Cars with a short fuse - they go bang shortly after you get them

[matara]

Which car's have you had hoping that they would be good for a short while only to let you down ever so quickly after you collect them.

 

Whilst I ventured out of shite territory to some bling, I bought a 996 porker here in Sydney to have it crack its head withing 8km of handover. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZZ2QaT3ewE

 

 

Also had a brand new Rover 418 SLDT oil burner seize its gearbox after 50 miles. It not having been filled with gearbox oil from the factory might of had something to do with that. The kettle must of been whistling at Longridge whilst my car was passing through the gearbox dept.

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

My metro automatic didn't make it past 2 miles from the pub after handing over £20 for it. Lost drive going up the slightest incline. Good car that.

[captain_70s]

Bought my Dolly 1300, within 300 miles it'd snapped a rocker arm as the top end was so badly gunged up it must have been getting essentially no lubrication and the entire rocker assembly was fucked.

 

[rainagain]

This hateful piece of shite

 

The second most money I've ever spent on a car, thanks to the generosity of a family member. It was bought for my OH who had always just made do with whatever cheap shit I could fix up for her from Gumtree.

 

My OH loved it for the two weeks it ran before it span a bearing, when I stripped down the old engine it was clear that it had done this before and someone had just slapped on new shells on the knackered big end to sell it on. The seller denied that he was the one that did this, claiming he bought it for a friend who then didn't want it. I had to buy an engine for £550 as this was the going rate for DCi engine at the time, I also had to buy a new clutch as it the original one didn't look like it was going to last long.

 

 

I ended up selling it for £300 less than I paid for it after owning it for less than a year, including the engine, clutch, timing belt and other bits and bobs I was easily a grand down. 

 

Amazingly I've just checked and the shitting thing still has a valid MOT

[xkjagnz]

Bought a Subaru 2.5 legacy wagon, ran fine until I got into traffic on the motorway, then OMGHGF. Got another car the following day!

[wuvvum]

I've had three eBay purchases fail to get me home:

 

G-reg Toyota Celica, picked up from just outside London, threw a big end bearing coming off the M11.

 

Mazda MX3 V6, bought from Kent, overheated on the M20, came the rest of the way home on the big yellow truck.

 

1968 BMC ambulance, picked up from Derby, got on the A52 then the underslung spare wheel fell out of its carrier and landed on the propshaft, snapped it clean in two, cracked the bellhousing, and the flailing bits of prop took out the brake pipes and handbrake cable, and locked the back axle solid at 50mph.  That was interesting*.

[HMC]

2 return leg ftp’s

 

Head gasket blew on the m25 in a triumph spitfire

 

Alternator on a w124 250d- kept going until the lights dimmed as the night drew in and couldn’t really continue.

[lesapandre]

Ambulance sounds interesting*

 

*Now a coffeetruck/camper/glamping/ foodtruck/shabbyshique  Deleteas appropriate

[Tickman]

1968 BMC ambulance, picked up from Derby, got on the A52 then the underslung spare wheel fell out of its carrier and landed on the propshaft, snapped it clean in two, cracked the bellhousing, and the flailing bits of prop took out the brake pipes and handbrake cable, and locked the back axle solid at 50mph.  That was interesting*.

 

If it was a competition I think you win!

I thought the Astra was bad when I had a leak of petrol when I filled it up, sealing ring on the tank had been put back on incorrectly, and the thermostat was stuck open which was behind the cam belt, now it was just a minor hiccup in comparison.

[sierraman]

I’ve had a car break down on a test drive before. Unfortunately I was the one selling it.

[MikeR]

bought  a 126 years ago

 

carefully checked over and serviced mate , should see you right ...

 

threw a spark plug cover on the way home ......

 

which for a 126 was over half the engine power gone !

[Timewaster]

bought a 126 years ago

 

carefully checked over and serviced mate , should see you right ...

 

threw a spark plug cover on the way home ......

 

Was Autoshite a thing in 1893?

[Mike D]

I bought this megane off my mate at work for a ton - he'd run it for 2 years with no problems, never washed it or anything. The first day i got it I gave it a good clean - from then on it would only run on 2 cylinders - replaced the coilpack - still no good. The ECU had gone king dick.

 

That ended my folly into renault ownership pretty swiftly!

