Ah yes. Shifters.
Have you ever driven a three on the tree? Or where is reverse on my Renault Grand Scenic, with a 6sp manual and no markings on the shifter?
Have you ever driven a three on the tree? Or where is reverse on my Renault Grand Scenic, with a 6sp manual and no markings on the shifter?
I remember being flagged down in a mall parking lot, and being asked why they couldn't shift into reverse (this shifter required being physically pushed down to move).
I had a GTI with the shifter lockout was broken (reverse all the way left and up, where 1st is..)
Whats three on the tree?
Still shifted fine. Unless you didn't get it all the way engaged and the gears would bounce instead of mesh and jam the transmission into 2nd and 3rd at the same time requiring you go get out, open the hood and give the control linkage a good yank before continuing.
Still miss that truck...
Anyways, it had a 3-speed column shifter, and the top linkage off the column would often pop out first thing in the morning. You could tell when it happened because it would just shift with no effort, but you wouldn't move. Then, you'd have to pop the hood and fiddle with it until you got the link reconnected.
I'm glad 3-speed column shifters are gone.
Saw it a fair bit on older sedans. I think the intent was to not have the shifter in the floor so you could get that big front bench seat.
When I got a ride from a friend long time ago, I was puzzled by how that operates. And, of course, there were two different W patterns manufactured at different times: one where R is top-left, and one where R is bottom-right (pictured above).
However, with modern Renault shifters you can't put it into reverse when you didn't intend to, because there's that ring that you lift before it goes to R.
She'd hit the clutch, shout the gear she wanted ("Second"), I'd change gear, she'd put the clutch in and on we'd go....
Using handbrake to assist hill start could be a problem, but not in Renault 4, where it might actually be more feasible for a passenger to operate the lever: https://pim.famnit.upr.si/blog/uploads/Interfaces/hand-brake...
However, in modern Renaults some models (Scenic) have an electric handbrake near the driver door, where the passenger possibly cannot reach it. The electric handbrake is a hill start assist as such, though. And it's one of those electric subsystems that can break, is necessary for the annual MOT check, and is very expensive to fix... (900 € for the part, plus cost of work).
I think my electric hand brake was 660€, but I've got a mechanic who's good at finding parts. But he still had to take it to the Renault dealer for programming.
And it relies on a 161€ clutch position sensor (which is different than the interlock for startup sensor)
Mechanically, Renaults seem pretty good. Electrically, I'm not so sure.
True, but in my car with a pretty slow first gear, on a steep hill you need to be pretty fast with the change from first to second.
The problem we did have was caused by a lack of clarity as to whose responsibility it was to keep an eye on the fuel gauge... :-)