Not to be suicidal or morbid but I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that today's car burn so clean that it is impossible to successfully complete suicide. Suicide by car has become obsolete? I did find information saying today's car burn 99% clean, but nonetheless they would consume all the air in a average sized garage. But, also would the car suffocate itself and die before a suicidal person would? Just curious, again I am fine.

CO2 will displace O2 which will kill you. More dangerous than CO2 is CO. CO will bind to your hemoglobin and can kill you if your blood gets saturated in it, even if you are brought out into fresh air.

Just use a lawnmower.

I thought death by car was carbon monoxide not carbon dioxide.

Funny lawnmower. Would that not take forever?

I am thinking an average sized engine, say 2.0 liters, running at 900 rpms, would gobble up a garage filled with air in no time. There would be some toxicity, probably make you sick, but I am also thinking the engine would die quickly with no air to burn.

quote Originally posted by RotrexFiero: Funny lawnmower. Would that not take forever?

Plan ahead, start it in closed garage a couple hours ahead of time, go in house get drunk, and go out to garage for nap.

I actually witnessed the aftermath of a successful sucide by car. Some gent decided to end it all on our property, right behind the factory that I was plant manager of. He taped a large hose to his exhaust, ran it through a rear window, taped up the remaining open area, got in, locked the doors and let the car idle until it ran out of gas. Yes, he was very dead. It was an older car, as I remember, a mid eighties GM of some kind. Wasn't really interested in the car. One of my folks saw the car and informed his supervisor, the supervisor called me. We went to check it out and found the gentleman. The doors of the car were locked but, I used my knife to cut the tape one the one window that was partially open and managed to get an wire inside to open the door. I had already told the employee to call 911, We tried to administer CPR to him until the EMTs arrived but, I knew we were wasting our time. He was cold to the touch. We still tried and so did the EMTs until a Doc pronounced him dead. Never knew why and didn't ask. But, it is not an experience I ever care to repeat.

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Ron
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance." - Cicero , 55 BC. So, evidently we've learned nothing in the past 2,000+ years.

quote Originally posted by theBDub: I thought death by car was carbon monoxide not carbon dioxide.

I thought death by car was called a wreck.

I guess it don't matter--you're dead no matter what.

quote I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that today's car burn so clean that it is impossible to successfully complete suicide.

I wouldn't bet the ranch on that. Besides, about 3/4 of the modern cars in the US are running around with a check eng light on anyway--emission equip isn't up to par.

Ideally, complete combustion of a hydrocarbon results in CO₂ and water. When incomplete combustion occurs the result is CO and water. Combustion doesn't occur at either extreme in the real world so you have a mixture of CO, CO₂ and water in the exhaust (along with many other compounds) when the car is running. If there wasn't sufficient air movement in the garage the limited amount of oxygen would eventually be consumed and you would start seeing more and more CO as a result of incomplete combustion. The CO poisoning along with the depleted oxygen would still take its toll even though newer cars are cleaner.

quote Originally posted by maryjane: Besides, about 3/4 of the modern cars in the US are running around with a check eng light on anyway--emission equip isn't up to par.

/Monkeyman raises his hand/

Been that way for 18 months. I just figured out what the problem probably is but I'm not gonna mess with it til spring. Runs fine, gas mileage hasn't changed, etc.

Your car doesn't even have to be in a garage... if you get enclosed by a snow drift......

http://www.news10.net/news/...toryid=52084&catid=2

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: Your car doesn't even have to be in a garage... if you get enclosed by a snow drift...... http://www.news10.net/news/...toryid=52084&catid=2

Or a Bog......
http://www.sunjournal.com/n...eath-victims/1195276

what a sad thread
I don't know if its true I was told that one of the gasses from burn't unleaded or Ethanol was arsenic
I was told this along time ago so i don't remember who told me or where i heard it from

Every winter we read about people dieing from carbon monoxide poisioning fro faulty fire places that get fired up or trying to heat a space using charcoal. With all the information out there about this, Darwin is right.

quote Originally posted by RotrexFiero: Not to be suicidal or morbid but I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that today's car burn so clean that it is impossible to successfully complete suicide. Suicide by car has become obsolete? I did find information saying today's car burn 99% clean, but nonetheless they would consume all the air in a average sized garage. But, also would the car suffocate itself and die before a suicidal person would? Just curious, again I am fine.

Yep It still burns the air in the garage and emits non breathable gas ( how could it not? ). You will still die.

quote Originally posted by RotrexFiero: ... a friend ... mentioned that today's car burn so clean that it is impossible to successfully complete suicide.

As others have already posted, your friend is incorrect. The catalytic conveters in modern cars do efficiently oxidize most of the toxic CO (carbon monoxide) to non-toxic CO₂ (carbon dioxide), but the engine still binds free oxygen from the air into CO₂ and H₂O (water). Anyone in a closed space will probably die from oxygen depletion before the engine does.

The origin of your friend's statement probably lies in a bit of spurious mythology that arises from some who oppose exhaust emission controls. The usual statement is something like, "The rules are so strict in California that the exhaust is cleaner than the air that went into the engine." While the catalytic converter on a modern engine may effectively strip some ozone, CO, and oxides of nitrogen from the air it breathes, and the air filter removes most particulates, it is still demonstrably false to claim that the exhaust is somehow "cleaner" than ambient air.

quote Originally posted by proff: I don't know if its true I was told that one of the gasses from burn't unleaded or Ethanol was arsenic

Another proff-ism? Neither pure gasoline nor pure ethanol contain anything but carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Besides, it wouldn't make any difference with respect to arsenic content whether the fuel is burned or not; the atmospheric occurrence of arsenic is essentially zero. If the fuel is somehow contaminated with arsenic, then the exhaust would likely contain arsenic and/or its compounds. I don't know if arsenic will "plate out" in the catalytic converter like other heavy metals. Arsenic is often found in association with sulfur, so it may be present in higher concentrations in diesel fuel than in gasoline.

This study, from Portugal, collected random samples of gasoline and measured arsenic levels from 0.02 to 0.08 micrograms per liter.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 01-26-2013).]

About .05 parts per million is the notation I read elsewhere.
Wish our water was that clean.