Furthest from home breakdown

[meshking]

I broke down in Luxembourg on the way back from a pan-europe jaunt with then girlfriend (now wife). The glowplugs decided to pack up, but we had aa 5 star Europe. Man arrived and with pointing and stilted German (he was a Flemish speaker, but we managed to find a language we both roughly understood) determined that the zx wouldn't Starr because of them.

It was fine, because we were on the way back that morning to the shuttle, so we kept the engine running for as long as possible. Unfortunately, there was a delay after boarding, and the engine cooled right down. Was a bit nervous getting it to start to drive off, and we filled the carriage with smoke when it finally caught.

[Ghosty]

It's pathetic in relative terms, but Leicester Forest East services on the M1.

Ghostfamily (all 3 of us) were driving to my aunts in London on Christmas Day 2006 or 7 when the mother's 1.25 litre CVT sad face Fiesta shat it's thermostat (it never got taken outside Manchester really, and it was never fully loaded). Had to limp it back home constantly filling it with bottles of water and overpriced coolant, to fetch my dad's 190E and start the whole thing again.

I was pissed off that we couldn't take it in the first place, seeing as all the tat my parents insisted on taking (and all in bin bags thanks to my mums OCD, no suitcases) meant I had barely any space in the Fez. The 190 made for a much more peaceful journey.

A year later the Fez shat its third rubber band box and was PX'd for an equally miserable automatic 2004 Polo.

[DodgeRover]

Gearstick of a Mitsubishi Sigma came loose in my hand going for 3rd gear after a toilet stop in the Aussie bush about 200km from the arse end of nowhere. Cue much alarm from the passengers.

Cut the gaiter away to find the problem and the threads had gone holding the stick in place. Reassemble and change gear very very gently with passenger holding gear lever into box while I change, drove several hours to next town and bought liquid metal and borrowed a wire coat hanger to hold it in place while the liquid metal stuck the threads together, managed another 20,000ks in that car without any more issues.

Was aprox 12,000 miles from home - what do I win?

[Rave]

Since we're in nitpicking mode:

 

The Mondeo has five wheel nuts.

 

Oh really?

[vulgalour]

Proper OMGHGF that put mayo everywhere and water would come out of the exhaust faster than you could put it in the radiator.  A measly 60 miles from home at Leicester Forest East services.  Fortunately, I'd only just bought breakdown cover and we were kept waiting precisely as long as it took to have our lunch.

 

 

 

If I could remember where it was I broke down in the Polo, before I had breakdown cover, on a road with no name, with a car full of people (one of whom was quite pregnant) and with no way of fixing the points that had melted... that would probably beat this one for distance.  Certainly being towed home by someone who had never towed and me only knowing the theory of being towed made it feel like it was a distance of several thousand miles, especially when the battery didn't have enough juice to operate the wipers so I couldn't see where I was going through the middle of Sheffield.

[Lacquer Peel]

Rover 220Di diesel runaway near Newcastle.

 

A police officer rocked up and called the fire brigade! He was dead canny like though, and drove me into Newcastle (several miles) to catch a train home, I think I got from Newcastle to Aviemore for nothing by doing my "I obviously have a ticket" act when the ticket inspector walked past.

[capsuleboy]

Bought a lovely Renault 4 in the very south of France and thought it would be a good idea to drive it home.

Only got as far as Limoges before it died.

Our classic insurance included Euro breakdown cover, and as they couldn't get it fixed, we got a hire car and flights home.

Car randomly turned up on a lowloader about 10 days latter, no paperwork, no notice, just got to work to find it sat outside!

Most recent recovery was when the wifes Cube stopped talking to its key in the services 2 miles from home. Grumpy RAC subcontractor said "nissan used to be great but now they are owned by Renault there are shit". No strictly true in either part...

[HMC]

My 2 cv's nearside driveshaft imploded whilst visiting my parents (300miles away) which resulted in a very long chain of recovery trucks. Had the same thing happened these days I'd probably have used it as an excuse to buy a transit beavertail, which is way more fun* than being handy enough to fix it roadside youself!

 

Metaphorically speaking the time my rusty w124 refused to start after calling at the local MB dealer parts dept. I had a job dealing with the AA as they (completely incorrectly) seemed to assume I had had a dispute with the main dealer and was trying to escape.

[xkjagnz]

Don't know if it counts but here you go ! Years back (1984) me and my oppo decided we would like to Istanbul (like you do when beer has been involved) me on my xs 1100 Yamaha him in his cb 900 Honda. So over the course of a few days (several) we did. Then we returned, unfortunately his rear wheel bearing collapsed about 80 miles from Istanbul technically we were in Europe so phoned aa recovery, loaded all his shite and him on my bike and trekked home leaving his at the side of the road. About 5 weeks later the Honda turned up noworse for wear in Bristol. Well worth the AA membership!