Don't ask me how guys.....

Parked the car a kindy this afternoon to pick up the little fella. 3 mins later one of the assistants comes in asking "who owns the red VW".....dread I think.

The bug has rolled across the Kindy carpark, and into the Kindy wall, grazing a one day old Audi A4 Avant. Thank goodness no one was hit.

I checked the car, and the handbrake was still on. So beats me what the heck happened!!!:o

I checked out the Audi, and I reckon the paint from my car should polish out of hers - it's mainly on the door bump strips, and didn't look like and panels where bent.

My girl is a little worse off. Slight ripple on left front guard, and total one of my Wolfsburg emblem hubcaps on her front tyre.

I don't know how it rolled yet, but I'd just picked it up from having the front brakes serviced - but can't see how that would affect my handbrake operation.

Anyway....once I move house this week, I'll get some pennies to get the guard straightened, and then possibly spend more on getting the inside painted too. Stuff it....may as well get it fixed seeing that the spray guns will be out.

I hope the Audi isn't too bad - else Shannon's will be footing the bill.

Squiz.......

sh!t sorry to hear that man. No one was hurt tho, so thats the important thing
Handbrakes can be abit fiddly. Sometimes you tend not to pull them on as tight as you think you have, sometimes the notches on the catch thingy don't grab as high as you'd like either. Hope it all works out okay in the end tho.
Cam

what a downer but it doesnt sound as bad as it could have been

It's ALIVE!!!!
yes bugs do these things. it's telling you something, like don't get your brakes adjusted by those ppl again....

Hi

You were very lucky, car can always be fixed, people not as easily.

At my suggestion Leighs mum called out some dent magician guy, took a bump out of the roof of her Corrola and while he was there took a bump out of the rear guard of Leighs bug, all without paint damage.

Regarding the handbrake, you can tell if the rear brakes need adjusting if the pedal feels harder when you apply the foot brake with the handbrake on. If it does you must have the handbrake backed right off, then adjust the rear brakes, then adjust the handbrake.

1302Steve

Was it in gear?

If it rolled backwards, most handbrakes are not as effective backwards, and putting the car in the gear opposite to the direction it would want to roll is important also.

Thanks for the comments guys. It's a bit freaky actually, because I'm questioning myself as to whether I'm going nuts, because I know I pulled the handbrake up as hard as I could. I even tested it when I got home and dropped it a few notches and it still held.

Steve.....from what you're saying, I could have pulled the handbrake up as far as it could go, but it may not have put the necessary pressure on the rear brakes to actually hold them. Is this correct?

So....a trip back tomorrow for some slight readjustment. I don't want to bag who it is, because they are a well respected mechanic in VW circles, and I've had a lot of things done through them over the years. I don't want judge them harshly on one problem, albeit a potentially dangerous one.

Squiz.......

Hi

The handbrake should only come up about 3 or 4 clicks, if it comes up too high you run out of travel and as you said pressure on the rear brakes.

Something that always worries me on later bugs is that when a cable breaks the cable for the other side looses tension, if you parked your car on hill and if 1 cable snapped the car would run away, scary. I fixed this on my bug by altering the cable mounting so that if 1 cable snaps the other will still hold the car.

1302Steve

Left for work one day and left wallet at home, so turned around to get it. We lived on a hill, but had a flat parking spot at the bottom of the driveway so left the car there and ran inside to get the wallet. Next thing I see is the van driving backwards down the hill without me. It hit a brick retaining wall 2 doors down, bounced up into the air and ran across the road into light pole. All the street ran out to see what happened and would you believe the handbrake was on and the van in first gear. It was checked by a mechanic for insurance purposes and he had no explaination as to what happened. Luckily a new van was on order and arrived a week or so later, but was always getting reminded about the handbrake and gears.

Man you are lucky Squiz!

Good thing no one was hurt or more damage done. Hope the $$ aren't too painful.

:cussing:cussing:cussing

Major bummer Squiz

Can you save the emblem om the hubcap??

I seen to remember that they were a seperate badge that was attatched to the cap itself??

I have a few spare caps that we might be able to do a swap over the badge on??

Thanks for that Barry. The emblem is a bit scraped - the cap is totalled. Will get the emblem off until we catch up next. :beer

Haven't heard from Mrs Audi yet - maybe hubby got the polish out and fixed it up. A little luck would be good.

Squiz.....

poor bug glad to hear its alright, spesh with those wolfsburg caps on it.

sorry to hear...

Bad luck squizy, but it could have been worse. I think you got off lightly.

Heather was driving my old kombi to work one day when it broke down - burnt out points. I picked her up and was driving to work when I got a phonecall on my mobile from the police. :o

It seems that the kombi had rolled backwards from where she parked it, along and across a highway (frequented by milk tankers!!) and hit an embankment on the other side of the road. Fortunately it hit at such an angle that all I had to do was wash the clay off the rear bumper and clean out the tailpipe, but it could have been much, much worse!!

My biggest dread is that someone may get hurt when one of these accidents happens. Fortunately in your case and mine, nobody was. :thumb

That's some bad luck Squizy. Hope all turn's out well for you.

Mate, a couple of month's ago i was bricking up a new letterbox out the front of my place. Anyway, it got dark before i finished so i brought the car out the front and shone the headlights on my job. After a little while i suddenly noticed the light wasn't as bright, i turned around to see the car rollin away about 20m down the road. Let me tell you, chasing a backwards rolling car down the road trying to open the door on to yourself and jump in to stop it is not easy stuff