"Secret" car features.

[Riley Blue]

Here's an oldie: 1950's Riley RM had reach-adjustable steering wheel.

[civicduty]

One of the interior light's in the boot of newer Skoda Superb Estates detaches from its housing to become a handy torch!

[Risotto]

On the 996.1, there's a series of button presses that allow the climate control screen to display some engine parameters and such like - oil temp, etc.

Edited by Risotto on Friday 10th May 11:25

[northwest monkey]

Accelebrate said:

ModernAndy said:

Had to laugh at the Audi secrets. I worked for Audi a few years ago and there are so many extras that 95% of drivers have no clue about. Here's a new one to the thread; you can open and close the roof on some cabriolet models just by using the key in the door lock. I forget the exact procedure but its something along the lines of turn the key one way for a couple seconds then the other way and hold.

Surely you can do it remotely from the key fob? You certainly can on the 3 series convertible and similar.

Edited by Accelebrate on Friday 10th May 11:06

Not the E46 you couldn't rather annoyingly. You could only either open it or close it off the fob (cant remember which now) but not both. I think you could do it using the key in the door though but again, my memory is letting me down!

[yellowbentines]

wildcat45 said:

Does anyone know of any hidden features on the 2013 Freelander?

There is a winter wiper park option in one of the sub-sub-sub-menus. The wiper return/park position is a couple of inches higher than normal, meaning they sit on your windscreen which if you have the cold climate pack with heated windscreen means they don't stick if it's frosty.

Also, the front DRLs act as the front sidelights, however when you switch from lights off to sidelights they actually dim slightly?!

[Baryonyx]

Krikkit said:

Standard stuff really - lots of cars do it, it makes sure you don't overload the engine at a low idle.

My old MR2 Turbo did it too. I wouldn't have called it a secret feature though, just good design. Plenty of cars have it, and similarly, plenty of cars will adjust their idle revs just after start up if you have lots of ancillaries going at once to reduce load on the battery and alternator.


I like the Saxo air vent thing there! Having owned a VTR and been out in a VTS a few times I've never known you could do this. I don't think the lad with the VTS knew either! Interesting.

[tankplanker]

Think its the advanced climate pack on the larger BMWs have a timer option in the menu system for the climate system. Although you can set it to warm as well as cool it won't warm unless you have an optional heater that if I remember correctly is special order in the UK.

The E61 has a secret diag menu that lets you adjust the calculated MPG efficiency of the MPG gauge (plus a lot of other stuff). With a bit of patience you can tweak the calculated MPG to match the actual MPG.

[Shaw Tarse]

yellowbentines said:

There is a winter wiper park option in one of the sub-sub-sub-menus. The wiper return/park position is a couple of inches higher than normal, meaning they sit on your windscreen which if you have the cold climate pack with heated windscreen means they don't stick if it's frosty.

That's worth knowing for when I finally buy one!
(though I'd like option of a "park heater")

[Accelebrate]

northwest monkey said:

Not the E46 you couldn't rather annoyingly. You could only either open it or close it off the fob (cant remember which now) but not both. I think you could do it using the key in the door though but again, my memory is letting me down!

On the E93 you can certainly open it from the fob, not sure about closing.

[duffy78]

molineux1980 said:

On our mk 5 Golf GTI,
Another one is if you turn off the ignition, and tap down on the wiper stalk, it parks the wipers in a vertical position.

Not really a secret. It's the only way to change the wiper blades and its in the manual

A lot of the stuff in this thread could come under the heading "Things I didn't realise my car could do because I haven't read the manual" lol

Edited by duffy78 on Friday 10th May 12:19

[NotNormal]

Lotus Carlton/Omega has a secret "Launch Mode" programmed into the ECU.

If the car is doing less than 2mph and the revs are raised to more than 2700 rpm, the ECU drops into a separate map which increases the boost for a 10 second period. After which it reverts to the standard boost mapping and you'll most probably be over 100mph by then.

[okie592]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Aha! I have xenons & auto lights. Do the lights need to be switched to "tunnel" setting for this to work?

They have to be in auto. Also it could of been turned of in vag com but anyone with the lead can put it on. This is only the mk5 r32 it won't work on the mk4

[excel monkey]

g3org3y said:

varsas said:

there's a 'hidden' menu on my E36's on board computer, you can get real fuel level data, raw sensor readings, calibrate the fuel computer...stuff like that.

You can also switch the TC into a third mode (i.e. not just on or off), where instead of cutting engine power and then applying the brakes it only applies the brakes to the spinning wheel without also cutting the power. Very handy in the snow. Not a million miles away from how a modern electronic diff works.

None of these are documented in the owners manual.

How do you do access this?

Don't know about the E36, but this is how to access the menus on the E90. http://e90.wetpaint.com/page/BC+hidden+menus

My 2nd gen Honda CRV has a folding picnic table under the boot carpet, which is pretty useful. I think the 1st gen had an optional cold water shower in the boot - for hosing off muddy bikes or whatever.

[CarCluster]

A handle INSIDE the boot to close it without getting dirty fingers!

[mrmr96]

Lots of cars also have a petrol cap holder built into the reverse of the filler flap.

Eg

[MGL1986]

In my Ignis Sport the dash clock has a 'Mode' button, and you can scroll through a few readings, one of them being average speed (in km/h) the others I have no idea about... might have to read the manual!

[Prizam]

coyft said:

Mr Gearchange said:

In the recent warmish weather I have discovered that the solar panels in the sunroof of my A8 run the air con when the car is parked up so i never return to a hot vehicle.

That's cool.

[collateral]

alangla said:

Mastodon2 said:

There is also another test where you press something as you turn the car on and it makes the speed and tacho needles flick over and hit the stops at 5 o clock on the dial like you see when you turn some motorbikes on. I can't remember what that test is for or how to access it either.

On the Mk2 Focus, if you hold in the trip reset button while starting the engine it puts the dash into test mode, IIRC, you get the gauge sweep described above, LED test which turns all the dash lights on, (rest of these all appear on the odometer) digital tacho, speed mph to 0.1mph accuracy, speed kmh to 0.1km/h, external temp, batt voltage, water temp, fuel flow then a series of hexadecimal values from various sensors, then I think it's the firmware level for the ECU then back to the start. There might be more.

I can confirm this on the Puma too, so maybe all Fords do it?

The trip gets set back to 0 but the live RPM thing is pretty cool. I seem to remember one of the options tells you what fuel the engine uses

eta 205s have a bit of metal under the passenger seat so the driver can put it forwards for people to get in the back

Edited by collateral on Friday 10th May 13:57

[Si_man306]

Almost certainly noted before but the BMW E46 throttle reset (ignition on for 10secs, off for 10 secs, on for 10 secs then start- or similar) was the best one i've found. Was the only way to get the car to respond in the same week to throttle inputs.

[sleep envy]

duffy78 said:

A lot of the stuff in this thread could come under the heading "Things I didn't realise my car could do because I haven't read the manual" lol

Read the manual?

What are you? The ghey?

Edited by sleep envy on Friday 10th May 14:12