How to destroy a Smart engine

[Ralph]

This year I finally decided to buy a Smart and to tow it on an A frame. Now if you are one of the people who want to lecture on the legalities of car towing then please stop reading now and go off to another thread :-S

So anyway, one thing that has been thoroughly impressed upon me is that you never never ever tow the car without making sure it's in neutral. I religiously made sure that the stick was in the upright (N) position and to prove it I removed the key. You can't take the key out without the stick being upright so it's guaranteed to be in neutral right? Err, no wrong :'(

So only 5 miles down the road there was a squeal of tyres as the back wheels locked and we came to a rapid halt. To cut a long story mercifully short the engine was completely destroyed. But how? I'd made sure it was in neutral and the key was in my pocket so what went wrong?

It seems it's like this. I have a habit, gained over many years, of switching off the engine without taking it out of gear. My wife always complains about this but it doesn't usally cause a problem.

BUT when you switch off a Smart in gear and then return the stick to the neutral position there's no power to actually take the thing out of gear. So it stays in gear...

The moral of this story is that you must ALWAYS take the Smart out of gear (check for the N on the display) before switching off the ignition.

I'm posting this in the hope that I can save someone else from making the same costly mistake that I made. And if you already knew about this then why didn't someone tell me :-D

 

PS, all the above refers to my Smart 451 model and may be different in other models.

 

[onecal]

Sorry Ralph to hear of your mishap,I would say a lot of people don't know that, and very easy to forget even if you did know. Look it can happen to anyone, as long as no one was hurt.Are you sure it's not just the gearbox is gone?. Thanks for the heads up on that.

Regards,

Brendan

[tugga]

Ralph, we have a smart car on an 11 plate and the one before was on an 08 plate and with both of them you cannot take the key out if it is in Auto, BUT you can if it is in Reverse. Our Smart dealer advised us to always leave it in Reverse as it is an extra safety issue.

 

This is something that everyone should know about, especially if their dealer has not told them about the reverse positioning and the ability to take out the key on newer models.

 

Sorry that you have had this problem, but at least you are ok.

 

[Ralph]

My first thought was that I had somehow managed to put it in reverse. Locking into reverse is a security feature on Smarts as they don't have a steering lock.

But although you can't take the key out when in gear (Auto or 1) you can remove the key once the stick is returned to the right. However, as I now know, this has to be done before you switch off the ignition or the car doesn't actually return to neutral.

At least we are OK. It happened in a very bad place and I jumped out on the offside (continental MH) without remembering my high vis jacket. I could have been killed so just a nasty hole in the wallet is mild by comparison :-)