Complete mechanical failures

[Station]

I've had one complete mechanical failure in my life - this is where the engine or something else completely destroys itself, preventing one from continuing a journey and either means going straight to the scrapyard if a fire or a barrel roll or spending the next two months replacing the engine.

 

I replaced the sumo gasket on my Astra. You have to take the pick up pipe off to do a proper job. I didn't tighten up the bolts on the end of the pipe.

That night it got more and more tappety, and by the morning it was unbearably bad.

I decided a 6000 rpm thrash up the M53 was in order to clear it out. The pistons cleared out the cylinders, the block munched itself and the cams were gone before then. Amazingly I limped into the Little Chef car park two miles away before it seized solid.

 

Tell me your complete and utter conrod through the block talez (not your AA recoveries for a snapped alt ).

[DodgeRover]

I saw a scimatar being run round the fields minus it's sump, it didn't let go amazingly.

[dave21478]

The only proper failure I had was a mkII Golf. VAG reliability etc blah blah....

 

It put a conrod through the block which split the external waterpump in half.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[strangeangel]

Series III Land Rover 109" station wagon, fitted with Perkins 4.203 diesel FFS.

 

I was a complete idiot to buy this, as - aside from the fact it was as rotten as a pear - the engine was shagged and consumed nearly as much oil as it did diesel. As an example, I once took it on a camping holiday to Germany; alongside the more usual equipment I had a 25l barrel of engine oil. We dumped the empty container just before making the return ferry crossing...

 

Anyway, one fine Sunday afternoon I was heading back from a weekend on the piss at a mate's in Ipswich. Hungover as I was I miscalculated an oil stop, and was greeted by a hideous grinding noise, followed by a loud bang and the rear wheels locking up, which was exciting.

 

The RAC trailered it to the garage where I had my student Saturday job, and instead of bridging the miserable heap of shit, we fitted a 2.5Di from a Transit, which was actually very good. Once the bright red Perkins was dumped on the ground, I set about the forensic examination. With the bolts undone, you could move the head enough to get a crowbar in, but no way could we (four of us all with crowbars) budge the fucker. In the end we gave up, and used the proprietor's JCB to wang it in the skip.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I pressed on regardless when my Lancia HPE Volumex was giving me clear warnings of impending doom, because (a) I am stupid, and (2 it was Xmas Day and I wanted to get home before the goose was cooked.  I cooked the car's goose, sure enough -  a con rod exited via the side of the block. 

 

Car later sold, and being rebuilt by some bloke now.

[scaryoldcortina]

I had a laguna.

[Tamworthbay]

I have never killed a car properly but have snapped a couple of propshafts. The Capri was the best as it was a mile from home after I had crossed the Peak District in the middle of a snow storm at night with diversions and no interior light to look at the map. If it had gone twenty miles before I would have been in the shit big time.

[Pillock]

 

When the water pump on a 1.3 Polo engine hasn't been fitted properly and the belt skips.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

The only proper failure I had was a mkII Golf. VAG reliability etc blah blah....

 

It put a conrod through the block which split the external waterpump in half.

 

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1.9 tdi with BXE engine code?

[SiC]

I had a laguna.

Hows the forfour coming along?

[Guest Lord Sward]

I had the PAS pump replaced on my TD5, but the fitter didn't tighten the retaining bolts beyond hand tight.  I recognised the symptoms which were getting worse so I stopped before anything bad happened.  Repaired at roadside by impressive AA monkey.

 

Another time towing the caravan out of Glasgow when the Denso air con compressor seized.  This was bad shit as it was on the M74 where the hard shoulder was marginal.  No brakes, no pas, no water pump and an engine drive belt tuning on a seized pulley making it smoke badly.  Again, TD5.  Full recovery ensured.

 

Rover 220 Turbo Coupe.  Attempting to max it on the M1, the aux drive belt snapped at 120mph+.  Full recovery ensued.

 

E-Type V12.  Stopped for a piss in a service area on A1 just before M42.  A bottom hose burst on the N/S bank while I was taking a leak.  Full Recovery.

