Breakdowns on the highway

[herr_oberst]

I got to thinking after watching this; Leno is probably as well-versed as anyone out there as someone who can quickly suss out a problem while he's out driving. He's totally nonplussed here, doesn't even attempt to pull over before he has the issue narrowed down to the eventual problem.
This kind of thing is probably a weekly event for him.

My MO in these situations is always to immediately find a place on the side of the road to land so I can 'get out of everyone's way'. I think getting out of anyone's way is the last thing on his mind, he wants to solve the problem with the car, and stopping at the side of the road is not going to help him do that.

[stevej37]

^^^ nice video...great looking Honda.

[rockaria]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

...My MO in these situations is always to immediately find a place on the side of the road to land so I can 'get out of everyone's way'. I think getting out of anyone's way is the last thing on his mind, he wants to solve the problem with the car, and stopping at the side of the road is not going to help him do that.
...

Been there done that. This is an everyday thing for us 914 owners. Drive it 'till it quits, then get out the large screwdriver and hammer. I once had my passenger push a stick, on the throttle, over the Targa bar, while driving, to get us home that day the cable broke. Fun Times! Back in the 70s you could get away with more...

[KNS]

I was about 60 miles from home and the throttle cable on my 993 was fraying and coming undone (undernaeah the car). This was causing the throttle to stick and hang up. I would take my foot off the gas and the RPMs would either hang or increase.

I tied a string to the throttle and ran the string from the throttle/engine compartment all the way up to my left hand while sitting in the driver's seat. When it was time to let off the gas I would tug on the string to bring the RPMs back down. Got me the 60 miles back home.

[pwd72s]

Cool video..and great analysis by Jay...

[Solamar]

I recently bought this off ebay-



Started thinking about all the fast, narrow, twisty rds I frequent and decided I wanted something to increase my visibility incase I ever had to stop on the side of the road.

[Baz]

Good stuff, Herr Oberst!

They should show videos like this in high school!

[KFC911]

I've never broken down on the side of a highway, or any road, and have only changed one tire .... a bass boat trailer tire decades ago.

I don't drive "hoopties" like Jay does .

I'm gonna pay dearly for this post.... I just know it!

[fintstone]

Yep. Never left one on the highway. Even if I had to push it a long way to get it into a safe spot.

When my wife and I were first married, we had little money. I joined the military, and we were always stationed on the other side of the country (or world) from relatives. Plus, we were moved every few years as I was trained and progressed. Visiting relatives was always a cross country drive (and back) as that was prior to airline deregulation and phone company break up so flying and long-distance calls were beyond our reach.

We always had an old beater car (typically mid-sixties) that I was just able to keep running (I was not much of a mechanic), so it was not unusual to break down along the way...or barely limp in in at either end of the trip. Often it was a battery/starting issue where I could push start the car while my wife sat in the driver's seat and popped the clutch. Typically, it was a drive from Colorado, California, Texas or Noth Dakota to NC, and back...often going through Virgina, Illinois or on occasion NY to see other relatives along the way. we usually tried to drive straight through...maybe napping at a rest area to save on hotels. It was exhausting, but we stayed with relatives when we got there. It was worse when we moved, because the military would not pay for your move until you were E4 over 4. So, until then, everything you owned had to fit in the car with you or be given away. I remember driving a '65 Mustang from Denver to South Carolina with a mop and broom...and an Ironing board on the shift console (from the back seat) as we really could not afford to replace things.

I tell 20-somethings about driving cross country in an old beater car without even a credit card...much less a cell phone...and they are aghast. How did you find your way without Siri? What if you ran out of money? What do you do when your car breaks down in some remote place and you don't have a cell phone and AAA to rescue you? Did you call Uber? What about your mom and dad?

Of course not. I had a toolbox and my feet. Heck, my wife hitchhiked to meet me at my first assignment after Basic (Denver) from NC with just a suitcase and a few dollars cash. Although less than 5' and around 90 lbs, she was pretty tough back then. Right before I met her, she blew her '66 VW's engine about 150 miles from home and left the car and got a ride with a trucker back to her hometown. She taught me to drive a stick when we were dating. When we went overseas, we had to stay in one room (with 2 kids) and walk everywhere for over 3 months before we could find/buy a car (walking) and lease an apartment.

We didn't let it effect our travel/adventures in Europe once we had a car either. Once we were having alternator problems driving from Germany to Italy and back and every time I slowed down to go through a border crossing or stopped, the wife had to climb over to the driver's seat and we had to push start the car to start it after it stalled. I used to joke that we had pushed that car through every border crossing in Europe.

