Complete mechanical failures

[HMC]

Just remembered my Dolomite incident. Cornering hard ( is there any other was in an 1850 automatic?) somehow the rear axle fell to pieces, one wheel almost fell off and the other locked up, a scenery/ car interface couldn't be avoided this time and it was terminal as the axle borkage and resulting damage meant its next trip was via a hiab.

[xtriple]

Oh yeah... had the rear passenger side wheel fall off and go sauntering along the M6 on its own from my MK X Jaguar. Wheel bearing had collapsed and chewed it away completely, never heard a thing!

 

Same car, I changed the oil and couldn't undo the drain plug so kicked it... the wrong way! Stripped the threads beautifully. Was at work 50 miles from home so pvc tape and careful with the socket had it oil tight. Until about 10 miles along the M6 (again) oil pressure vanished from the gauge as a delightful slick changed the colour of the road behind me as the rain and oil mixed...

[barefoot]

My old Trabbie was an odd little car, returning from the National Micro Car rally at an indicated 100, it suddenly became absolutely silent and the charge light came on. Coasted to a halt on the hard shoulder, I turned the key and it burst back into life and made it home. Later that evening, reading through the handbook I'd bought at the show, I discovered that you should only drive them at maximum speed for about 20 km before releasing the throttle, letting the revs drop back to tickover, its got a freewheel on top gear. Then you put your foot down again and continue as before. Should have fucking known!

Many month later, it became very slower and made a tinkling noise.

Pulled up, was recovered, took the head off and found one of the two bores full of metal shards and the piston very scored.

Ordered a replacement engine from the owners club, it was delivered a couple of days later for something stupid like sixty odd quid all in.

[The_Equalizer]

Suppose I've had a couple of other 'interesting' ones.

 

I was off to my cousin's 40th b'day driving my mum and dad. Thought we'd make a bit of a trip of it and take the MK2 Jag I had at the time. There was a fair bit of wobble in the steering. Dad suggested we pull over and have a look. Checked underneath, had a good look round generally with absolutely nothing obvious. We carried on and it don't get any worse until I booted down the slip road onto the M25 when there was a sudden bang with bits of trim and rubber flying everywhere. The entire tyre tread had delaminated from the carcass on the front offside. It was like someone had got a big potato peeler and striped off the tread of the tyre. Thankfully I got it to the hard shoulder without a great deal of fuss. The damage was limited to a bent wing, wing mirror, indicator surround and obviously a bu66ered tyre. From that day on I've always ensured I've got decent tyres on my motors.

 

Also had a front wheel bearing go on my W202 C230 Merc. Mild noise for just a mile and then bang. Luckily at low speed. Supposedly - according to my friendly Merc indy - it's quite common for them to go in such a fashion. I managed to nurse the Benz home. When I stripped down the suspension I found the inner bearing race had welded itself to the steering knuckle.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Two days into a new job 1986.

Driving a Director back from Castleford to MK on the M1 in his year old 3.4 XJ6. Outside lane at about 90, it suddenly sounded like a motorbike, by the time I'd made it to the hard shoulder a rod was out and the motorway was covered in shrapnel and oil.

Eventually got recovered to a company warehouse in Daventry, where we commandeered the manager's Cavalier estate. Took director home , convinced I was going to be sacked. After dropping him off a bloke in an Avenger pulled out in front of me on a dual carriageway , I T-boned him at about 70*, writing off the Cavalier and Avenger I was so pissed off I'd got the other driver by the throat and making him sign a full confession when the Old Bill turned up.

Amazingly I kept my job and stayed there for 10 years!

 

 

More recently 2.2 Dci Espace seized and 3.0 e61 BMW cam chain snapped. I only tend to break modern( at the time) cars.

[Guest Hooli]

 

 

 

 

Also had a front wheel bearing go

 

 

Which reminds me, I had a front wheel bearing seize on a Suzuki SJ at dual cabbageway speeds. The right front wheel locked instantly & the car swerved right, the only way to avoid a roll was stamp on the brakes & lock the other front to match. it stopped on the central res so damn lucky nothing was overtaking at the time!

 

Not sure it qualifies for this thread though as I had a second hand spare in the back which I fitted & drove home.

[New POD]

1984 - the big end needle bearings shattered on my Suzuki Ts125ER

1985 - the big end wrapped itself around the crank on my Spitfire Mk4

1988 - the pistons seized in the bore and a conrod was bent on my RD350375LC. The back wheel locked at 95 mph.

1996 - I ignore the fact that the wheel bearing and CV joint on my mk2 cav 1.6 were making strange noises and it let go at 90 mph in the fast lane with a baby and toddler and wife in the car in the rain on the M6. To say I changed my attitude and religion from "Hindu" to "fatalist" is an understatement.

