Car Tries To Escape

[Richie 32]

Parked my car up at work as normal today and went about my work. Anyway, after 30 minutes of so someone ran in and said my car had "moved" into the wall.

 

My response was like, "errr what?", so i ran down to the car park and my car had slid down from the position in the picture, to the tip of the arrow in the picture.

 

 

It'd basically skidded down into the wall, and very nearly made its way out of the car park and down the road. Thankfully nobody was injured. I work near a school and kids often walk by that gateway. Apparently it went with a bit of a "bang".

 

Damage = n/s headlight broken, n/s indicator broken, bumper has sort of snapped, wing has a slight crease in it.

 

The car park was covered in snow, but since has been cleared and gritted. Handbrake was on and it did appear to be perfectly secure before i got out the car

 

Bad times!

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Wow, thats amazing! So did something brake/snap? Or did it genuinly slide down the car park? haha

[Richie 32]

No snappages or anything, car was secured perfectly. Figure the weight of the engine parked that way was a contributing factor, obviously slid a little then gained momentum Its just added to the list of stuff that needs doing which is making it almost uneconomical to sort it.

[Anthony 1,003]

D'oh

 

On the bright side, atleast the damage is comparitively minor, and there's not a big insurance claim resulting from it as there could have been had it rolled into another car, out into the road, or into a pedestrian that happened to be walking past at the time.

 

Was the handbrake on when you found the car at the bottom of the slope? Rear disk brakes are notoriously rubbish when it comes to the handbrake, and you wouldn't be the first person to have their car roll away when the rear brakes cool down and stop holding the car. When parking on any kind of slope I tend to leave the car in gear as well, paranoid of suffering what has just happened to you.

 

New bumper, headlight and indicator, and straighten the wing back out, and it'll be fine again for comparitively little money

[steve@cornwall 100]

I moved mine on Saturday, parked back on the hill outside and luckily noticed it slightly creeping as I walked away - rear wheels locked solid on the handbrake, but sliding on the icy road. Moved it back to exactly where it was parked before (not frozen) and all was fine but very nearly messy!

[Richie 32]

Was the handbrake on when you found the car at the bottom of the slope? Rear disk brakes are notoriously rubbish when it comes to the handbrake, and you wouldn't be the first person to have their car roll away when the rear brakes cool down and stop holding the car.

 

Yeah the handbrake was secured when i got in to retrieve it.

 

When i initially parked it i was wheelspinning a little and knew it was slippy. I did the "jump up and down in the seat test" when i parked it and it seemed safe enough. As you say, could have been worse, i think i was lucky.

[Edp 67 3 Cars]

Herbie reincarnated as a 205?

[buchanan84 1]

something i've seen before on snow covered ski resort carparks, even (especially) big 4x4's

 

theory i was told which makes sense, after driving there is some temperature in the tyres and after parking this seems to make the spot of snow your parked on melt, then freeze which allows the vehicle to start moving - then its away

[omega 82]

it does happen

i parked a 26 ton truck on a hill in the ice as i couldnt get up .got out of the cab and started to walk away when i heard a noise looked round and saw the truck chasing me. jumped back in and went for the handbrake to find it already on!!

managed to steer into the kerb but it was scarey.