I was driving down 16th Ave today, and I saw the nastiest tow on a TL ever. I feel sad for it..

The car didn't appear to have any damage. But the tow guy had the car jacked up on a dolly by the rear wheels. The angle was quite steep, the front lip was very close to the pavement. The font lip was already damaged by scraping the pavement. And when it went over uneven roads it scraped even harder

I hope the owner put the car in neutral before the tow. Otherwise, bye-bye transmission...

That reminds me...never try to be cheap on parking A few more $ there saves a lot of trouble, especially if the tow guy is an idiot...

 

Yikes! Hope my car never gets its chin scraped like that

 

I have a story for you. My cousin's 99 max was three weeks old when we were at a shopping center and it wouldn't start. Turned out the key somehow wasn't sending the signal to the car so the kill kicked in and it would shut off after starting. He had it towed by AAA and at that time, we didn't know that towing your car without a flatbed was better than just jacking up the front wheels. So anyway, the tow truck driver was soooo careful because he knew it was a new car. He was cool about that. Usually, they dont give a damn. So anyway, after watching out for potholes and dips in the road, we finally reach the dealership. All was good until some guy smacked into the rear corner of the bumper and ran. We didn't even see him but we knew it just happened becuase we just washed his car. The tow truck company had to repair it because AAA said it was still on their truck. So this just says, that **** happens either way.

 

I always thought a flat bed was the way to go when it came to getting a car towed...

 

Hell yeah man, dont let em do it any other way.

 

I once had my 626 towed with front wheels in the air. Before it was towed, I remembered that I had not put it in neutral, so I went up to the guy and he said that was ok, and then proceeded to apply my parking brake. The towing distance was approx. 20 miles.

Did this F my car up? I felt no immediate side effects. But in the years since this tow job, my brakes wear really fast and every inspection I need to have them replaced, and one time the parking brake cable snapped. Could this have resulted from the tow? What other problems may have occured?

Thanks.

 

Ideally, yes...unfortunately, depending on what kind of tow coverage you have, you might not have a choice; i.e., if you're with AAA they won't authorize a flatbed unless you have vehicle damage that warrants it, e.g., non-drive wheels (or more than two wheels) are damaged; another example would be if your car can't be jumpstarted and thus needs to be towed to a service facility--I doubt that AAA will send out a flatbed just for that. Or, if your tow coverage only covers free tows with a regular tow truck, meaning if you want a flatbed you have to pay extra. Of course since there are probably way more regular tow trucks than flatbeds, if you insist on a flatbad and one isn't available at the moment, you might have to wait if the flatbeds are all in use. OTOH--if a flatbed is all that is available at the moment...

Tony

 

When my friends CL-S got in an accident he got it towed by a flatbed since it was dropped. I'm pretty sure he called Acura's care and they sent out a flatbed. Depending on the car if flatbed is better or not.

 

some companies, like BMW I think, require their cars to be towed by flatbed. if you don't and anay damage results you're SOL.

 

Flatbed towing?? Hell Ya!!

But we're in different issue here. What if your car was being impound for illegal parking? Do you think they even care about that???

 

Flatbed/ramp truck is the preferred method of towing because it keeps the car off the road. If a conventional tow is unavoidable, unless there is heavy damage to the rear wheel/axles it is always preferred to tow a FWD car from the front, so that the rear axle is on the ground. Towing a FWD car with the front wheels on the ground, even in neutral, can do some damage.

And I hope everyone knows you should never use a spare "donut" tire on the front axle either. If you get a flat on the front, you should move a full-sized tire from the rear to the front and put the donut on the rear axle, even if it means having to jack up the car twice.

 

really? Wow, that's news to me....thanks for the head's up.

 

There are several reasons:

1) And this is the big one: often times to save space the donut spare is not only smaller in width, but also smaller in diameter (which means smaller in circumference). I have not measured the TL-S spare donut personally, but in some of my previous cars the circumference has been different. If you put the donut on the front wheel, this means that in order to go the same speed (when you're travelling in a straight line), the donut needs to turn (more revolutions than the normal tire to produce the same distanced travelled. This means that the differential is constantly turning both half-shafts at two different rates. This phenomenon happens all the time normally whenever you turn because the inside tire always travels less than the outside tire. However, the difference is much less than the scenario above and it isn't always happening. With the donut on the front axle, you risk premature wear and damage to the differential, usually from overheating.

Understand, this problem is most pronounced over long distances. If you just need to get home and are driving a couple of miles, it probably won't matter. But I've seen people leave a donut on their car for an extended period of time while they are having a tire repaired or the like--that's not good.

2) Even if the donut has the same diameter and circumference, you are compromising safety with the donut in the front. All of your driving power, steering, and most of your weight is in the front and as such you need the best, most stable traction you can get. Tires have an absurdly small contact patch with the road as it is--having a donut makes it that much smaller. Not good for handling. It *does* make more downforce (smaller contact patch distributing the same amount of weight) so some may argue that it improves traction, but the tread on those tires is designed for longevity, not performance. And any tire place worth a damn will tell you that having two different tread designs on the same axle is very dangerous. Add a different size tire, contact patch size (and probably air pressure too) and it is a recipe for disaster.

All the tires on the rear axle do is roll. No driving and no turning. And no differential. This is the ideal place for a donut.