new SunRail hits car

[Green Maned Lion]

Dude, your automotive knowledge is quite limited. Automotive reliability peaked in approximately 1994 and then fell upon implementation of OBDII. OBDII is a US government mandated system intended to ensure emissions compliance in vehicles. It measures way too much, however, and is designed to shut down the engine whenever it detects a potential catastrophic fault

However, and herein lies the run: it has been proven ineffective in shutting down the system during real faults in a manner that actually protects the system. However it does shut down the system when these myriad sensors fail. For instance, the crank/cam sensors detect a potential interference (valves hit the piston) and can shut down the engine. Generally, though, by the time it senses the fault (generally caused by a snapped timing belt) it's too late to prevent it. But if those sensors fail, it doesn't know if there is or is not an interference, and so it shuts the engine, and beyond that, prevents it from restarting.

Honda, Ford, Mercedes, Volvo, Jaguar, and Subaru all use interference engines (they are more efficient and cleaner) and all have that problem. So a company has a choice- it can use the superior sealing and combustion of an interference engine worldwide but risk having occasional failures in the US due to excessive regulation, or gyp their worldwide customer base of that efficiency and cleaness in order to prevent occasional US cars from stalling. Which do you pick?

An interference engine, by the way, is one where the fully open valve would "interfere" or occupy the same space, as the piston when the piston is fully in compression (ie at the top of its travel). No interference engines sink the valve further up in the cylinder head, which prevents this, but the design creates a non uniform combustion chamber, compromising combustion thoroughness and reducing inherent compression.

 

[afigg]

FDOT has released video from the cameras on the train of the collision. You can see that the driver got out of the car just in time. The driver says that she was learning to drive a stick shift and stalled on the tracks. Not the best place to learn to drive a stick.

KIRO-TV report: Video shows train slamming into car as woman narrowly escapes

Orlando Sentinel has a longer story with more details, but an edited version of the video with an ad before the video.

 

[MattW]

I don't see why anyone should stall ON a railroad track unless the road is sloped down to the track, which is very rare. If a vehicle stalls on the track, it probably means the person was sitting on the tracks, stopped, already which is illegal.

 

[pennyk]

The video played on the local Orlando news tonight. The Florida DOT representative stated that he hoped that motorists watching the video will be suitably warned about stopping on the tracks.

It was further reported that the driver was ticketed.

 

[NE933]

So there is some positive fallout from this, highlighted by a cab video that aired on TV news. The big thing are several unheard of aerial helicopter patrols showing video of raw, careless, confrontational behavior of drivers stopping on tracks to check for text messages (even with plenty of room to go across). Also, the garden mill stepping on the gas as the gates came down to save a few moments. This incident might have started an explosion of interest, with young teens going on camera indicting these aggressive drivers as the causation of collisions with trains. Police and sheriffs will be making surprise pop up visits, long overdue. News anchor says that the fine for placing your car on train tracks is $116, obviously too low to deter anyone. But it seems a form of positive attention on an unpopular social topic, has finally caught on.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Dude, your automotive knowledge is quite limited. Automotive reliability peaked in approximately 1994 and then fell upon implementation of OBDII. OBDII is a US government mandated system intended to ensure emissions compliance in vehicles. It measures way too much, however, and is designed to shut down the engine whenever it detects a potential catastrophic fault However, and herein lies the run: it has been proven ineffective in shutting down the system during real faults in a manner that actually protects the system. However it does shut down the system when these myriad sensors fail. For instance, the crank/cam sensors detect a potential interference (valves hit the piston) and can shut down the engine. Generally, though, by the time it senses the fault (generally caused by a snapped timing belt) it's too late to prevent it. But if those sensors fail, it doesn't know if there is or is not an interference, and so it shuts the engine, and beyond that, prevents it from restarting. Honda, Ford, Mercedes, Volvo, Jaguar, and Subaru all use interference engines (they are more efficient and cleaner) and all have that problem. So a company has a choice- it can use the superior sealing and combustion of an interference engine worldwide but risk having occasional failures in the US due to excessive regulation, or gyp their worldwide customer base of that efficiency and cleaness in order to prevent occasional US cars from stalling. Which do you pick? An interference engine, by the way, is one where the fully open valve would "interfere" or occupy the same space, as the piston when the piston is fully in compression (ie at the top of its travel). No interference engines sink the valve further up in the cylinder head, which prevents this, but the design creates a non uniform combustion chamber, compromising combustion thoroughness and reducing inherent compression.

The simple fact remains that stalling in the middle of a grade crossing while driving a modern properly maintained vehicle is a statistically insignificant event. If ODBII shuts your engine down then chances are it's because you're not maintaining your vehicle properly. If you have an oil leak that is never noticed or resolved because you're a clueless "gas-n-go" driver then your engine is either going to be shut down or seize up. Those are the options. There's no emergency reservoir of extra oil available to bail you out. Even if there was it would eventually run out too and you'd be right back where you started. As for the driver in this thread it would appear they had no idea how to properly operate their vehicle, let alone how to maintain it, and probably shouldn't have been on the road to begin with. There is nothing wrong with driving a manual transmission so long as you actually have a clue what you're doing.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Almost all OBDII shut downs are the result of a unpredictable failure of electronic sensors. How do you "maintain" a small electronic sensor that costs $3-400 to simply access, let alone replace?

Unless you are suggesting that nobody drive a car more than 3-5 years old, of course. In which case you'd be an anti-environment nut with a attitude towards the working poor similar to that of Robert Moses.

I had this problem once, and I have a 2005 with barely 125k miles on it, dealer maintained on the dot to every specification in the handbook.

I keep thinking of going and buying a 1985 300D from a facility in California that rebuilds them. None of this electronic nonsense.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The local Fixed Noise Station showed this video last night and the Rhodes Scholar "reporter" commented: "Wow! You mean people have to learn how to drive after they buy a car?"

Brilliant!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Almost all OBDII shut downs are the result of a unpredictable failure of electronic sensors.

Perhaps you mean a failed sensor prevents you from noticing the greater issue which eventually shuts the engine down. Just because an oxygen sensor fails doesn't mean your otherwise properly maintained engine is going to suddenly stall while crossing a railroad track. If such a failure does occur then that is a sign of a design flaw above and beyond the adoption of ODBII. It's true that there are some criteria where your engine might stall or refuse to start. Although even in this case the failure is likely to be very early in your trip so unless the grade crossing is right outside your front door it's still extremely unlikely to be involved in any way.

Unless you are suggesting that nobody drive a car more than 3-5 years old, of course. In which case you'd be an anti-environment nut with a attitude towards the working poor similar to that of Robert Moses.

I never said nobody should drive a car older than three to five years. I said cars should be properly maintained for their age. The longer you own and operate your vehicles the more you have to monitor and maintain it. It's a simple rule of life that I never would have guessed was controversial before you came back to spread your own special brand of fringe.

I had this problem once, and I have a 2005 with barely 125k miles on it, dealer maintained on the dot to every specification in the handbook. I keep thinking of going and buying a 1985 300D from a facility in California that rebuilds them. None of this electronic nonsense.

It's not your single datapoint I have an issue with, at least in the proper context, it's the underlying manifesto I find annoying. Just because you don't agree with ODBII doesn't mean it's causing people to stall over grade crossings.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I don't recall mentioning O2 sensors. There are several hundred sensors that make up OBDII. Some of them "fail safe" and prevent the car from proceeding when they do. Stop arguing with me.

 

[jis]

For what it is worth OBDII is known to cause unpredictable shutdowns. However if someone does not want to acknowledge that based on their lack of knowledge it really does not make much difference to reality. So sigh.... and carry on

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