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

20 year old buys 3.0 GXL Capri at 11.00 am , fits RS Alloys and 185/60 P6es at 2 pm. Sees 140 on the speedo at 10.00pm , runs big ends at 10.01pm.

Following day removes wheels and twin headlights at 10.30 am , on the bridge by 11.00 am.

 

I'd like to think I've learnt something in the intervening 35 years, like to think...

[anonymous user]

Where do I begin, to tell the story of ..(hang on a minute, that's the song from Love Story, sorry about that) No, it wasn't a love story, it hated me and I hated it. I went to Stoke on Trent, from South Wales to look at a Volvo 240GLT, it looked great, drove nicely so I bought it. Once I was more than half way home it developed a misfire, this was not good as it was an automatic and would cut out in traffic. I nursed it home and set about trying to fix it, I started with new plugs, coil and leads as it seemed to be fuelling ok. Success, I thought as it ran nicely and smoothly, up to the point that I went to do some shopping, when it cut out in traffic and wouldn't restart. It was such fun trying to push it up on the pavement while the queue of traffic behind just sat hooting and watching. I discovered no spark, fortunately had the old coil with me swapped them over and it ran. Fixed? Well no, it would run nicely, but still start misfiring just when you thought it was ok. I did fit another new coil, but no different. I was annoyed enough to stick it into Volvo to see if they could fix it. After a few days and a moderately large bill I had it back. Was it now fixed? Well just for a day or so. I wasn't well at the time so left it on the drive for weeks, where the sight of it annoyed me enough that I stuck it on ebay as spares or repairs. It did sell, but for less than I'd spent on it at Volvo and completely writing off the purchase cost. I was glad to see the back of it.

[Maurice Marina]

20 year old buys 3.0 GXL Capri at 11.00 am , fits RS Alloys and 185/60 P6es at 2 pm. Sees 140 on the speedo at 10.00pm , runs big ends at 10.01pm.

Following day removes wheels and twin headlights at 10.30 am , on the bridge by 11.00 am.

I'd like to think I've learnt something in the intervening 35 years, like to think...

I cant tell my story as it only differs in very minor details.

[DoctorRetro]

I've never had a collection FTP in over 100 cars. Am I tempting fate?

 

Even the Lada 1200 that I drove from Southampton to Essex late at night on Hungarian plates with a vibrating prop donut was reasonably well behaved.

[Pillock]

I bought my first "grown up" car, my foray into "I'm an adult now, I need women to not think I'm a dick and I need to get to work on time occasionally". It was a Seat Leon 1.9TDI, with Cupra wheels and tinted windows and a blingy stereo.

 

Bought it from a chap in Lincoln. Drove it to my then GF's in Scunthorpe that same day, noticed a bit of turbo noise. The following morning I attempted to go to work in Newark in it only for it to fully shit the turbo about ten miles into the journey. Recovered to a garage who emptied £550 out of my pockets and took a week to sort it.

 

Three days later, way home from work and felt something wasn't right. Engine very noisy - big end, little end, all the ends. Called AA who took one look at the engine trying to climb out of the bay and towed me home. Albert Ross, shiter extraordinaire, had a look at it for me and suggested he shouldn't be able to lift #4 up and down in its bore by about 2mm. Had engine delivered on a pallet and he fitted it for me paid for mostly with snacks and beer because this £1300 car had cost me about £2300 so far. Took about 2 weeks to source an engine and get it fitted so in my first month of ownership I drove it about 100 miles, it did a further 20-odd on a recovery truck and it spent over three weeks laid up.

 

Ironically for all my trying to be an adult, work had to lend me a pool car, the GF got the hump and stopped talking to me as I couldn't afford to keep buying her nice things and treating her, and I realised that I'd sold my lovely not-pink E36 for this new life.

[sierraman]

The above story is what I tell myself every time someone goes ‘Why don’t you actually go and buy a decent car. Get a loan for five grand or so...’

[Tadhg Tiogar]

My metro automatic didn't make it past 2 miles from the pub after handing over £20 for it. Lost drive going up the slightest incline. Good car that.

Yes, don't mention automatic gearbox failures.... *hollow laughter*

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

^ I done the right thing* though and left it with the keys in it and walked home. Old Bill rang me 5 days later... "have you got a white metro parked* on a roundabout in Harlow... you know you've left the keys in it...". Me: " yeah, it's fucked, I don't want it" Them: "Oh, OK, bye then". Those were the days...

