Spare Key

I'd like to announce that today was my first time to forget the car key inside the car with all the car doors locked! Thank God this happened as I parked in front of my home wherein my spare key was. Seems I was perplexed with so many things as I got out of the car, having parked in a different location than my usual (finding someone unexpectedly parking in my place) and having scratched the bottom of the cars front against the pavement. I always take great care to make sure I do not lock the car while the key is inside and to take the key with me before locking it. I guess this could be a learning lesson to make me avoid such incident happening again.

Parking Lessons

Car from Behind

Yesterday I was attempting parallel park behind a parked car. I did the drill of looking in the mirror to see if any car was coming from behind, finding the road to be clear I started backing slowly. I reversed very slowly and I guess paused a while in the middle before backing again when I was suddenly alerted by sharp honks coming from a car behind me or actually at my side!

I realized that it was not enough to check the street behind when one starts to park but that the street behind should be checked constantly during backing up while parking, specially when the parking is done slowly which gives time for new cars to emerge from behind.

Extreme Cornering

Another lesson I learnt also yesterday still related to parking was not to back until the wheels almost touch the sidewalk. While attempting to park parallel in front of my house I went backwards too close the the sidewalk that the wheels skweeked touching the sidewalk. After getting out of the car, I found my i10 extremely close to the sidewalk. The left hind wheel also had some marks on it from its forceful touching of the sidewalk.

Steering Wheel Locking

Steering Locking Up

Yesterday as I came back home with my i10 I parked it parallel in front of my house. After getting out of the car, I found that my parking was not perfect. I entered the car once again and I made the parking right. As I went out of the car once again after switching it off I found that the front wheels were tilted to the left. I wanted to straighten them up so they can be pointed in the right direction when I move the car once again. I did not start the car again but just moved the steering wheel while the car was turned off, the power steering was thus not assisting me in moving the wheels. Moving the steering wheel was thus not as easy as usual and that was OK for me. What was not OK was that after turning the steering to the right I reached a point where the steering wheel locked up and did not want to turn any more to the right although the wheels were not even straight yet!

Anti Theft

Although I found this to be strange, yet in my mind I thought maybe the hyundai i10 was designed to lock up the steering wheel when it was turned manually while the car was turned off in order to avoid car theft. (Yet upon rethinking about this again now, I find the idea to be absurd as how would locking the steering wheel help avoid theft when the thief is unable to start the car in the first place!)

Key Jamming!

Until then, I was not alarmed. It was not until today morning that I was really alarmed. As I entered the car and tried to turn the key in to start the car the key simply did not want to turn even the first turn! I tried to push harder yet not too hard as I was afraid it could break inside. The key still did not want to move an inch. The train of thoughts which rushed in my mind was that there was something really wrong with the steering system of my i10. I realized, unhappily, that I had to bring it to the agent to check this issue. Now the car will be parked for a couple of days without moving I started to think.

I tried to turn the key a bit harder, yet still afraid to press too hard and break the key inside. The key finally turned in and a big relief downed upon me. The steering wheel locking disappeared instantly as the power steering engaged. I then shed the worrying out of my mind and drove peacefully.

Faulty Steering?

It was not until later in the day as I check the Internet for "hyundai i10" "steering locking" that I started to worry once again. I found reviews and comments mentioning that the i10 had problems with its power steering system which sometimes caused locking while the car was in motion! This post about hyundai i10 steering locking is what really caused me to get worried again. I still puzzled a bit and not sure if that was the same case as mine as in my case the locking took place while the car was at a stand still and turned off. I'll try to follow up on this carefully to see where it goes. Perhaps I should mention this issue to the agency as they service my car after the first 1000 miles (or first month of driving it).

Update: After describing the problem on an Arabic cars forum I learned that nothing was wrong with my i10. The steering locking was normal since I tried to move the steering too much while the car was turned off. As for the key not turning in with ease, the reason was that I must have moved the steering slightly after inserting the key and before turning the key. This is the method used for turning the key whenever the steering has locked. Man, I just love those forums and i LOVE the Internet.