[porsche tech]

While in the Army in 1969 or 70, I was driving my VW notchback on the autobahn when it quit. I was right next to an emergency phone so I picked it up and the guy on the other end didn’t speak English, so I just kept saying the mile marker (kilo) number in German. A short time later another guy that didn’t speak English rolled up in a roadside assistance vehicle. I tried to tell him it just quit and he immediately reached into the little sheet metal tray under the fuel pump on the engine and found a small roll pin. It was the pivot pin for the mechanical fuel pump. He wedged it back in place, I gave him 20 Marks or something (there appeared to be no charge for his service). It wasn’t 10 minutes from the time he pulled up behind me until I was driving away!

[masraum]

I lost the ability to push in the clutch in my old '88 targa twice (clutch fork shaft ear on tranny broke). I drove 40-50 miles with no clutch. I finished driving to where I was going (training for work), and then I drove it home at the end of the day. I took the toll road, and was able for all but one toll booth, able to slow down to an idle in 1st gear and toss my change in the basket and not stop. On another occasion, I had headed someplace and was on my way home in stop and go traffic. That was a real beyotch, but the car was fine, even the starter was fine. I never replaced that starter in the 5 years that I owned the car.

[GH85Carrera]

About two weeks after getting my brand new 1974 914 2.0 I was happily driving along, and hit a railroad track crossing. Nothing horrid, but a bump. The car shut off, dead and would not restart. In 1974, cell phones were for Dick Tracy only. So I hoofed it 1/2 a mile to a phone, and in a rather excited and upset tone, explained to the dealership I was not happy.

They sent out a flatbed tow truck, and gave me a loaner car as they fixed it. The federal government in their infinite wisdom had required that all new cars have a seat belt interlock system to prevent the driver from even starting the car if the seat belt was not buckled. The 914 had a little computer box under the seat, and that had shorted out on my car, so they replaced it.

Two weeks later, at the same spot, same bump, the car shut down. I was rather annoyed.

Same deal, they fixed it under warranty of course, and when I got it back I going to figure out how to bypass that dumb "feature" of the government. Now remember, there was no internet or personnel computers. No PCA, just me. I started looking at the little box and and the socket it plugged into. A green wire (as I remember) went to the oil pressure sender. I jumpered that and the car would start without the seat belt buckled.

I never drive without my seat belt buckled, ever. Even now I find I buckle up to move my car from one garage bay to another and never leave my driveway. It is pure habit to buckle up.

Somewhere up in my attic I think I still have that stupid computer for the interlock for a 914.

[blucille]

@GH85Carrera had that trouble with a buddy's car last week, drove over a speed bump and it died. Checked everything, I even heard the fuel pump run, still wouldn't restart. Towed to his shop and they said his fuel pump was bad....never dreamed that a buzzing fuel bump wouldn't pump some fuel, especially with a new tank and filter and everything else that had recently been done.

Anyway, my point here---

Maybe it's the TV production classes I took in college, but the greatest irritant to me in this video was when he was talking about the 4-way lug wrench, camera showed it in his hand, they switch back to the spare tire compartment of the car and the lug wrench is sitting there next to the spare, they switch back, Leno has it in his hand, and eventually they show it getting re-stowed in the boot.

So, I suppose some video tom-foolery probably existed when Jay was diagnosing the trouble while driving, they had probably already recorded a few different options they would edit-in whichever one seemed the best for ratings. The streets were pretty quiet where they started having the trouble, or so it appeared.

[GH85Carrera]

One other time 20 years later in the same 914 I was just cruising along and the engine died. No restart. One thing for sure, it was not that stupid interlock. I pulled way over, and popped the engine compartment lid. I noticed the head temp sensor wire was broken. I had recently changed the spark plugs, and I guess I stressed it somehow. I whipped out my pocket knife, scraped back some of the insulation, twisted the wire together, and carefully started it. I drove right back home and put electrical tape on it, and called the local independent Porsche shop and they had one in stock!

I had to cut up a 10mm deep socket to get the new one back in place tight.

