Breakdowns – which you can now laugh at

[jphanna]

Its never a good time to break down, but there are times when its an incident that you can look back at years or decades later and laugh.

1985 and its my first Bathurst trip. Catch a place from Adelaide to Sydney, meet up with cousins there, and then drive to Bathurst in a falcon 69 wagon, that will also be the accommodation. Sounds like all the essentials are in place for a great time.

At some point when we left, I glanced the fuel gauge and noticed it was pointing at half full (half empty for others!). Anyway I was enjoying the scenery of the Blue Mountains after a few hours of driving, when I glanced the fuel gauge again…..it hadn’t moved a millimetere. I mentioned to my cousin that the gauge hadn’t budged since we left. May god strike me down NOW, if I am lying, but with 20-30 seconds of that comment, I don’t have to tell you what happened…..

We pushed the car to the side away from road and walked an hour or so until we reached an historic old prison/police/holding cell (is it still there?). the person running it said we could get a lift to the nearest petrol station, after they finished closing down the place late in the afternoon. We missed the top 10 shootout that day but we still had a good time on Sunday watching GOSSIE win with the big JAG.

Any memorable breakdowns you had?

[alien]

In my VY commodore i had for like a month or two i was driving to an exam, i had the speedo on the electric info pages so i could see coolant temperature (i had temperature issues at that time). That was all good, got to my exam. And didn't get the low petrol warning. Not even when it was started in normal mode. Anyways, i finished my exam, put the vehicle into stats page (fuel gauge was just going into the red area). Start moving, reach about 300 metres to a red light in the right hand lane to turn right (3 right turning lanes). Goes green, try to accelerate and it just stalled!

So sitting at the front of the lights, chucked on my hazards and walked to the petrol station to get petrol... this is the best part! I had my hazards on and no one was in my car at the front of the line to turn right. As i'm walking back with fuel i can hear people at the lights tooting there horn to get my car (with hazards and no one in it) to go! I was pissing myself laughing LOL, Reatards not knowing what hazarrd lights mean. I even checked when i got to the car that the rear hazards were working and they were.

Then as i'm filling up the car a 4WD gets pissed off, mounts the gutter to the right and goes around my vehicle almost running me over in the process! Impatient ***hole.

Thats probably the best breakdown situation i've ever had. Other than that the only other breakdown i've had is a hole in my sump.

[TVR-190]

thought i had a flat battery but the car was actually just left in gear, didnt notice til my friend had turned up to give me a jump

[calais_cruzin]

Ive done that sooo many times, usuall when im reversing, every now n then it stalls, forget to put back in Park b4 starting..

Done it one day, was at the boom gates to my house, pissing down with rain, couldnt work out y it wouldnt start, jump out run to me mates drag him out into the rain to help me push it in, then saw the shifter was in D still ARRRR mate was pisssed he got all wet for nothing lmao

[alien]

LOL, i had a mate call me for his car not starting. Got there, banged my head against the car when i saw it, he didn't know that it had to be in park or neutral to start. So i had to get in, and showed him how to start it.

[MasterOfReality]

Was driving in the company Nissan Patrol between Cobar and Condobolin to the Mineral Hill mine. Got there ok but coming back was a nightmare.

Mostly really rough gravel road/track. A new BF Goodrich AT tyre got ripped to sheds a fair distance out of Nymagee. Took the spare off and it was bald as, literally no more tread.

In the middle of the ****ing bush, no mobile reception, in the late evening, in winter. Buggered as after spending the whole day trekking around underground.

I got back hours later, after crawling along the gravel road at 20km/hr to try and avoid shredding the bald spare tyre.

[DANNY8]

About 5 years ago when I was at school, there was a school assembly, which are held in the gym, right next to the student car park. I didn't like going to them, waste of time I thought, so as everyone headed into the gym, me and me bro kept going, walking over to the ol' VH wagz, jumped in, and by this time a teacher was wandering over....tried starting it but it wouldn't even kick over. We knew it was the starter motor coz we'd recently had a few problems with it. The teacher arrived when we were banging the start motor, and he told us to get into the gym for the assembly. We pretty much ignored him and when the VH wouldn't start we rung one of our other brothers to come with a tow rope....the teacher ended up heading off coz he knew we weren't even listening (and who was gonna argue with 2 6'2" big lads). Then a few minutes later the other brother come. We hooked up the tow rope to the VH, and just as my bro was about to take off, I tried starting the wagz and it started.

It was a piece of bloody ****, but it was a beast. Ya could full lock it and plant it and it wouldn't even squeel the inside wheel haha.

