I am not alone!

[War_Wagon]

Originally Posted by doviatt

The starter in my last Metro must have been from an army tank. It worked flawlessly the entire time I owned the car. I'm not sure how long it served the previous owner. The cool part is, the last six months of this wonderful cars life was driven without a clutch after it (clutch) failed. The starter was used at every stop to not only start the engine but to move the car, in first gear to get it going.

That's why older 4Runners have a clutch safety deactivation switch. If you stall them in the middle of nowhere and need to get out of a tough situation, you can push the button, and the starter will engage with your foot off the clutch pedal, using the starter to get the thing moving. Of course, all cars in the "old days" (I'm guessing pre '80s?) had this as they didn't have the safety switch to start with, and I have used it more than once to get one of my broken POS's out of an intersection rather than push it ha ha.

[MetroMPG]

Whenever I hear stories like that, I keep thinking: "must install clutch switch over-ride switch..." and then forget until the next story.

I've only needed to do it once (pre-clutch-switch car), but it could happen again.

[basjoos]

I disabled the clutch starter lockout switch on the aerocivic over a decade ago since there are many situations where it is useful to be able to put the car in 1st or 2nd and crank the starter to move the car or to drive with a busted clutch..

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

That's why older 4Runners have a clutch safety deactivation switch. If you stall them in the middle of nowhere and need to get out of a tough situation, you can push the button, and the starter will engage with your foot off the clutch pedal, using the starter to get the thing moving. Of course, all cars in the "old days" (I'm guessing pre '80s?) had this as they didn't have the safety switch to start with, and I have used it more than once to get one of my broken POS's out of an intersection rather than push it ha ha.

Yeah--there was a clutch override switch in my old '91 Toyota pickup. Never had to use it, though.

Of course, all this is moot for me now since I bought a car that turns the engine off and starts by itself. It kind of takes some of the fun out of it.

[doviatt]

So does the Prius use the electric drive to start the ICE rather than have a starter motor?

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by doviatt

The starter in my last Metro must have been from an army tank. It worked flawlessly the entire time I owned the car. I'm not sure how long it served the previous owner. The cool part is, the last six months of this wonderful cars life was driven without a clutch after it (clutch) failed. The starter was used at every stop to not only start the engine but to move the car, in first gear to get it going.

In the usual course of a day (excluding shutting your engine off at traffic lights) how many times on average did you need to park and leave your car and then restart the engine?

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by doviatt

So does the Prius use the electric drive to start the ICE rather than have a starter motor?

From what I've read, yes. One of the motors spins the ICE up to 1000 rpm to start. It's very seamless driving around.

[doviatt]

Originally Posted by XYZ

In the usual course of a day (excluding shutting your engine off at traffic lights) how many times on average did you need to park and leave your car and then restart the engine?

It was a 60 mile round trip commute every week day for work. To be fair most of it was freeway.

I can't exclude traffic lights in this scenario because I had to stop at lights and keeping the engine running was NOT an option (how would I get it back into gear?). I will admit to rolling stops on the stop signs most of the time. 16 starts worst cast and 8-10 average with good luck with lights, traffic, etc.

I will admit this wasn't fun nor amusing. It is a real story though. I still have the starter just incase I want to put this trusted unit into my current Metro.

[Jyden]

Originally Posted by doviatt

So does the Prius use the electric drive to start the ICE rather than have a starter motor?

Yes - Prius dosen't have stater or generator, but uses the EV motor for it all.

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by doviatt

It was a 60 mile round trip commute every week day for work. To be fair most of it was freeway.

I can't exclude traffic lights in this scenario because I had to stop at lights and keeping the engine running was NOT an option (how would I get it back into gear?). I will admit to rolling stops on the stop signs most of the time. 16 starts worst cast and 8-10 average with good luck with lights, traffic, etc.

I will admit this wasn't fun nor amusing. It is a real story though. I still have the starter just incase I want to put this trusted unit into my current Metro.

So, prior to the clutch problem, typically how many times per day did you need to park and leave the car? (If I understand correctly it was only once per day?)