[Scott Douglas]

I never liked the idea of breaking down at the side of the road so I did everything in my power to prevent it from happening, even when young and penniless. The only time I've ever left a car at the side of the road was when my '68 BMW 1600 clutch linkage popped apart. This was after driving all day and most of the night before getting to my Grandmother's house on the farm in Ohio. Drove past her house before realizing it was her house and stopped at the T in the road at the bottom of a small hill. Of course that's when the linkage popped apart. I coasted around the corner and down the hill a bit to a wide spot in the road and pulled over. Got out and was looking under the hood to confirm the diagnosis when the local school bus drove by with a pickup truck following closely behind. This was way out in the farm country of Ohio so I didn't think too much about having to leave the car unattended. The kids in the pickup truck turned around and came back, asked if I needed help. I asked if they knew where the Moore farm was. Sure, right up the road I'd just come down. They gave me a lift to the farm and my Grandmother answered the door after a bit of a wait. It was 6AM and they were just getting up. After a great farm breakfast (my Grandmother said I looked like I hadn't been eating well), my step-grandfather helped me tow the car back to the garage behind the house. I was so pissed at the car I didn't look at it for two weeks, during which time I learned how to drive a tractor and move hay bale rolls with it. Put up corn, shovel cow *****, lay concrete and leave it 'as poured' so the cows could get traction going up the hill when it was icy. Eat a full steak meal in less than 20 minutes, and come to appreciate how those Ohio boys got to be so big from working on the farm. I also came to appreciate what it means to go to town and cruise up and down the main drag on a Friday night in small town America.
I fixed the car out in the garage and found out what cold concrete really feels like. It was late November. I will admit to giving the guys a really good laugh when it started to snow while I was moving hay bales. I got back from a run on the tractor and asked what tree was blooming and spreading all it's petals all over the place. I hadn't been in snow for over twenty years at that point in my life and didn't recognize it.

[GH85Carrera]

My MIL lives in Enid, OK 100 miles from our house. Over the decades I figure we have made the round trip to Enid over 100 times in the trusty El Camino. In 100+ heat and more icy or snowy trips than I wanted.

Anyway, on one trip home on Thanksgiving day, late in the afternoon as I hit the bump of a bridge going from the bridge to the highway, the Elky died and I coasted to a stop. It fired up, but did not run for long. I had filled up before we left, so I knew I had lots of gas. I figured it was a fuel pump issue. I had engineered and did the conversion to throttle body fuel injection long ago, and had the pump in the tank. No doubt the best upgrade or fix I ever did to the Elky was going to Fuel Injection. I have free towing on my insurance for $5 per month, so I called for a tow.

It was dusk, so I looked for a bush for some screening from the traffic, and bladder relief. My wife was mad, and I told her go to the bush. She did not like the experience, but felt much better.

We got towed home, and he helped me put in my garage. I apologized for messing up his Thanksgiving. He said he was the single guy at the company, and he was bored all day and I was the only call of the day.

It is the only time I have ever come home in a tow truck. That evening, I went to the garage, and my first thing was to check the ground wire for the electric fuel pump. I did a quick clean, and the car fired right up. So I made a really clean and new super duper ground strap, and fixed it for the cost of a new crimped on end from my box of connectors. The tow was "free" or part of the insurance cost, so not an expensive breakdown. Just frustrating and I cussed at the idiot mechanic that did the fuel pump conversion, then I drank one of his beers in celebration of a cheap fix.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by KC911

I've never broken down on the side of a highway, or any road, and have only changed one tire .... a bass boat trailer tire decades ago.

I've always gotten my tows from my driveway (twice), someone else's driveway, Tractor Supply, the Sheetz station, etc. but NEVER the side of the road. I have selective dismemory

[porsche tech]

Found pictures of my notch back from earlier autobahn story. $75 with a bad motor, $125 for a “almost new” KD motor from junkyard and on the road.




First car over there was a’55 bug. I was by myself in southern Germany (I think heading to Switzerland) going up a mountain in middle of winter and accelerator cable broke. Turned the idle up as high as I could, got up the mountain and down the other side to a small town at the bottom. It was noon on a Saturday and I found an independent VW shop still open. Everything closed at noon on Saturday. Went in the shop and there was a couple of guys working on VWs and I asked does anybody speak English and the one guy says “nein”! I kept standing there for awhile and finally after about 15 minutes he walked over to me while wiping his hands on a rag and said, “What did you want?” In perfect English. I told him my problem and he said he had to go home to eat lunch but would come back to do it, so he locked up the shop and walked on off up the street. I waited in my car wondering if he would even come back and eventually he did. New cable and back on the road. All the junk I’ve driven in my lifetime, I’ve got lots of stories! Bug picture was from a different trip to France with my girl friend (now wife).