When did a car/suv/truck let u down...

[recycled sixtie]

as in total mechanical failure either in the city or in the middle of nowhere? What make/model was it and what was the cause of failure? Where was the geographical location? I try to keep a mental note of car breakdowns/kind of cars etc but mostly they are just flat tires. Expletives are discouraged

[id10t]

Most recent.. '99 altima engine seized in very cold weather due to abuse and lack of maintainence, causing a mile walk home w/ my daughter ... 20 degrees out.

Then there was the time the 356 died on me on 9/19 (Ferry's b-day). Crap in teh carbs, thought it was a timing issue, by the time I figured that part out the car had been sitting too long... now carbs need rebuilding and re-synching, brake lines, brakes, tires. I do go out and rotate the engine by hand once a month... last year was gonna be "the year" to get her running again, but an unexpected child put the income stream back into the negative.

[Grog]

2001 BMW X5, 4.4L. radiator blew apart. 1st car out of 30+ that ever stranded me. I bought 2 gallons of bottled water, because we don't have service stations anymore, only mini marts, tried to fill it enough to drive it home. It leaked faster than I could fill it. Something on that car would break every 3 to 6 months.

[porsche4life]

My 944 left me afoot about a mile from home one summer.


Tools me a lot of chasing to find one bolt had fallen out and the dizzy was spinning out of time.


I popped the heater core on my corrado at an autocross once. That wasnt too pleasant.

[Seahawk]

Toyota Venza stopped running on my daughter last week. She was home from college and about a mile from the Toyota dealer.

No warning lights at all.

We'd had it serviced a month of so ago and the tech gooned an oil pressure solenoid.

Besides that, nothing since the 80's.

[Dantilla]

1- My full-size pick-up, with over 170,000 miles, lost the fuel pump while on the freeway. Sputtered to a stop.

This wasn't far from a dealer- A quick tow, the dealer sending one of their flunkies to the dealer in the next town over to get the right pump, and I was back on the road a few hours later.



2- The 944 race car died when pulling away from an Autocross. Swapped the Fuel Pump Relay with the spare I had in the glove box and it fired right back up. The only hassle is getting under the dash of an early 944 with a roll cage. Having a removable steering wheel makes it not too tough.

[andrew15]

Last week my 2004 Acura TSX skipped its timing chain and bent some valves.
Apparently the timing chain was pretty stretched - culminating in a 'new to me' used engine.

AM

[hardflex]

I had a 81 VW Rabbit that let me down too many times Twice on the road the rubber alternator mount backed out, relieving pressure on the water pump belt and almost immediate overheating. Who thought of that rubber mount?

It also had leaky injectors in the continous injection where the engine would start and run good when cold , but go to firing on 1 cyl after it warmed up. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Believe it or not, it almost set my house on fire once. The leaky injector would fill the cyl, so i took the spark plug out and spun the motor to dry it out. The spark plug ignited the spewing gas on the way out and resulted in a perfect flame thrower that burned on my house for a bit. It could have been much worse if it had gone into the open window, but it went over it by about a foot.

I cussed that car alot !

[masraum]

Last strandings were from timing belts going. These days, I change them as preventative maintenance.

[Scott R]

2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, died in the middle of a six lane highway on the way home from the dealer. Died again, and again, and again in various other terrible situations once on the 5th story of a downtown parking garage.

Jeep never solved the issue in the three years I owned it. It's probably still doing it to this day for it's current owner.

[pwd72s]

My very first car...a '50 Ford. Dropped it's driveshaft at the rear U joint...shaft wrapped around the e brake cables, bringing me to a screeching halt. This was neary 50 years ago.

Stange as it may sound, I can't recall any other complete failures that left me stranded.

[gprsh924]

About 4 years ago the 93 525i blew out the water pump while I was driving it home from school in Ohio back to Chicago. That required a tow to Muncie, IN and a rental car to get home for Thanksgiving.

Later, the radiator cracked on the 525i while I was driving from my apartment in the city to work in the suburbs. Also had to be towed.

The shift linkage cables? snapped on the 924S while I was pulling up to a stop sign in downtown Naperville, IL. We had to push it out of the intersection and get it towed away.

