't. I was told I should be some people to stop me killing my battery or something on an old car. I was a little confused by this as other people have said reving a cold engine does more harm than good.

J_R

Hi,

Long ago you revved the engine, otherwise it could easily conk out again. Other reason was to get some charge back into the battery.

They had a "choke" which you also had to know how to operate.

There was an art in starting a car back then.

Modern cars, the car engine management system does everything, gives what gas is needed. It is completely unnecessary and actually inadvisable.

If the engine gets too much gas, may not burn it all. Unburnt fuel will harm the catalytic converter .

NO gas, neutral and depress clutch. ( Depressing the clutch disconnects a few more sprockets and things and puts less weight on the starter motor)

SeanW

Unless you're drivng a really old car or the battery is knackered, there's no value in hitting the accelerator before you're ready to move.

Random

SeanW wrote: »

Unless you're drivng a really old car or the battery is knackered, there's no value in hitting the accelerator before you're ready to move.

So if my battery was reaching it's "end of days" it would be beneficial to rev engine while starting ?

dr.bollocko

Random wrote: »

So if my battery was reaching it's "end of days" it would be beneficial to rev engine while starting ?

More beneficial again to change the battery.

maninblack

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I start the car, with my foot on the clutch and car in neutral.

I always do this, and got a bollocking off my instructor back when I was learning to drive.

After I passed the test, I do it all the time! It's just habit I guess and also quicker to get moving

Alanstrainor

maninblack wrote: »

I always do this, and got a bollocking off my instructor back when I was learning to drive.

After I passed the test, I do it all the time! It's just habit I guess and also quicker to get moving

There's nothing wrong with doing it, so i think it's a tad unusual that you were told of for doing it. Did your instructor give a reason?

dr.bollocko

Alanstrainor wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with doing it, so i think it's a tad unusual that you were told of for doing it. Did your instructor give a reason?

Maybe at that stage he was stopping and starting a lot or shuddering to an unfortunate hault after forgetting the clutch when braking in low gears? Could repeated use of the ole accelerator not temporarily flood the engine?

Alanstrainor

Hang on, i'm not to sure if i was clear, when i said, "when i start the car", i meant when starting the engine on the car, not moving off.
Sorry about that,

RedzDrivingScho

Hi Random....

Unless your car is over 20 years old I wouldn't do it.....J R is right in the fact that modern cars have engine management systems that regulate the choke automatically......and apart from any harm to the catalytic converter you can easily flood the engine…..and find yourself not going anywhere….
If you’re finding the battery is going flat then you should replace the battery……or if its taking ages to fire the engine then a service may be on the cards……also all the greens will be telling you cold engines burn more fuel than warm ones…..no need to rev the engine at start to get a quick charge into the battery…..if battery and alternator are good then definitely no need……
Alanstrainor is right in clutching when you start to prevent false neutrals…..or even just forgetting it’s in gear…

maninblack

Alanstrainor wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with doing it, so i think it's a tad unusual that you were told of for doing it. Did your instructor give a reason?

He told me it was bad driving practice. Said I should touch NOTHING until the engine's started. This wasn't just for the initial few lessons etc., we're talking right up til the day of my test he was still on my case for putting the clutch to the floor then turning the key

macroman

With my car it's clutch in, start and small tap of accelerator - don't overly rev, just bring up to 1500 RPM for a split second. No one ever pulled me up on it yet :rolleyes:

Red Alert

Unless it's an ancient car i'd leave it alone... on the Focus I drive the engine management will actually rev the engine a bit if it's very cold - it'll idle at just over 1000 RPM for a few minutes and then go back down.

macroman

Red Alert wrote: »

Unless it's an ancient car i'd leave it alone... on the Focus I drive the engine management will actually rev the engine a bit if it's very cold - it'll idle at just over 1000 RPM for a few minutes and then go back down.

That's what happens when you see the needle 'dancing' on initial start up. Some people think it's a fault, but usually it's just the car preventing itself from stalling :rolleyes:

sonicthebadger*

maninblack wrote: »

He told me it was bad driving practice. Said I should touch NOTHING until the engine's started. This wasn't just for the initial few lessons etc., we're talking right up til the day of my test he was still on my case for putting the clutch to the floor then turning the key

No one else has mentioned it yet but pushing in the clutch when starting the engine takes some weight off the starter motor. Thus, even aside from the good practice of avoiding accidentally starting the car in gear, it is mechanically easier on the car to start with the clutch in.

As for opening the throttle while firing up, it should never be needed. If you find you do need to do it (on a car of any age) then there is a problem. Service the car and consider getting new spark plugs.

On old cars (the ones with chokes) it's known as hard starting and will cause damage to the engine over time.

On new cars (no choke) the fuel air mixture is controlled by a microchip which usually also detects throttle opening, manually opening the throttle (with your foot) confuses the system and can damage the chip (I have heard of one Renault which needed a replacement chip because of the damage done by pushing the throttle when starting).