Acceleration pedal sitting lower than brake

[Triumph Man]

CrutyRammers said:

Car-Matt said:

I doub't you can heel and toe in an X3 anyway.......most modern ECU's in run of the mill non sports cars dont like throttle and brake together and just cut the throttle input.

The last road car i could heel & toe and left foot brake was a y-plate Fiesta Z-S

I don't know if "most" is true. I know that some do. My alfa doesn't though, for example.

You can heel and toe in my E39 530i (that's fly by wire) or left foot brake. My old Passat of similar vintage would through a right hissy fit though, to the point of cutting power for 3 or so seconds after you had lifted off the brake!

[Triumph Man]

klaxhu said:

thanks all for responses. I've counter two on the actual subject and the rest seem to go into a separate topic of what is the best way to drive in traffic. A point well made was to talk to BMW and tell them about the issue, maybe they can adjust the break pedal

will come back with feedback once I tried a few avenues.

I know BMWs of this era can be a little temperamental, but I didn't think they had a pedal installed to make them spontaneously break.

[ciege]

You need a great big dirty fk off one like in my Rover 75, which also sits higher, perhaps they're supposed to?



Also wouldn't this be an insurance mod, d1cking around with the important bits??

[gtidreamer]

I'd be extremely cautious of doing any kind of DIY modification. In the unfortunate event of any accident / bump you might be a little more responsible unless able to show that you modification wasn't a factor. One of the most frightening things that happened to me was about 15 years ago when a footwell carpet slipped out of place and jammed the throttle down a wee bit on an old pug TD and for about 3 seconds until I realised what had happened it was pretty scary. I'm now fastidious about keeping footwells clear and tidy!

[Car-Matt]

Nanook said:

Car-Matt said:

Unless you’re using throttle too then it’s much more natural to use your right foot and if you have an unexpected situation and reflex takes over its best to be using the foot you’d naturally use without thought.

Each to their own but imo LFB just for the sake of it is fairly pointless

Ah, it's pointless because you're not too good at it.

No its pointless because there is no need unless using the technique to move the weight off the car around, and i'm pretty good at that. Unless you are doing that there is NO benefit to lfb as I said. Feel free to argue further and explain the benefits

[captain_cynic]

Its an X3... Not a M car. These have to be designed designed for the worst drivers. The kind of people who get confused and slam their feet down, you want them to hit the brake not the accelerator. Having the brake pedal considerably higher than the accelerator is a feature designed to prevent people from accidentally hitting the accelerator.

And yes, that kind of problem is more common than you might think, doubly so for SUVs.

[gizlaroc]

Car-Matt said:

No its pointless because there is no need unless using the technique to move the weight off the car around, and i'm pretty good at that. Unless you are doing that there is NO benefit to lfb as I said. Feel free to argue further and explain the benefits

The benefit in this case is it is far more comfortable to have your left foot on the brake when there is such a difference between pedal height. Because the brake is further away (being central) than the gas pedal is from your right leg it means that difference in height is not a hinderance but a benefit.

I started to left foot brake on an Audi that was the same, stopped me getting cramp in traffic.

It is not anything deeper than that, it is not trying to make someone a driving god, it is simply he fact it is more comfortable.

[gizlaroc]

captain_cynic said:

Its an X3... Not a M car. These have to be designed designed for the worst drivers. The kind of people who get confused and slam their feet down, you want them to hit the brake not the accelerator. Having the brake pedal considerably higher than the accelerator is a feature designed to prevent people from accidentally hitting the accelerator.

And yes, that kind of problem is more common than you might think, doubly so for SUVs.

It was originally brought in by Audi after they were sued in the 80's by someone who said they tried to brake hard and hit the gas by mistake.
So once again we have to work to the lowest common denominator, the thickest of the thick.

[captain_cynic]

gizlaroc said:

It was originally brought in by Audi after they were sued in the 80's by someone who said they tried to brake hard and hit the gas by mistake.
So once again we have to work to the lowest common denominator, the thickest of the thick.

To be fair, it's on a Mass Market/retirement spec small SUV, not exactly the kind of car favoured by the motoring enthusiast. My M240i has the pedals around the same height so you can still heel/toe should one decide to track it (IIRC the brake is slightly higher than the go pedal).

[Flibble]

captain_cynic said:

To be fair, it's on a Mass Market/retirement spec small SUV, not exactly the kind of car favoured by the motoring enthusiast. My M240i has the pedals around the same height so you can still heel/toe should one decide to track it (IIRC the brake is slightly higher than the go pedal).

Ideally the brake should be a little higher than the throttle at rest so that they roughly level up when you're braking.

[Car-Matt]

Nanook said:

Car-Matt said:

No its pointless because there is no need unless using the technique to move the weight off the car around, and i'm pretty good at that. Unless you are doing that there is NO benefit to lfb as I said. Feel free to argue further and explain the benefits

The other obvious benefit, other than 'moving the weight off the car around' is just generally stopping the car.

If you need me to explain the benefits of stopping a car, well, I'm not going to.

You faked hilarity with your "lololololol" nonsense, but really, you can't explain why braking with your left foot is 'pointless', as you say, other than your 'reflex' (wrong word) being to use your right foot.

It appears you can’t read

The lolololol was In Reference to not needing to lfb to balance the weight distribution in an X3, not the need/desire to lfb for other reasons ( of which there are none unless you have medical issues) but do keep arguing , it’s funny.

[Krikkit]

Flibble said:

I have heard this myth many times, and yet no road car I've driven has cut the power under braking. A lot are awkward to h&t due to pedal layout, but never due to lock out.

I'm sure other manufacturers do it, but I've experienced it in VAG cars - one was a rented Skoda Fabia, totally upset the smoothness of driving.

[457892345]

klaxhu said:

thanks all for responses. I've counter two on the actual subject and the rest seem to go into a separate topic of what is the best way to drive in traffic. A point well made was to talk to BMW and tell them about the issue, maybe they can adjust the break pedal

will come back with feedback once I tried a few avenues.

Im almost certain you'd find the difference in height much more bareable were you to remove the rubber brake cover and instead fit the metal ones as i suggested previously, im sure bmw will tell you it's fine and if you were to sit in their other autos youd find the same issue.

Having read the thread the most logical answer as to why their not the same height i think it has to do with being the same height as you come off the brakes, so by design.

With regards to insurance you can call them and get it added as a minor cosmetic mod for a trivial amount or nothing at all.

As a bonus the grip of the pedals is significantly improved and it looks a lot better. It was one of the first mods i did to my bm and has been one of the best.