 

MGF.  Out in the middle of nowhere in rural Northumberland, the coil lead fell off.  Really odd, but full recovery as its inaccessible.

 

MGF Out in the middle of nowhere in the North Yorks moors, the N/S/F wishbone snapped.  Full Recovery.

 

MGTF.  Jedburgh.  Snapped N//F wishbone.  

 

Do you want me to go on?

[richardmorris]

1. Lost the cooling fan and pulley on my 2cv. Being november 1993 I could have removed it and carried on, but being a new owner didn't.

2. Snapped camshaft in above 2cv on the a55. Definitely dead this time. Luckily a recovery lorry drove past and stopped a minute later. Recovered me home for £50 ( 1994).

3. Smacked head on in my cx Pallas in France in 2001 - not its fault though, but did close the main road south of Tours for a couple of hours - a dead cx isn't easy to move!

4. C5 fuel pump in 2009 I think, limp home mode and limited to 40mph.

5. C5 exhaust fell off in 2010

6. C5 fuel pressure regulator broke in 2012 .

Yes, the modern was the most unreliable heap of junk.

[dome]

I drove my Saab 9000 Aero flat out up the side of Loch Lomond 3 up with bikes and camping gear in it. A con rod made a successful bid for freedom in Glencoe. Nice place to break down right enough.

[Pillock]

I managed to twist a driveshaft on my Polo G40 and snapped it in two, doing a "gentle start" from some traffic lights where there may have been my friend from work alongside in his Leon Cupra R. 

 

Oh, and my own Leon that for a while was broken more often than not, including a knackered turbo and the big end bearings letting go both of which led to having a nice chat on the way home with the recovery truck driver.

[mercrocker]

The only engine I have actually grenaded was a Mk3 Zephyr.  Stretched bottom end bolts didn't get changed in a "rebuilt" engine I had bought.  Or incorrectly torqued, anyway this was the result....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I also once foolishly ignored the tinkling of an A Series timing chain and ended up on a deserted stretch of coast with no motive power in a Mk1 Mini.   And another time, of which I am not proud, I deliberately drove an overheating Simca 1100 to its death.   Both ended in more of a whimper than a bang, however.     

 

Nowadays I have much more mechanical sympathy especially given as my choice of car seems to have long out-grown the £200 purchase barrier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[xkjagnz]

especially given as my choice of car seems to have long out-grown the £200 purchase barrier.

 

In which direction?

[Roverageous]

I was thinking about this the other day. I've never had anything go bang - which is amazing considering I've only paid over £500 for 2 cars in 10 years.

 

1996 1.4 SPI Astra - Tappety when cold but otherwise fine.

1993 1.6 MPI Astra - 166,000 miles and fine. Not even tappety when cold.

1998 Hyundai Accent 1.3 MPI - Run low on oil several times, tappety when I picked it up. Quiet after putting some oil in it then did 10,000 trouble free miles.

2000 Renault Laguna (MK1 PH2) 1.6 - Absolutely fine. Scrapped in the end due to corrosion.

2001 Vauxhall Agila 1.2 - This did over 200,000 miles and never even had the usual timing chain issues. I was the last owner but had been in the family for 4 previous owners.

2003 Rover 45 1.8 - Bought it knowing it would need a HG (although ran fine, just losing coolant was leaking down the block from the HG), but was fine after than. Scrapped due to floor corrosion & needing a shed load of little bits.

2002 Rover 75 1.8 - Fine. Got bored and wanted a better specc'd one.

2001 Rover 75 2.0 v6 - Cost £200 on eBay unseen. Bloody brilliant car. Should never have sold it. Still going strong with advisory free MOTs by the look of it.

1999 Rover 75 2.0 CDT - Fine, but felt its mileage (291,000) so chopped it in for my current diesel. Never appeared on his forecourt and hasn't been taxed since though.

Present 75s - Fine.

[mercrocker]

@xkjagnz

Sadly, the wrong way.....

[scaryoldcortina]

Hows the forfour coming along?

Should be some progress this week, I've been busy with other things. It doesn't count here though, I had taxed the Laguna and was using it when it ate a plastic bag and died.