[dome]

My w210 300Td. Bought as a sensible cheap to run car after selling my 944 S2

 

I thought I'd got lucky as it was a non rusty one, I even got a prod underneath it on the traders ramp to verify this.

 

Of course, it cracked it's cylinder head about 3 days after buying it. Even doing the work myself it cost me far too much to fix the bastard thing

[Datsuncog]

I bought this Mk2F Polo Fox Breadvan in July 2013, after discovering that my 'safe, modern' Alfa 156 needed about £1500 worth of brake and suspension work to scrape it through its MOT.

 

 

It sputtered to a halt less than a mile after leaving the vendor's (very rural) driveway. I got it running again with a set of jump leads from my back-up vehicle... only for it to die another half mile down the road.

 

After pushing it onto a garage forecourt and much head-scratching, I finally twigged that the drive belt had snapped (presumably just after I'd given it a good poke to check the tension) and the dying battery wasn't helping matters. I phoned the vendor to see if he could help. He couldn't.

 

Unfortunately this all happened on The Twelfth, Norn Iron's very own indigenous public holiday, and everywhere was shut. Even Halfords and EuroCarParts.

 

We tried to get recovery through MrsDC's super-premium AA membership she had through Club Toyota - only to find out they'd changed their t&cs without telling her, and they'd now restricted cover to her Yaris only, not the 'any car you're travelling in' policy she thought she'd been paying for.

 

I had to leave the bugger on the garage forecourt, drive home (55 miles) and then return two days later with a new drivebelt and fit it there and then.

 

 

It wasn't really any wonder that MrsDC absolutely hated that car.

 

Which was a pity as, despite its vindictively basic spec, I rather liked it. I do have a thing for basic little buzzboxes. Even ones with an interior like this:

 

 

And I still have a hankering for a Citroen AX...

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Twice - which in terms of the number of shit automobiles I've bought and the fact I usually source them from the other end of the world - is a bloody miracle.

 

First was donkeys years back - triumph 2500S - not the cars fault really - as 'something' fell off a vehicle or was thrown up by them and pierced the radiator..... I trundled into the services, ripped out the radiator and left it overnight. Back next day with soldered rad and bottles of H2O. All good and ran like that for 3yrs when I discovered just how bad the rot was - it's kind of rebuilt, but still sitting in the naughty corner.

 

Second - Saturday - Golf with 'enhanced' performance seemed fine. sadly I only noticed the lack of sparkage and alternator charging once I'd left the safety of the lights of M74 behind. Flatbed of shame at 03.40am and currently in the garage yard. I'll wait and see what they say before I go totally ape on it. Hopefully a simple alternator swap and I'll go get it next wek...…….

[DoctorRetro]

Oh, there was the car with 'ice cold air con' that said air con worked for two miles then went lukewarm, but I'm not allowed to mention that car on this forum!

[Timewaster]

The above story is what I tell myself every time someone goes ‘Why don’t you actually go and buy a decent car. Get a loan for five grand or so...’

No! £5k is the danger zone as far as I am concerned.

Too much to be able to just bridge it if it fails, not valuable enough to warrant any big repair if it fails.

 

A £500 car with a big repair bill?

 

Bin it

 

A £5k car with a big repair bill?

 

You have no real option.

 

Incidentally my record is 2 hours and 35 miles between purchase and grenade detonation.

£100 Sierra Azure.

 

Stole £100s worth of bits and sold it to the banger boys for £50.

[sierraman]

Exactly. The thought of shifting £5,000 down the drain on a car makes me feel a bit ill.

[Pillock]

Oh, also this one...

 

 

It might be a bit oldschool with the date on the bottom of the photo, but it does mean I can tell you with some confidence that on the 11th April 2006 I bought a fully working, just been serviced 1993 VW Polo. It actually let go the same day, but after 6 hours on a recovery truck I was in no mood to take photos.

 

[Bren]

Our V6 cdti vectra - we had it just over 12 months before it developed a large appetite for coolant. Stood us at £2k, sold for £500.

 

If anybody offers you a car with the isuzu V6 diesel engine punch them in the dick.

[Uncle Jimmy]

I've never had a collection FTP in over 100 cars. Am I tempting fate?

Even the Lada 1200 that I drove from Southampton to Essex late at night on Hungarian plates with a vibrating prop donut was reasonably well behaved.

Anyone engaged in such activity ought to have a vibrating doughnut.