Ungrateful cars - you give em love, they immediately stab you

[clayts450]

A repeating trend I've noted in my, admittedly still very, junior Autoshite membership is the propensity for shite to kick you hard in the knackers after you've just dispensed it some love.

 

eg

 

214 - replace all electrical ignition components -> immediate oil leak

Streetwise - sort out electrical relay issues -> heater knob decides -4 now is 1, -2 is now 3, 0 is now 4 in terms of fan speed

PT Cruiser - sort out back brakes -> front brakes fail MoT

 

Admittedly mine are very throwaway issues, so who here has carried out back-breaking, soul-destroying and financially ruinous work on their vehicles, only for the ungrateful bastard to present you immediately with an unrelated fault, usually also back-breaking, soul-destroying and financially ruinous ?

 

Fess up...

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Oh the 635 is a great candidate for this. Rebuilt the braking system, repaired the front leg, reconstructed and welded up the b post base, lots of other little bits, mot'd it all legal and on the road and.... Go out after a rain storm and the rear footwell has a half inch of water in it... Never happened before... Ever...

[captain_70s]

All of the cars I've ever owned aside from my Yaris have been arses which use any time/money/effort spent on them as a reason to develop bigger problems and/or bills.

[Tickman]

The Octavia is a one step forwards two steps backwards car.

 

Once I have finally got it sorted it will of course be for sale as I'm stupid like that

[dome]

Having owned a Clio 182 I know exactly how this feels.

[320touring]

Having owned a Clio 182 I know exactly how this feels.

No you don't, this feeling I apparently something that happens when you actually fix the initial issue.

[Richard]

Ungrateful cars should be cubed without delay, preferably before you've spent too much time and money on them.

 

Not all cars that keep breaking are ungrateful but with bitter experience you can learn to recognise when they are taking the piss.

 

My Escort was an ungrateful bastard and should have been binned a lot sooner than it was. I would list the things that went wrong with it but there isn't enough room on the internet.

[Uncle Jimmy]

That is why cars are invariably female.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

How about that 100HP Panda?  Surely the most ungrateful of all ungrateful cars.

[ruffgeezer]

I had an Ax Gti once, it had a knackered clutch when I got it, after changing that the head gasket went a week later.

 

I also bent a valve putting the head back on as the timing pin had fallen out of the camshaft.

 

Miserable little bastard.

[anonymous user]

Land Rovers last forever, mainly because you have to keep going around them screwing them back together and replacing parts constantly. Having said that, the one vehicle I had that never completed a journey without breaking was an Austin Gypsy, several times it never started the journey as it wouldn't go. As fast as one thing was fixed another part would fail, or the bit that had just been fixed would fail straight away, this was the vehicle where my mate had to take the lump hammer off me as I was about to start laying into it.

[chaseracer]

I had an Ax Gti once, it had a knackered clutch when I got it, after changing that the head gasket went a week later.

 

I also bent a valve putting the head back on as the timing pin had fallen out of the camshaft.

 

Miserable little bastard.

 

Remind me again what you do for a living, Tim...?

 

 

[Richard]

Land Rovers last forever, mainly because you have to keep going around them screwing them back together and replacing parts constantly. Having said that, the one vehicle I had that never completed a journey without breaking was an Austin Gypsy, several times it never started the journey as it wouldn't go. As fast as one thing was fixed another part would fail, or the bit that had just been fixed would fail straight away, this was the vehicle where my mate had to take the lump hammer off me as I was about to start laying into it.

 

That's exactly the distinction I was getting at. Your Land Rovers are/were high maintenance, your Austin Gypsy was an ungrateful bastard. Your mate might have thought taking the hammer off you was the right thing to do, but it wasn't.

[ruffgeezer]

Remind me again what you do for a living, Tim...?

 

NVQ Level 3 in compound swearing and spanner throwing.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Usually a full valet, full fuel tank or a full service is the death knell for any of mine!

 

Like earlier this evening in my recently serviced, brimmed Nissan Sex-Trial. Dropped down into third for a bend and it was like doing an emergency stop. Engine seized.