Persistent Flashers

Signaling Left

Yesterday I had a funny thing happen to me. After arriving at my destination with my i10, I parked and attempted to get out of it. I then discovered that the the left turn signal was still flashing on. I realized that I had signaled left but have not actually turned left so I move the turn signals handle down. Surprisingly, the flashers kept flashing! I then tried to turn the turn signal to the right and then back again but they persisted on flashing. I was in kind of a hurry, so I decided to turn the car off and deal with the issue after I came back. But guess what, even after turning the car completely off and even taking the key out, the flashing lights still kept going on and on.

Solution?

I went out of the car and looked at the left side of the car, the flashing lights were flashing from the front and from the back. For a moment I thought of just leaving the car and trying to deal with the situation when I came back. The thought of something being wrong with my new car's lighting system was strongly haunting my mind by then. Suddenly, a half-crazy thought occurred to me. Why not just start the car again, move forward and turn left then go round and come back to my parking place once again. The reasoning behind my rather weired thought was that this could help the 'stuck' turn signals return to their normal condition. I decided to do exactly this. I started the car and turned left. But guess what? The flashing lights just kept flashing on!

Hazard Flashers

It was not until I moved a bit forward after turning left that I realized it was the hazard flashers that were actually flickering. I had turned them on as I started to park and forgot all about them after I did the 'successful' park. Well, thank God I realized at the end what was going on. I was relieved to finally realize there was nothing wrong with the car. It was me again who was ignorant. Well, not bad for a beginner. At least now I know where to press when the 'turn signals' (emergency flashers) are on!

Bumping and Stopping

Bumping

Today, Friday, I went out with the car around noon. I parked fine. Yet on my way back, there were too many cars getting out at once and I kept bumping the right mirror at the cars parked on my right side! I kept hearing the bumps, it was not until later that I realized the right mirror was half folded inward which brought me a lot of relief knowing that the bump sounds were those of the side mirror, and not the side of my car, touching the cars parked on my right.

Starting Uphill

As I completed this short row of bumps I wanted to turn right at the next street which was a bit of hill climb. I slowed down as there were cars in front of me till I stopped the car completely. I had a very tough time trying to start the car and make it move once more and ascend and turn right. There was a pool of cars behind me honking, and the street was closed from the other side by cars coming in the opposite direction. The pool of cars behind me kept increasing and the cars kept honking, I was practically closing the street up. I kept trying and trying to start the care and move upwards yet I failed each time. Finally the honks from the cars behind were too much they did not realized I had a problem moving the car forward on that hill-like road. I finally got out of the car and pushed it, at least they will realize like that that the I was unable to move the car forward by driving. Three pedestrians instantly joined me and pushed the car safely out of the way. I then started the car once again taking the advice of a fourth pedestrian on how to move it. I was at last able to make the car move forward safely. I guess I need to practice more how to do a hill climb.

The minor mirror bumps and the stopping motionless upon the hill-like road were two great learning lessons today.

Parallel Parking

Early in the morning, around 7 am right after sunrise, I took the i10 for a ride. It took me around 40 minutes to cover the 5 km going around the house. Before returning back attempted to try myself in parallel parking so I selected an empty slot and tried to park behind a parking car. I succeeded to amaze myself as I parked so closely in one trial only! Thank God. This gave me a lot of confidence. Perhaps I'll be doing more parallel parking in the future. I guess the small size of the i10, it's particular dimensions and shape make parking in small areas way easy.

Driving with the Hand Brake ON!

Tonight I drove a couple of kilometers (maybe 3 km or so) with my hand brake on! It's funny the passenger next to me said there was a strong burning smell but I insisted it was from other cars around us. Our windows were open. The signals in the car show that the hand brake was on while we moved but I was absorbed by to many other things around me which made me not notice the warning signal in the dashboard! Altough I felt so bad about that as I finally discovered I was driving with the hand brake on since I did not want to wear out my new car, yet I looked at it as a strong learning lesson. I guess I'd, probably, always remember to put the hand brake down before moving on.

All the way I was wondering why the car was not moving as fast as it should when I was at second and even third gear. Thank God the drive with the hand brake on was not too long.