When your car stuffs up

[Bilbs]

Ok, so i figure ill start a thread of headaches our cars cause us, like things going wrong, at very inconvenient times, or convenient times, ill start i guess.

Just as i pull into the street i work in, i see steam start pouring from under the hood, oh CRAP! So i pull into work, lift the hood, and yup, i've popped my radiator (funny thats what i thought it was, 9 times outta 10 it would be a top hose) But luckily, im a mechanic, and even luckier that we had a reasonabley good VR V8 radiator lying around (like every workshop keeps one of them out back lol) So off to the radiator repair shop for a flush, clean pressure test etc, and $90 later, 2 hose clamps, a bottom hose and 6L of coolant later, and i drove home, but what scared me, was i only just got back from alexandra on monday, and you cant help but think, what if it happened while i was up there, i dont even wanna think about it lol

 

[feistl]

When i was 18 and just got my license my mates and i went for a drive in mums car. It was a tuesday night at about 11pm when i picked em up. We headed down to the great ocean road... I noticed we were low on fuel after passing a servo so i said we should go back, but my mate who was navigating said go on, there would be a servo further down the road.

Long story short, ran out of fuel on the great ocean near Appollo bay at 4am on a school night. Get a call from mum the next morning at 8am..."Where the **** is my car, you better be home in 5 minutes or your dead"....

To which my reply...
"Yeah, we're out of fuel in Appollo bay"...
"*silence*"

 

[AttaBoy]

I ran out of fuel just 50m from my house!! Paid 14 bucks for a small can to fill her up again at the servo..

 

[adamc11]

I ran out of fuel about 20m from the servo :bang:

 

[crazyspoon05]

I've had the bottom radiator hose fail a kilometre or so after passing a servo

A few years ago now was driving up to Golden Beach (on 90 Mile Beach) late at night (had worked late and was meeting friends up there for a weekend away) and hitting the deserted bit just after Rosedale/Longford where it's all RAAF bombing ranges and farmland for kilometres and having the headlight fuse keep blowing at annoyingly random intervals

 

[greenfoam]

My wife has ran outa fuel several times close enough to the servo to roll in!. She's only been stuck NEAR a servo, still within easy walking distance about 3 times (she keeps a fuel can in the back) she likes to cut these things fine it seems, I've hardly ever seen her car with the low fuel light off. Not a car but I've had the gear shift lever fall off my motor bike in the middle of a forest just before dark about 60km from home, lucky it was stuck in third gear so I could still take off ok and still could get enough speed out of it to get home without taking all night

 

[Cobez]

Was at a cruise with the JC Vic boys down to Arthurs Seat, it's like an hour and a bit drive from my house. AS i pulled into the driveway, coolant started ****ing out from a crack in the radiator. Took little to no time for most of it to be on my driveway. I'm glad it didn't happen up at Arthurs Seat.

 

[evil_monkey]

When i was on my p-plates didn’t know much about cars. popped a hose off the back end of the motor lost all the coolant, thermostat jammed on my vn s1 5spd i was about 30 seconds away from my driveway and i used to make regular 500km trips to Albany.

had the clutch die on me on the way to work once managed to coast to work and sent it off to the local mech to get it changed borrowed the bosses car to get home.

Only other thing was i snapped an accelerator cable leaving for work one Friday morning was sweet having an unexpected long weekend

 

[DannyboyDS]

I had an old EA and it kept burning a wire out off of the positive terminal and the car would just die and then refuse to crank.

It happened several times and was repaired several times before I replaced the whole thing with a thicker gauge wire.

 

[Bilbs]

I ran out of fuel about 20m from the servo

I did this once too, i felt the surge just before it ran out, so i got a bit of speed up, and then hit the clutch as it died, and im thinking, yes, yes, yes, im gonna make it...... RED LIGHT!!!! :bang: So i then had to push it round the corner into the servo, and some HOT chick came and helped me push, shame she was only 15 :bang:

Oh, and the other main ones i have had with both of my aussie 4 spd powered cars, was breaking the shifter or linkages, i remember last time it happened, i was just pulling into my drive way, and i went to grab 2 to drive up it, but it didnt come outta 3rd, so pull the console out, reach under, grrab the rod, and pull out of 3, push into 2 and drive in, then next morn, i workwed out i had 1 and 2 on the stick, but no 3 and 4, so i drove most of the way in 2 to a workshop i know nearby so i could use their equip to make a new one so i could drive to work, and the time before in my vk, i shifted to 2, and the whole stick just came out in my hand lol, so i drove that one home 40 kays by reaching under the floor and manualy shifting the rods lol, it kinda goes, put ito 1, take off, reach under, grab 1 - 2 rod, shift to 2, reach under, grab 1 - 2 rod, shift to neautral, grab 3 - 4 rod, shift to 3, then rach under again to shift to 4 lol, but it got me home. And the last one, but i only considetr it and inconvienience in aussie 4's is breaking the clutch cable, just key it to take off, and no clutch shifts, i drove it around the city all day like that once