[nvn]

Saw this on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mohitjaswani91/s...OU1ZICkhg&s=19

Can this be possible? Seems surprising so many cars broke down back to back.

Checking on team bhp for authenticity of this. Also, if this is true -can this also happen to automatic transmissions ?

Thanks in advance to 'under the hood' section members for helping on this 'under the hood' problem.

[GTO]

Looks very unusual. Something more than meets the eye here.

Unlike yesteryear Padminis, Ambassadors & Mahindra Jeeps, today's modern cars don't overheat on mountain roads or after hours of idling. I have spent many hours idling in multiple cars in extreme summer heat for our test-drive photography, and in the rare traffic jam.

Unless there was something extraordinary at play here. Best guess = bad drivers ruining their clutch in stop-and-go mountain road traffic. But that's a long list of cars!

[Shreyans_Jain]

Looking at the video, I see a huge variety of cars. They can be petrols, diesels, manuals, automatics, there was even a truck thrown in for good measure. Really hard to understand what’s going on here, the mix of vehicles seems to be truly random.

[Y@SH]

I think it's just a bunch of inexperienced drivers who forgot to top off the coolant before a long trip , saw the engine temperature rise on the dashboard and think opening the hood has a 'cooling' effect on the engine and prevents overheating!

[fiat_tarun]

I have been stuck at this same section a few years back where it took 2 hours to cross the ghat and many vehicles were stopping like this. It is purely clutch burn as people overrev and slip the clutch too much inching up the slope. I could smell burnt clutch when I put the window down as well.

I suspect the same here as well as it highly unlikely that engines will overheat in such conditions.

[hrman]

I drove from Belgaum to Mumbai yesterday. Passed the Pune expressway at around 3.30 to 6.

1. There was a huge traffic jam at the last toll towards Mumbai. Took almost 45 mins to clear plus the regular ghat jam which wasted more time..

2. Was checking out traffic on the opp side towards Pune. Huge Jam just before a tunnel. Cops had stopped traffic, God only know why. That jam would have easily taken 1 hour to clear.

3. There were tow vehicles dragging some damaged vehicles, looked like accident damages, not breakdown.

4. I didn't see this line of breakdown cars anywhere.

Looks like a fake or could be at some location or time which missed my eyes.

That said, the condition of traffic at the Pune expressway is pathetic. Diversions, traffic jams, breakdowns, rash driving you name it. This is my worst ever experience with the expressway. They should remove the word express and make it toll free. Sad and pathetic state.

[raycers_honda]

This is a usual thing that happens on these long weekends. One of the main reasons why I selected a manual transmission car. I witnessed this a year ago during the long weekend. The never-ending traffic jam and extremely slow-moving traffic cause this. Mainly, I saw Mercedes, BMW, Jetta owners stuck with their hoods open or just on the side of the road with hazards on.

It happened to my friend too in his Jetta. On questioning him further with regards to his driving style, I concluded that the reason is none of them shift into neutral when they stop; they just keep their foot on the brake. I guess this type of driving in such slow-moving traffic causes the gearbox to overheat. All this while moving upwards on the ghat section, not to mention the heat outside the vehicle adding to the above

[fhdowntheline]

All this is because of our dying need to get out of our regular environs on long weekend. This Saturday it took me 2.5 hours to travel from Lonavala to Kothrud-Pune, out of which 1 hour was on the Pune-BLR bypass, 30 min on the toll booth.

Most of the cars were not MH12/14, which leads me to believe they were all heading south to Mahabaleshwar/Goa etc. And later through the day, there came the news that Khambatki ghat was completely jam-packed in the southbound direction because of the holiday rush.

https://www.mypunepulse.com/huge-tra...ine-breakdown/

Somewhere, we ourselves are to blame. There is only so much that public infrastructure can handle, the rest is up to our wants, our inefficiencies and inadequacies.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Y@SH

I think it's just a bunch of inexperienced drivers who forgot to top off the coolant before a long trip , saw the engine temperature rise on the dashboard and think opening the hood has a 'cooling' effect on the engine and prevents overheating!

all cars have closed coolant system. You should not have to top them up. If the level drops it means you have a leak somewhere.