 

But at least I hadn't just bought 4 new tyres as that is what it would need in the next 1000 miles!

[Matty]

My old golf is a case in point. Pearlessly reliable for the past four years. When I bought the BMW I put the golf on eBay and a fella wanted to buy it for a banger rally. Appalled I decided to keep it and run it through the winter to save the BMW. So it's been laid up for 5 months and went back on the road 2 weeks ago. Saved from a certain death. It's rewarded me so far by needing a new rad, new master cylinder, new caliper and now the only part of the exhaust that isn't stainless (cat) is blowing. Ungrateful little twat

[vulgalour]

You see some dash lights out

 

So take the dashboard out

 

in

 

out

 

in

 

out

 

shake it all about

 

you do the OH FFS and you throw a tool, that's what it's all about.

 

 

OOOOH Princess dash electrics

 

OOOOH Princess dash electrics

 

OOOOH Princess dash electrics

 

We've fixed that now, the reverse light wont work.

[Tickman]

Usually a full valet, full fuel tank or a full service is the death knell for any of mine!

 

Like earlier this evening in my recently serviced, brimmed Nissan Sex-Trial. Dropped down into third for a bend and it was like doing an emergency stop. Engine seized.

 

But at least I hadn't just bought 4 new tyres as that is what it would need in the next 1000 miles!

 

Liked for solidarity and a hope mine doesn't do it to me

[Partridge]

Sore point, right now. Every car that I've had, with the exception of two (my 405 and the X300 that I gave away) has done this to me.

My grounded Sterling is a case point, sitting dead on the drive with a renewed cooling system and two new tyres in the boot, that were going to be fitted. 

 

I'm actually delaying servicing the 605 because I know it will defecate on me from a great height, after 6 months of faultless service, if I give it love.

 

Remind me, why do we do this?

[xtriple]

Does no one on here remember the Big Green Dollop? Fuck me that car was the very essence of this thread - £25 thousand quid in repairs and maintenance in 3 years and then the bastard blew its head gaskets - another £6000 minimum. That's why I now own an XJ-S which is rapidly going the same effin' way!

 

Today I did the tyres and the oil and then on the way home the passengers window packed up which discombobulated Chester no end as his head was stuck inside the car when he  prefers it solidly outside catching the breeze.

 

in the short time I've had it I fixed one oil leak only to cause another, fixed a water problem and gained a leak, repaired all the dashboard and the lights packed up, fixed them and the horn quit. Definite one step forward, five steps back car!

[Iamgroot]

Usually a full valet, full fuel tank or a full service is the death knell for any of mine!

 

Like earlier this evening in my recently serviced, brimmed Nissan Sex-Trial. Dropped down into third for a bend and it was like doing an emergency stop. Engine seized.

 

But at least I hadn't just bought 4 new tyres as that is what it would need in the next 1000 miles!

This is exactly why I've stopped filling up the fuel tank on my vectra with the thumping dmf.

 

My P100 is in my neighbors garage after shitting it's head gasket on way back from passing the MOT, right after getting 4 new tyres and having the floors welded, sills replaced, rear lights rebuilt, some rewiring, both new track rods, etc. Yes i know it's an easy job on these, but unfortunately it was on a 4 notch head gasket and I can't find anything above 4 notches with the right shaped gallery holes. Ungrateful bastard

[D Spares & Tyres]

That is why cars are invariably female.

FFS, don't start all that off again! Last time someone made a joke like that, the Grumpy Old Man thread ended up being renamed!

[D Spares & Tyres]

Does no one on here remember the Big Green Dollop? Fuck me that car was the very essence of this thread - £25 thousand quid in repairs and maintenance in 3 years and then the bastard blew its head gaskets - another £6000 minimum. That's why I now own an XJ-S which is rapidly going the same effin' way!

 

Today I did the tyres and the oil and then on the way home the passengers window packed up which discombobulated Chester no end as his head was stuck inside the car when he  prefers it solidly outside catching the breeze.

 

in the short time I've had it I fixed one oil leak only to cause another, fixed a water problem and gained a leak, repaired all the dashboard and the lights packed up, fixed them and the horn quit. Definite one step forward, five steps back car!

