wrote in message
...
On Monday, 9 April 2018 16:14:43 UTC+1, NY wrote:

I have sympathy for your son. One of the first times I went out driving
with
my dad (on L plates) the throttle cable on my mum's car jammed fully open
as
I was going up a steep hill. First noticed when the car shot forwards as
I
changed up into third and then fourth. I did the right thing: brake in
gear
and very gently turn off ignition in case it enabled steering lock (*); I
resisted the temptation to press the clutch which would have removed any
mechanical load and engine would probably have overspeeded and damaged
itself (eg excessive load on conn rods or crankshaft)..

Good luck in fixing the problem.

(*) Apparently this doesn't happen until you remove the key, but I wasn't
to
know.

just be aware that's not the case for a lot of cars.

Are there some cars where the steering locks as soon as the key is turned
fully off, even though it remains in the lock? I thought this was only an
old wives' tale. Evidently not.

I remember I turned the key cautiously until it first reached the point
where the engine stopped running under power - probably when the LT circuit
to the distributor was broken, but I thought afterwards that I was being
over-cautious. Perhaps I was wise to be so cautious.

On another occasion the gear lever came off in my hand and I uttered the
immortal words "Is it supposed to do that?". It was a Renault 6 with a
hockey-stick gear lever (like on a Citroen 2CV) which ran along the top of
the engine and enmeshed with a conventional gear lever sticking out of the
gearbox which was between the engine and the radiator. The gear lever rod
was welded to a plate with a large hole in, with the rod on the gearbox
going through it, cushioned by a rubber grommet. The grommet had fallen out,
allowing the plate to disengage from the rod as I went into reverse while
doing a three-point turn, so when I discovered it, the car was completely
blocking a road. Talk about embarrassing...