[seth]

Mrs_Seth blew most of the contents of the Herald's sump out of the dipstick hole when this happened on the M1 one time heading to work. This was with a 'proper' Triumph engine obvs.

 

[SiC]

.

[overrun]

I've spun a few bearings and destroyed a few diffs. My own doing really, though.

[xtriple]

Jaguar series 3 4.2 had a rod escape on the A38 on the way back from the auctions where I had just bought it. Repaired with new engine, sold and profit made! amusingly, the engine carried on running with the rod doing a little dance out the side of the block, turned it off and it never turned again.

 

Honda S800 seized once while on a hoon, felt like all the brakes locked on. However, good old Honda engineering, left it 20 minutes and it started and drove slowly to the nearest garage where several litres of oil were put in it - I had NEVER checked the oil in a year of ownership and about 20K miles! It was absolutely fine afterwards.

 

Smashed a piston to bits on a Yam TDM 850 while pottering teaching my wife to pass her bike test. Seized loads of 2 stroke bikes, par for the course, usually make it home just one cylinder down.

[mercrocker]

 

Honda S800 seized once while on a hoon, felt like all the brakes locked on. However, good old Honda engineering, left it 20 minutes and it started and drove slowly to the nearest garage where several litres of oil were put in it - I had NEVER checked the oil in a year of ownership and about 20K miles! It was absolutely fine afterwards.

 

 

 

 

Which reminds me of a (alright, THE) piston picking up on a CB125S that I was thrashing home from work one nice summer afternoon.   Let it cool and it ran just as well as ever an hour or two later.

[Yoss]

I was overtaking someone in the Triumph on the A30 near Shaftesbury. Changed down to third to get past. No problem. Changed back up to forth and there was a bang and I lost all drive. Luckily coasted into a convenient side road. I pulled the input shaft out (the usual problem on Triumph 1300s) but it was fine. So I got recovered home and I once I started pulling the car apart I found this:

 

 

I now carry a spare clutch at all times as well as an input shaft as I could have fixed it myself if I'd had it with me.

[saucedoctor]

No pics (cos it was 1992). Samba with a 1360cc twin carb. Changed up into third and BANG! Massive deceleration, a big skid and a sudden stop. Dunno WTF happened, but there was bits of engine, gearbox and oil all over the road.

 

The gearbox in my 954cc LE gave up in similar, but less dramatic circs.

 

While it didn't start ​with total mechanical failure, my mate's Nova certainly ended up that way. The rear axle mount let go (rot) and when it did, the car spun and hit a bank, pretty hard. Fucked. My boss at the time arranged to get it home on a humungous trailer that we used for shifting bulldozers.

[panhard65]

I had a mk3 Cavalier SRI 130 that snapped a rod in the fast lane of the M11. It was still running on 3 when I stopped but wouldn't re-start as the rod took out the starter motor.

Had this happen to a Renault Estafette when the AA decided to rev it up when the bottom end was obviously fucked.

 

[stripped fred]

My old a4 made a small tapping sound from the engine when I accelerated away from a junction. It took about another 10 miles to start eating itself and went to the scrap yard shortly after, minus the bits I removed from it. In hindsight I would have put another engine in it but it didn't seem to make economic sense at the time. I have got a video of it sounding like a tractor but don't know how to load it on here.

[beko1987]

not your AA recoveries for a snapped alt ).

I had to have an aa recovery for a snapped Alt belt... It nom nommed on the cambelt and knocked the timing out. Was fixed that weekend though.

 

Aa call out for the clutch clip, was a bit helpless with no tools (stupid) and in my wimpy office clothes in the snow!

 

Aa recovery when the wheel fell off the zx on the m25... Although if the brake disc hadn't ground itself flat on the road I would have probably fitted the spare and limped home

[stripped fred]

I remember another car I killed. A company pool car 1.6 sierra estate (it in 1989 so probably a C or D reg) which I was ragging down the m69. I was in the fast lane doing about 85 when there was a bang and loss of power. As I was pulling over to the hard shoulder I noticed an oil slick developing in the rear view mirror. My dad and I did think about buying it off the company and fixing it up but then thought better of it.