1998 - the conrod wrapped itself around the crank on a polo

2006 - the conrod went through the block on my CalibrE  (Note the E - very important not to be confused with an A)

2015 - the oil light came on and having drained the oil through a sieve, I concluded that there was too much steel in the oil. Honda 2.2 accord -iCDt-i

[forddeliveryboy]

A couple of valve heads dropped off just as I'd overtaken a line of cars in a girlfriend's Focus - from the noise it was fairly clear the engine was a gonner so I saved face and somehow it ran on two cylinders far enough to pull ahead of the line of slow traffic before I vanished into a side road to make a phone confession and call help.

 

Not so long after, a gearbox on an Aldi 80 disintegrated on the way home from purchase - it was low on oil and I stupidly hooned it on roads which went round most corners of most fields. Fortunately an easy repair with a stronger and longer £25 box out of an A4, just a bracket needed moving on the casing.

 

Once borked a Clio diesel by running it dry of coolant - no flippin temperature gauge, hot summer's afternoon and much speed. Shame, I really liked that car, the engine was still glowing hot twenty minutes after it seized.

[catsinthewelder]

Waterpump failed on a mk1 Megane and knobhead here didn't notice until the conrod exited stage left.

 

The new engine lasted 12 miles before the crank pulley fell off and wrecked all the valves.

 

The new head lasted 3 months before the cam pulley dropped to bits and the belt fell off.

 

That engine lasted until my friend rolled the car.

 

Other tows home include more water than petrol in a HiJets petrol tank.  Holed gearbox in a Boxer,  Oil pump failure in another Boxer and a Type 2 jammed in reverse.

 

There was the BX that melted it's engine but that was Ms C and I just called the Hiab that time.

[Noel Tidybeard]

cambelt 1600 montego TWICE- non interference thank fook

 

F18 gearbox 2.0 gls vactra- need i say more

[PhilA]

Many years ago I was headed from Bristol towards Gloucester on the M5 in a 1.8 diesel, M reg Escort van. It was full in the back of an aircraft propeller that was being ferried there by yours truly to the repair shop up at Staverton.

 

It's a fairly nice day, about noon so the traffic is fairly busy. Unfortunately the fan blower motor put out more horsepower than the engine, approaching the top of the hill coming up out of Bristol N I made the mistake of entering lane 3 to pass up a couple trucks doing 56.0 / 56.1 MPH passing maneuver. I rapidly ran out of steam, doing maybe 75, and this obviously infuriated Mister 1.8tDciWnkR in his VW Passat repmobile behind me because he was doing a great impression of somebody trying to draught for OMGMPG. Changing down into 4th was not an option at that speed. It would have resulted in more noise but less motive power as the torque band* was fairly low on the 1.8 derv.

 

Of course, here's muggins hearing the engine note drop slowly, with the accelerator pedal squeezed as hard as it would go into the rubber mat, watching the mirror, watching the speedo... crested the hill and began to gain speed down the other side to try and pull in and let the NASCAR expert driver past. Speed begins to increase! We begin to make progress! Halfway down the hill! Passat behind disappears in a cloud of black smoke! Dashboard lights up red! Pressing throttle has no effect!

 

Large bang ensued, left signal put on, the guy made room for me because he had no choice and also had seen the rather large guff of clag that engulfed certainly all of lane 3. Managed to safely pull over and coasted to a halt.

 

Twisted key. Met with noise similar to that of a food mixer. Got out, opened the bonnet to see half of the timing belt poking out of a hole in the plastic cover and lots of little bits of melted looking plastic everywhere. The tensioner pulley, sensibly made by Ford from the finest plastics had overheated and let go.

 

Someone else came out, offloaded the prop into the L200 and carried on while I waited to be recovered. Bought a scrap head from a yard in Totterdown and fitted it- that ran for another 3 years before the vehicle was not only failed, but condemned by the MoT place. Thankfully by then I had left.

 

That was a fun afternoon

 

 

 

*optional extra, on this particular van the torque band was replaced by a small plastic blanking panel

[comfysofa]

Two fatal FTP's in the space of a month...i was undergoing "fiscal turbulance" and living on reduced means in a rented room in the arse end of the Fens and commuting to a miserable valeting job for a well known local big dealership...do it for a month or so until i could not bear the overbearing, opinionated workshop manager and the humourless boss...so take a punt on moving to Northamptonshire, loads of warehouses, easy to get a job etc.

 

Hand notice in at dealership...about a week or so later whilst coming back home from said crap job when my usually dependable little Kia Pride's temp gauge climbs into the red zone...get home, phone in sick the next day and head to Peterborough for a thermostat thinking that would be the end of it...on the way back from Peterborough into bandit country i notice that again the temp gauge rises into the red and the engine starts losing power...oh dear...middle of nowhere...cancelled RAC cover months ago as could not afford it...knew roughly that it was most likely head gasket, middle of nowhere but not far from home...hmm...