It's an XJS. No offence, but what exactly did you expect?!

[MarvinsMom]

rodney mini, the hatefull little shit bag, is this in spades.

 

put it back together and get it tested for the first time in years. its self no mean feat and at some hidious cost. i dunno how much cos it would only make me depressed.

 

go all the way to Brighton and back north to Newark before it decided that it didn't like working any more. dipshit from the RAC breaks the fuel pump and looses said broken bits in the engine. make it home 24 hours later.....

 

pull the speedo drive off of the gearbox and retrive the lost bits of fuel pump, add new pump and put it all back together, only for it to them blow a wheel bearing. then the clutch stopped working, then the front brakes needed new back plates again and then it over heated so it got a new radiator, and then it didn't want to run anymore so it got a second hand manifold and peashooter exhaust, then the reversing lights on the boot lid started to come on pretty much all the time, so each time it got used it would break.

 

the list goes on and ont, which is why the car has been dumped in the garage since June? well i think it was June cos i'm ignoring it, maybe it will reassess its attitude (no chance) or get stolen (couldn't be that lucky) if not then we can i guess have a go at selling the little shitbag in the spring!

[eddyramrod]

In my long experience, this is exactly what ALL cars are designed to do.  Never mind getting you where you were going; never mind looking good on the driveway; never mind helping you survive a crash.  The whole object of being a car is to cause annoyance and inconvenience to your third or fourth owner, and if you can incur significant expense at the same time, bonus!

 

Allow me to cite my Mercury Sable; Saab estate; both mk1 Granadas... and that's just off the top of my head.

[blakey79]

I will tidy up the dent in the door, lower half respray that will see that looking sweet.

Replace a few hoses to stop a leak, head gasket failure 3 weeks later.

Nice car so let's get the HG fixed, firstly lets get the MOT sorted.

All in spend of £1600 so far, what's that Mr MOT man, no I wasn't aware that last MOT the mileage was 160000,now it's only 87000.

 

Let move this on then,declared all to the next buyer, decided to go out for one last ceremonious drive round the block, and it shows no sign of overheating, sold for £700

 

A cautionary tale, never buy cars of alleged mates, and be extra cautious when buying a old BMW 6 cylinder, and don't go all gooey eyed and forget all checks when you've wanged the engine up to 6000 RPM and instantly fallen for the tone of a sweet sounding 6 pot engine...

 

BMW 323s soon I will be able to laugh this one off.

[Zelandeth]

Yes...have had some cars like that. Two of which were Skoda Estelles.

 

The latter one, an orange 120LX was in my care for two years or so, and I think maybe a few months of that was spent not actively hunting down some form of gremlin. Every time you fixed something, another problem would surface.

 

Usually they reward prompt and preventative maintenance though. Sometimes you do just get one of "those" cars which just don't want to be saved it seems.

[Mrcento]

Land Rovers last forever, mainly because you have to keep going around them screwing them back together and replacing parts constantly

 

This.

 

And Fiats.

 

Even replacing a bulb tends to = something like a throttle cable randomly snapping.

 

Oh, you want to finally fix that sticky handbrake? no worries, let me just snap my clutch quadrant instead. Oh look, that coolant sensor that's been causing it to run rich has been replaced and it's now running perfect, let me show my appreciation by dumping half a litre of gearbox oil.

[Ghosty]

216SLi. Buy car, HGFs. Continue having funny issues the whole time I have it, generally be a bit ropey and ungrateful.

740. Broke something for every thing I fixed. Wheels and tyres gave me such a nightmare, that between that and me being broke that I sold it. Also, the sunroof didn't work.

Prelude was fine, actually. It was just a bad, impractical idea.
 

416GSi was fine too. It just smelt funny.

GTi had some really silly things wrong with it and put up a real fight, but I appear to have won.

Civic is good, and genuinely doesn't need anything. It even has cambelt history ffs.

[eddyramrod]

Allow me to cite my Mercury Sable; Saab estate; both mk1 Granadas... and that's just off the top of my head.

Woke up this morning amid thoughts of my Chevy Blazer.  That thing was a perfect illustration!