[nemesis_adrasteia]

Me and a mate went for a drive on day on some gravel road just crusing its getting a bit dark no probs see a sign say yarram 40 ks sweet no problem about 20ks up the road the car starts pulling left wtf its 9pm in the middle of the bush on a gravel road pitch black and I've got a flat! **** changing a tyre by the light of two phones my spare bald as only 19 psi in it, I jump back in the car after the tyres on nearly doesn't start cos I've left my high beams on waht a nightmare

[greenfoam]

I went for a trip to Melbourne (4.5 hours drive) with my mate last for for moral support. The plan was to go in a ED Flacon to Melbourne with a car trailer and pick up a roller Silvia from some ricer shop. So off we went, at first we thought the Falcon has a small miss but decided it was just the trailer bangind around and pulling on the car. Anyway we arrived in Melbourne all good. Got the Silvia tied on, tied a spare engine on the back with some seatbelts and off we went. We were worried about making it up the big climb out the Western freeway out near Baccus Marsh so we took a big run up BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRR got 3/4s the way up the biggest hill BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........................... ........Silence. Oh no:P.

RRrRrRRrRRrRRRR...... nothing RrRrRRRRRRR nothing...... great :P. So there we were perched at altitude on one of the most busy roads around with trucks going past nearly blowing us over. We go out and investigated and my mate being a Falcon man decided it was the coil (or the ignition module) but went with the coil, I said at this time, you know it's going to be the module right? it's the way these things go. So we sat there for a while (had no credit on his phone) finally he found his new card for the phone and called his only relitives in Melbourne who were happy enough to go and pick up a coil from repco for him. So his cousins husband arrives with the coil, ok so some stuffing around follows then the coil is installed RRrRrRRRRRr........ nothin. Disaster. We sat there for a while, at some stage a random dude got a blowout in his VT? just as he went passed us blopblopblblop he had no spare lol! so he stayed with us for a while then we gave him a ride back into town as we wet for a module. We got back into town and droped him off near a wreckers. We got a module, go back...... Dont have enough tools to get it in the Dizzy. Gah!. At this stage it was dark and freezing cold, we had no torch so we called it quits and went back into Melbourne. we got his cousins LS1 VX? and drove back out there unhooked the trailer and towed the Silvia back to Melbourne.

Untied the engine, spilt engine oil all over the trailer/yard, pushed the Silvia off the trailer which dinged the chassis rails :S. Then took the trailer back out there and tried to get the Falcon on the trailer. Now.......

Getting a rolling Silvia on a trailer with a old frayed winch is one thing. Getting a ED Falcon on prooved to be all the way more difficult . The wires on the which were unravling PIng PJIGN PONG PING all over the shop at one stage I started Screaming because they had rolled the falcons front wheel back over my sneaker powered foot. My screams resulted in brakes begin applied, more screams as I had a stationary Falcon slowly making my foot look flat like one from a bad cartoon. Finally they rolled it off my foot :P. So we were taking it turns trying to wind this Falcon onto the trailer. One on the winch and two in the boot to stop the rear wheels on the LS1 from lifting in the air (which they did at some stage(we were on a steep hill remember) Anyway by some miricle of all miricles the Falcon made it on and we took that back to Melbourne.

My mate had decided he was going to buy a whole dizzy in the morning but then realised he had lost his wallet in all the drama so after looking all around the Silvia and the Falcon we got in the LS1 (which had burned half a tank of fuel by now and went back out the highway to find his wallet whch we never did. So we came home, my mate was totally stressed out and had to smoke himself to sleep. My wife had been calling all afternoon and night worried sick about me but I assured her one way or another (Falcon or train I would be home that night). Then I fell asleep kinda, the ducted heating was about 20c too hot for us bushies so we almost died over night but the sun rose and we were still alive,,,, just.

In the morning light things started to improve we found the wallet stashed beside the seat in the Falcon. We called the local Ford where he works how then called the local repco who then called the nearest Repco in Melbourne who then gave us a complete dizzy/module on our local Fords account. So we went and got that. I held a screw drived down the number one spark plug hole while my mate with deft hands cranked the starter mm by mm untill we had TDC. Found a few budget tools in his cousins backyard shed, jammed the dizzy in and tried to start it RrRrRR bRBBRBrbrbBRB......... Almost! but not quite. Moved the dizzy one tooth, RrRRRRRrRRr BROOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ROOOOOOOOOOOOOM ROOOOOOOOOOOM Falcon POWA. Horay!. Everything was good. We wound the Silvia on the trailer tied the engine back on, did some pollutant control (oil spill cleanup with a roll of toilet paper) Jumped in the Falcon and headed home. We had the timing wound right up stuck some 98 octane in it and took a big run up for the hill of disaster, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (heaters on flat out to stop is over heating)BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrOVER THE HILL!!!!RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

And we cruised all the way home
I found myself in alot of trouble just for my moral support but without me there to calm him down my mate would have been having a freak out so it all worked out for the best. The lesson of the day was, don't go for long trip in a Falcon and if you do have a Commodore on standby for backup and if you must put your faith in a Nissan, make sure it's one with a engine (inside the engine bay)

I should pretty much win this thread :P

[Shortstuff]

Christmas day just gone I was on my way out to my Girlfriend's Mum's place out in the bush. Car full of presents, kids, booze, etc and I started getting a huge vibration about halfway there.