[R K T]

1....1971 driving back to LA from College in Eureka CA in my old VW bus. It would just get tired of going and I would have to pull over and let it rest for awhile. If I let it rest for a half hour it would be ready to go for another hour or so. Along the way it started going slower and slower and I knew it was time for another nap. I was on I5 and just made it to a rest stop, pulled in and shut it down. Nobody else was there.....except a Charlie Manson look-a-like that came out of the bushes and "asked" for a ride. This guy seriously scared the **** out of me, but I said OK. He ran back into the bushes to get his stuff and I turned the key and hobbled out of the rest stop as fast as it would go which was about 5mph. I kept looking in the rear view mirror, sure that he was going to run after me and slit my throat. I made it to Bakersfield without being murdered but the engine was officially dead. Got a tow back to LA.

2.....2005 Going across I40 in a brand new GMC Sierra 4WD pickup towing my 356 Outlaw in an enclosed trailer that I had just sold to someone in California. The buyer bought the AND the trailer. About 100 miles east of Amarillo TX, the GMC computer decided that the transmission should be in 4LOW......at 70 mph. We went from 70 to about 35 in 5 seconds and it pretty much scrambled the trans. I was just concerned about the 100K car in the trailer breaking loose and flying through the front of the trailer, but my lugnut tiedowns worked perfectly and the car was fine. Towed into Amarillo and replaced trans and computer and made it to LA.

[EarlyPorsche]

Originally Posted by Scott R

2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, died in the middle of a six lane highway on the way home from the dealer. Died again, and again, and again in various other terrible situations once on the 5th story of a downtown parking garage.

Jeep never solved the issue in the three years I owned it. It's probably still doing it to this day for it's current owner.

Ah the cam position sensor wires that fray up by the front of the driver side of the engine. Some dealers reloom and repair and others have no clue.

[oldE]

20 years ago (more or less) had bought an old beater Ranger 4x4 2.3. Timing belt broke about 1/2 mile from the best Ford wrench around. Called for a ride, was only 15 minutes from home.

Around the same time, on the way back from the VW dealer, a clamp, which had not been tightened on the intake system messed up the fuel injection about half-way home. I called for a ride, they came, fixed their mistake and delivered the car to my home.

7 1/2 years ago, fuel pump in '96 GMC failed in my driveway. Had it flat decked to local garage, where they caught it on fire and burned their garage down.

Thirty five years ago, I was delivering a truck with a non-functioning fuel gauge to the garage when it sputtered and died. I managed to coast almost a half-mile to the only garage along the route.and rolled it up to the pumps. Didn't have to walk!

Forty years ago, on my way home from work in my Dad's 73 Torino, the distributor rotor broke about a mile from home. I managed to coast to the crest of the only hill between the point of the failure and coast into the driveway. That is when I got a quick lesson on the physics of non-functioning power steering!

A year or so before that, the upper rad tank split away causing a '67 Acadian (Canadian Pontiac version of the Chevy II) to suddenly lose all it's coolant. Had to walk about a half-mile on that one.

Best
Les

[not sharp]

I've owned two range rovers.

Anytime anyplace!!

[JTO]

1999 VW Jetta TDI simply quite running with the wife and three little kids on board. It quite on the twisty road to the coast choked with RVs, on a blind corner. There was not way to push it off the road and nearly got creamed by one of those RVs. It was nightmarish for a father of young kids. Finally, a good Samaritan with a tow rope got us off the road. It had to be towed to Eugene, about 70 miles. Turned out to be a failed starter solenoid. In the six months I owned that car it cost me $1250 in repairs (glow plugs, door locks, window motors, wiring harness, etc). Loved the fuel mileage, hated the reliability.
Troy

[Jrboulder]

My 1984 944 had the ring and pinion in the transaxle fail as I was leaving the monthly cars and coffee. That was embarrassing.

[dependencies]

Originally Posted by not sharp

I've owned two range rovers.

Anytime anyplace!!

ah welcome to the Solihull fanclub
what is especially ironic is a trend amongst Landrover enthusiast is to sport
a sun visor sticker in windshield shouting 'ONE LIFE LIVE IT !'

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by EarlyPorsche

Ah the cam position sensor wires that fray up by the front of the driver side of the engine. Some dealers reloom and repair and others have no clue.

No kidding? They had the car for months and never figured that out. Towards the end of it's life it also had the front diff lock at speed, that was scary. Dealer said they had installed the new axle seals backwards and all the gear oil drained out.

I told them it was leaking, but they claimed it was residual...