Today I was talking on the phone will sitting in my car in Park, without the parking brake engaged, in a perfectly level parking lot. I turned the car on for the AC. After a few minutes in idle, the ICE kicked off. A few minutes lates it turned back on again, and my car lurched forward about 8-10 inches. If someone had been walking on the sidewalk past my car I could have hit them (or at least scared them!) Has anyone else had this happen to them? BTW, it's an '06 with about 75K miles on it....
The lurching effect is common if you do not set the parking brake. I think your estimate of the distance traveled (8-10 inches) is optimistic, but I suppose that if you wanted to verify this you'd have to remain outside your car, wait for it to lurch, and see how far it moves. Another potential way to estimate this is to make the car IG-OFF, leave the parking brake off, and see how far you can rock the car forward and backwards by exerting a pushing force on the car, for example the A-pillar while the driver's door is open. I tried this tonight on my 2007, and the car rocked a total of 2-3 inches.
All parking pawls have some play, which is why people recommend using the parking brake. When the ICE kicks on it applies torque which attempts to move the car, causing the play to take up. While the car will move, the amount is less than eight inches. Tom
Got it. Maybe it just seemed like it was traveling that far because I was suprised to have my car move!
Agreed. Any unexpected movement feels a lot farther than it is. Take, for example, that last inch when the toilet seat is up. Tom
My Prius has done this before too. That's why I always engage the foot brake and the park brake before I power off.
It's not moving forward it's just jiggling the car. Sometimes it really jiggles Hard and feels like it's moving.
Happened to me dozens of times....If I am sitting in the car with it idling after about 10-20 minutes you'll lunge forward about 6 inches... I have no idea why!
No it does not move at all. Its just the engine not firing on a certain cycle and it starts really rough sometimes. Really feels like the car is moving forward but it does not. If it did it would bust the parking brake pawl.