Then it all went quiet. Turned out the water pump sheared off and sent the fan through the radiator.

Luckily my Girlfriend was not too far behind me, so took the kids and left me sitting on the grass by my dead car with a few beers waiting to be rescued!

Same thing happened to the cheap new water pump I put on about two weeks later, but no beers that time and no girlfriend driving behind me : (

[TVR-190]

ill dob in my mate also, for driving into a bit of flooded road at 60 and stalling the car. then i had to push it out and it was about an hour before it would start again. good fun

[greenfoam]

I will add another one, When I went on one of my solo Enduro rides on my IT250 out into the forest. I used to head out into the forest burn half a tank of fuel then head home. Well one night it was almost dark and I had just finished cruising a track in 3rd gear, got to the other end and went to click to 4th...... wtf no 4th? no gear lever?! disaster. I parked the bike and walked the track but couldn't find it. I had to ride home in 3rd (about 80km/s) it took a very long time :P could have been worse I guess (1st or 2nd)

[SweetWagon]

Couple years ago I drove up to Byron Bay with a few mates for new years, we camped the week (rained most of the time) and headed back home. The day after we got back I was around at my mates who lives around the corner from me, went to start the car and it just coughed and spluttered then died, tried again.. nothing, fuel pump had carked it, couldn't believe my luck would have been a disaster if it went at Byron! So got Dads Patrol and towed it up to my place, changed pump and was good again.

[Tom_1569]

The funniest one I can think of, was I went with a mate to pick up his new buggy.

First off he was heading over to get the trailer from the other property, when he managed TWO flat tyres, Front left, and rear right, great for the LSD on a landcruiser on Gravel roads. So he gets to the farm, chucks his spare set on which have just come back from getting punctures fixed a few days before, so we knew they were right. So we hook the the trailer up, but we had to remove the stock crate first.
Who ever put the stock crate on last used the wrong bolts so they were rusted to shit and we didnt have any tools with us and we didnt wanna drive over to the shed again, so we get it all unbolted but its still ceased. So two of us are trying to lift a 150 kilo stock crate thats seized to a trailer, with a lot of kicking screaming and pulling we get it to flip off, and we are on our way.

We arrive to pick up this buggy in the middle of no where about 2 hours from home, when the guy decides they agreed on 400 bux more. So we unhook the trailer and go to head to the nearest ATM machine, driving along we notice the front left on a lean, you guessed it we have ANOTHER flat tyre. We pulled out the front of this old country pub to change the tyre with the old cheese cutter under the tray.
First problem the valve had snapped so we couldnt put any air in the tyre to get the jack under, so we dig a little whole on the gravel to get the jack under and the flat tye is off. This is where it gets hilarious, by this stage my mate is absolutly wild so people have come out of the pub to see whats going on, and all stand around like hes doing a demonstration. We go to get the spare out, and the slide pin is stuck, so a bit of wd40 and a slight knock with the hammer and the pin snaps clean of leaving the bar stuck in place. So out comes the hacksaw (my mate carries everything with him lol) Get 3/4 through cutting the bar of the tray and the blade snaps, so we are belting it and yanking it trying to snap a metal bar, when he manages to get his finger nail stuck and ripped clean off at the same time we have an audience of around 10 blokes drinking and laughing at us. Eventually we broke the bar and got the spare out. Get the spare on and its flat, but thats ok we will pump it up, just where the **** has the tyre nozzle for the compressor gone Found it, pumped it up, and got the **** out of there quick as possible. I still cant believe how much went wrong in a day, and if I even mention it to my mate now he just gets worked up and carries on again lol.

Greenfoam, maybe you and me have the same luck when going for Moral support lol.

[greenfoam]

Greenfoam, maybe you and me have the same luck when going for Moral support lol.

No way man I read your deep fryer story once, you take the cake of bad luck. I'm quite happy with my run over foot

P.S thanks for taking the time to read my epic story :P

[greenfoam]

But well I guess as to passenger rides for moral support I guess so

[XStatic64]

Co-worker and i were driving from adelaide to pt augusta, decided to go down this dirt road for a change of scenery, we ended up crashign the car into a fence (at high speed.... - 150+), about 2m from a 10m deep pillar that was holding the whole fence up.