 

Ignition off...into 2nd...ignition on...floor throttle and squeal round twisty B-roads...engine die and repeat with swearing and sweating as no way of getting home or getting car into safe place otherwise...make it home...turn off engine and try again...click...click...click...dead.

 

With the £30 for the Pride i got from the scrap man, plus final pay packet from dealership, i sink half into what seemed like a reasonable 1997 Escort 1.6 (CL i think, may be wrong) and the other half for a room deposit and two weeks rent from a lovely woman in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire who took pity on me...before leaving Deliverance country for Northants, i notice that said Escort is a bit thirsty for water so keep topping it up every day but no time to investigate further...big mistake...

 

Moving day comes, two weeks after the incident with the Pride...all worldly goods that would not go in storage crammed to the rafters of the Escort...Escort duly topped up with water and after waiting hours for soon-to-be-ex landlord to come home with my deposit, i grab some chips and make my way to Welly, an hours drive roughly.

 

Most of the journey went well, until i heard a faint "tinging" noise from the engine about 12 miles away from Welly and the temp gauge creeping up...cold sweat time as no more water to put in expansion tank...pull over to check then decide to just go for it, if i just floored it as best as i could i could probably get to my new digs and just look at the car tomorrow...so off i go, sweating and cursing but car still in motion.

 

That is until i hit a big roundabout on the outskirts of Wellingborough, and give way to a solitary Corsa tootling it's way along...into first and then nothing...warning lights galore, tried engine...you guessed it, RIP. Only problem now is that it's getting dark and i am now blocking up a major roundabout with a elderly dead Ford Escort beyond overloaded...i stick hazards on and start to worry as i'm in a very dangerous position with the car being where it is and start to panic...ring Plod in a state..."on our way, can't guarantee when..."

 

Am now close to nervous breakdown when salvation appeared in a Citroen Berlingo with a tow rope, got a free pull all the way to new digs and the guy kindly wouldnt accept the fiver i was willingly wanting to give him...i'm not that religious but God bless that bloke.

 

The Escort i had paid £300 for from some scally from Grimsby had died. I'd lost £300 at a time i had nothing...it was a very difficult and humbling few weeks off 25p noodles until i could get benefits sorted and then get a job...i was without a car, the first time in about 15 years of owning powered transport and relagated to walking and public transport for nearly a year until i could afford another car, a humble Nissan Micra...

 

Which then borked it's rear brakes on the outskirts of Nottingham two months after buying it...a unique rarity of a K11 Micra with rear discs despite looking like Granny's shopping trolley...part would take two weeks to arrive from Europe and would cost nearly £200 including labour to fix...

 

Ouch.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I specialise in fucking up rare and interesting cars.  I bammed a Lancia Volumex, as noted above, and that was 2000% my fault.

 

Another stupid:  The fan belt on my Talbot-Matra Murena snapped.  I was only five miles from home so I thought I'd be OK.  The tolerance of a Murena for overheating is nil.  You don't even get one chance to get away with it. The engine lives in a not very well ventilated compartment, behind the cabin.  When it overheats, it cracks the head.  Duh.  The car expired just as I reached home.  Me, total knob, me.  

 

I had just agreed to sell the car for a good price, but had to ring the buyer and tell him the car was knacked. My mechanic then bought the car from me and fixed it.  He still has it. I might buy it back from him one day.

 

I managed to drop a valve on a Lotus Excel, but as far as I know that was just a result of the engine being at the 100K mark and due a rebuild anyway.  I added a bit of stupid when I limped the car off the motorway when I should have stopped sooner and put it on a truck.   Des bought the Lotus and rebuilt it.

[themildbunch]

205 Mi16 - big-end bolt sheared at 7k rpm resulting in the conrod and piston going through the block, oil filter and radiator. Unsurprisingly, not much engine wise was salvageable.

 

Mk2 Mondeo - temperature gauge dropped away whilst driving and a few minutes later the engine started losing power, pinking very badly under any sort of load. Pulled over and the engine cut out, spinning over with little compression when I tried to restart it. Turns out that a radiator hose had split and the engine had cooked itself to the point I'm assuming that the rings seized, as it was showing only about 20psi on the compression tester. I'd only had the car a week and ended up scrapping it.

 

My Mi16 powered BX gently and silently snapped it's timing belt some years ago at idle - AA man wound me up no end 'joking' about how fucked it was.. still he towed me home and didn't log it as a total failure so I could get another tow if I wanted... I took the head off and replace 14 valves and it's still running well now.

 

Bit worried about my big end bolts now!  Is / was this an Mi16 issue or was it oil starvation going around a corner at 7k?