Opening the hood after an engine overheats is a known and trusted way of reducing the heat build up in your engine compartment. It ensures better natural ventilation around the engine whilst standing still.

As others have mentioned I find it hard to believe these are cars of which the engines were overheating. It is something extremely rare on any modern well maintained cars. Older cars might be a bit more susceptible to it. But even then it takes quite extreme conditions.

Having clutch problems appears a more realistic option, especially if this is a very long hill with endless start and stop traffic. But as others have mentioned, it seems an awful lot of cars that suffered from the same problem.

Opening the hood on a car with an overheating clutch has a much smaller effect than on an overheated engine of course.

Jeroen

[HappyWheels]

Saw the video on Insta and it seems more of burning the clutch by people who predominantly drive on city roads and not used to moving a vehicle from standstill, on a slope (which is also not taught nor tested in our driving centers).

[Turbohead]

Clutch burning smell is usually very strong and can penetrate the cabin very quickly even if it's occurring in another car. This is my personal experience. I would like to hear others too

I'm assuming 2-3 vehicles would've burnt their clutch causing other vehicles to notice this smell and stop by the roadside. Since the smell is persistent, I can imagine people in the next set of vehicles to notice this smell and stop on the roadside as others have also done this. All this is based on the assumption that holiday season usually sees a huge number of inexperienced car owners go on a road trip and do things because other people do it. Herd mentality seems to be a safer option for many folks when they do something new if they're not into researching about it in the first place however a big genius they are in their respective domains.

[GForceEnjoyer]

The incredible variety of cars in the mix is truly confusing.

The most plausible explanation would be that many drivers would've held their cars at rest on the incline by slipping the clutch, not by using the handbrake. The smell can get really strong, and if some drivers managed to get their clutches to start smoking, it's easy to see why this would happen. If true, then these cars must be manuals, AMTs or DCTs in order for this situation to have even occurred.

[SmartCat]

This can happen only if -

- Car has manual transmission
- Drivers are noobs
- There is a "creeping traffic jam" on a ghat road (incline) for a long time

By creeping traffic jam, I mean the vehicles are moving constantly - but only 5 or 10 metres at a time. This forces noobs to ride the clutch for hours & give excess accelerator inputs because of fear of rolling back. This constant creeping movement, interspersed with breaks for a minute or two, does not allow the clutch to cool down enough.

This problem will not be there in cars with automatic transmission. That's because ATs have creep function that greatly reduces chances of car rolling back on inclines. And so on similar conditions as above, drivers will give just enough inputs with the accelerator pedal to get moving.

[shancz]

Nothing unusual, if you notice the road has an uphill gradient. I am guessing that there must have been a jam which had cleared by the time the video was taken.

These folks, abused the clutches or they might not have been in the best of shape, either or both of those factors would have lead to a burning smell/smoke and there is a high chance that they thought it was the engine.

I had to rescue some relatives whose Spark suffered the same fate in a jam on an uphill section of the highway. And when I called a crane service to pick up the car he informed that the crane is already at the same location to pick-up an i10 with the same issue . There was one other car with a similar issue IIRC.

These cars would've barely been able to crawl to the side possibly indicated by the haphazard pattern of parking.

Honestly the number isn't surprising, depends a lot on the volume of traffic.

[revsperminute]

It's the same story every time. Holiday drivers who have little experience of driving on gradients cooking their clutches. You'll be amazed to see this lot descending the ghats too. Many brake pads are sacrificed let's say.

Speaking from experience, my DSG Octavia once got pretty jerky inching up the Lonavala ghat in peak summer (middle of May, 4 people and luggage on board) one time, however, it was only temporary and that too near the end of the traffic jam (500m before Lonavala exit). Oil temps were fine (112-116 C) and the coolant temperature was also okay.

One of my friends was stuck on the ghat though in his Sonet IMT. The car showed a high transmission temperature warning.

I've made countless drives on this road during the peak of the summer holiday season. Cars with manual transmissions, low grunt and novice drivers do struggle on this patch.