The farmer (owner of the fence lol) came by on a quadbike, brought back his ute with a jack and helped us change the flat tyre.

It was quite stupid sitting there on the wet dirt thinking "oh shit, what now" as it wasn't our car :P.

I still laugh at my co-worker for nearly killing me that day... He ended up getting stuck with $900 excess, 200$ for the fence, and he's now not allowed to drive the work fleet cars.

[nemesis_adrasteia]

greenfoam definitly wins this thread it hurts to laugh anymore

[cameron20020]

hmm morning (well afternoon actually) after night on the piss, i go to drive my car to maccas and grab lunch/dinner..

and the starter motor wouldnt work,
so im wondering wtf is going on...
so, me being impatient, turns on the ignition, gets a bit wire,
pulls out the starter motor relay, and shoves a bit of wire in to directly apply power to the starter motor

OH **** ME DEAD ITS IN DRIVE
lol scared the shit out of me, didnt start, but the car jumped at me,
so yeah now i always make sure its in park before i go trying to hotwire it
i sometimes wish the relay was inside the cabin, not the engine bay, to stop idiots like me from running over themself

[walesy]

thought i had a flat battery but the car was actually just left in gear, didnt notice til my friend had turned up to give me a jump

ive done that so many times... how stupid do ya feel hey

[Goon]

thought i had a flat battery but the car was actually just left in gear, didnt notice til my friend had turned up to give me a jump

hahah yeah bro, i left mine in drive oneday and didnt notice, thought it was in N.

[elemeNtz]

LOL, i had a mate call me for his car not starting. Got there, banged my head against the car when i saw it, he didn't know that it had to be in park or neutral to start. So i had to get in, and showed him how to start it.

I literally have just came home from having to do that. I am bewildered that my friend got her license.

[one_and_only2004]

One trip to tamworth for tafe last year we took my friend's HZ ute. We made maybe 400m from my work when the car came to a stop, 3 hours later we'd located and installed a fuel pump off an old smash up derby car in someone's yard.
Making it to glen innes we stopped at the local KFC for some food, after hopping back in we found out that something was wrong with the gearbox and we were stuck in 2nd. another hour or two of my friend playing with that whilst i offered moral support (from about 400m down the road at the pub..), we were back on our way with all gears.
Just past armidale overtaking a car we realised that the throttle return spring had snapped after we couldn't slow down... we fixed that by re-engineering the spring by bending the crap out of it - it's still on there today...

[budgieVH]

haha i spent at least 30-45 mins reading all your posts.. when i first got my vh (was on mt L's then) the battery kept going flat when i installed my stereo (2 amps sub head unit 4 speakers) i went to an auto elect he said take the fuse out of the red wire from the battery. so i did.. tested it with multi meter and i was loosing 1amp every 10 mins... any ways long story short.. one morning i went to start the car and there was nothing! later on in the week i bought a new battery a better one then what i had...

working on the car one night cleaning the engine and all and then wouldnt start, i had power all i could hear was tick tick tick every time i turned the key and the next morning i had to go for a long drive some where.. ring up my g/f's dad he comes around early in the morning to have a look.. i went to start the car and it started.... boy was i pissed off haha

turns out it was the light in the boot that was draining my battery was on 24/7

[ozz]

the day i got my ps/ 18th birthday , crank angle sensor carked it. i had just pulled into my mates driveway when my my engine died and wouldnt start. after a few hours of confusion it started easily and i limped it home while it was cold. the next day i didnt really know what to think but i figured i'd rather be stuck waiting for my car to cool down enough to get to a mates house than use public transport, it died while going 80 on the highway. next stop was the auto elecs who 'fixed' it
the car drove fine for a day, then the next day i was just pulling into the supermarket carpark when it died on me again. waited for it to cool down a bit so i could drive it

i did the usual wait an hour or two for it to cool down which i had got a bit used to by then, the car started and i made it round the corner, no more than 30 metres or so. luckily the same mates place who it first broke down at was not far away so i called up the guys there and they came and hung out, while hanging round we managed to run into more and more people we knew, eventually we decided we could push the car all the way back to my mates place. it sounded better than being stuck illegally parked in what i could say is not the greatest area to leave a car overnight.

by this time it was about 6pm on a saturday, we had at least 8 people pushing the car round 5 corners, 5 stretches of road including the main street opposite the station, and bus stops, a relativly busy roundabout on the main street, and all the way back to my mates driveway probably close to 1km in total. at the request of the people helping push my car stereo was up as well.

we got more than a couple of funny looks