[Anthony]

My Mi16 powered BX gently and silently snapped it's timing belt some years ago at idle - AA man wound me up no end 'joking' about how fucked it was.. still he towed me home and didn't log it as a total failure so I could get another tow if I wanted... I took the head off and replace 14 valves and it's still running well now.

 

Bit worried about my big end bolts now!  Is / was this an Mi16 issue or was it oil starvation going around a corner at 7k?

It's rare for the bolts to fail, so I wouldn't lose any sleep. I know it had the shells changed and the bolts re-used rather than replaced at least once, so I'm guessing that was at least a contributing factor given they're nominally single use (although plenty re-use without issue).

 

Oil starvation is the usual killer of Mi16 bottom ends as you know, but in this instance, it was actually in a straight line it went bang.

 

PS. Rare car those BX 16v's now. I shudder to think how many were murdered by 205 owners for their engines throughout the 90's and 00's

[Faker]

Yeah... I've managed to completely fuk a couple of engines during the course of the last 27 years of driving!

[Keymaster]

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

 

I had a similar experience on the Rock Ferry Bypass in a ropey AX14TZS I briefly owned. I was ragging every last horse from it & then BANG!

 

Being extremely mechanically naive at the time, I just slowed down a bit & carried on without realising quite what I'd done... however it became clear even to me that it was something quite serious as it knocked & echo'd its way through the Mersey Tunnel. Upon inspection at home I found a rod doing a little dance though a smokey hole in the block. It didn't even occur to me that it might have lost all its fluids & could seize up anywhere, any time & so it gamely soldiered on for a few days before I was able to source a replacement & send it to the scrappy.

[JuridicalGrunt]

Only failure i had was the gearbox in my celica gt4 when my dad was driving it home , bought the car with the box sounding like spanners being thrown out of a window and decided to chance driving it home, it got within 10miles then bang. it was stuck in what remaind of 4th gear but with me sitting on the center console and using both hands and with my dad rocking it back and forth i managed to get it out of gear, you couldnt move the stick towards 1st and 2nd, 3rd was gone and no drive in 4th just grinding sounds. i manged to get 5th and we limped it the last 10 miles making the worst noises but it made it home. here is some pics of inside the box.

[alf892]

I 'looked after' a girlfriends mk 2 escort van.......did loads of jobs on it.

 

Except change the oil......well I was only 17 (and cuntstruck)

It chose to take exception to this early one morning when I was trying to leave her house before her mum and dad arrived home from a night away

 

This meant I was stranded at the side of the road as they drove past........my direction of travel revealing where I spent the night.

[oldford]

I snapped a half shaft on a MK3 Cortina, unfortunately it was on outer side of the bearing so the wheel nearly fell off.

 

Over the next day I ended up sourcing a complete used axle and replacing it in a car park where I had to leave the car.

[Hendry]

Not me but my car so hope it counts, came back home from seeing a lassie one night November 2016 and my phone goes, its my dad whos a taxi driver, his car has broken down, can i wake my mum and see if she can find the documents for the breakdown cover on their bank account, so we phone them through and i go to where he is, he tells me about an hour ago the battery light came on and the car cut out but restarted and was driving fine, then when it went again the light came back on, car had little power and started acting erratically, i assumed it was the alternator, checked and it seemed like the alternator belt had shredded, so the AA guy turns up and confirms it and tows the car to my dads pals house, turns out bits of it had got caught in the cambelt causing it to skip a couple of teeth which resulted in the car needing cylinder head work at a machine shop, obviously new head gasket, new alternator belt, new timing belt kit, water pump, 7 new valves and 9 new rockers and a £1200-odd bill. It developed funny running after that, and sometimes wouldnt start, they thought it was down to the work not being done properly, i used it one night and engine fault messages, EML, coil light flashing etc. got it home and for ages it wouldnt start, and then was fine for a while after it.

 

Not long after it the daft sod broke down again, he had to go a different route to where he was going as one road was flooded and the other closed due to an accident, the road he was on had temp traffic lights right next to an island in the middle of the road with no signs on it or lighting, he navigated round the traffic lights, didnt see the island and rattled both drivers side wheels blowing out both tyres and the car would turn over but not start, towed to garage, new tyres and seemingly he had dislodged a relay under the bonnet. 

 

Then again he phoned me not long after that, the car had cut out and would turn over but not start, phoned AA through him and my mums bank account again and they sent out a local recovery truck operator with a flat bed, about 1/4 mile from home, he couldnt suss what was up with it, insisted on putting it on the flat bed rather than just use the bit at the back for just lifting the front wheels off the ground and towing it that way, took longer to load and unload than it did to drive home. Turns out in the end it was the fuel pump and had been the fuel pump on the way out all along causing all the other funny running issues, warning lights, cutting out, not starting, going into limp mode randomly etc. 

 

So as you can see ive inherited a really quality reliable car.