Automotive Myths

[Richard]

Jilted wife sells husbands Ferrari for £10

This is almost true - it was a Lotus Esprit V8, and the wife put it on eBay for 50p BIN - her husband was a DJ and he'd slagged her off on air one too many times. I saw the eBay listing - too late to press the button though, alas.

 

I'm sure I remember hearing the story about a Porsche long before eBay was invented. Urban myths do have a way of coming true eventually

[Negative Creep]

Jilted wife sells husbands Ferrari for £10

This is almost true - it was a Lotus Esprit V8, and the wife put it on eBay for 50p BIN - her husband was a DJ and he'd slagged her off on air one too many times. I saw the eBay listing - too late to press the button though, alas.

 

I'm sure I remember hearing the story about a Porsche long before eBay was invented. Urban myths do have a way of coming true eventually

 

 

I remember that one but have heard several other versions. There is also the type of tale where the old lady sells that pile of junk her deceased husband has and it turns out to be a Rolls Royce prototype or something.

 

Having said that, there was a similar story on US ebay recently. I think it was an Oldsmobile 442, the guy thought it would only be good for parts but was some sort of ultra rare homogolation special and went for a fortune

[HBR]

if you take a Mini 1100 engine & fit the crankshaft from a Mini 1000 it'll make it a 1275!

 

 

I heard an "expert" on Minis say this on several occasions, What you'll actually get is a Mini 1000 that wont run because the shorter 1100 conrods with the shorter throw 1000 crank means it'll have utterly rubbish compression!

[CreepingJesus]

Automotive Things Have 'Soul' part 5473 - discuss.

 

Sunday, on returning to the Somerfield/Co-op yard in Dunfermline, I was amused to find one of the Volvos abandoned by the gatehouse.

It turns out that Ian, doing the shunting that day, nipped down to the gatehouse to get some paperwork. When he came out, she just wouldn't start. Nothing, not a flicker of life. Shortly after, a small puddle of oil formed on the tarmac, right under the bellhousing. Even given that she's a relative youngster, at only 700 thou, a rear crankshaft oil seal failure shouldn't cause total and utter failure.

This Sunday coming, the motors won't be coming home, 'cos the place closes for good. Most of her compadres are already at the new Newhouse yard, and the rest will join them soon. For a number of reasons, most of the ex-Somerfield drivers won't be.

Could it be that this old (eh? it's an 05 plate) warhorse couldn't face leaving her home, and the people who've thrashed her mercilessly (ok, myself included ) since day 1, and just gave up? Suddenly, I wasn't so much amused, as wondering about the possibility of a suicidal truck. Spooky, eh?

[theorganist]

Suddenly, I wasn't so much amused, as wondering about the possibility of a suicidal truck. Spooky, eh?

 

We part exchanged our Fiat Tipo (one with the digital dash) for a Renault Megane a few years ago.

 

The trader we bought the car from delivered the Megane and drove the Tipo to the scrapyard. On entering the scrapyard a fire started behind the instrument panel.

 

I thought that was quite spooky, we had had the car a number of years.

[morris_ital_lover]

On a similar note, my mum flogged her mini metro back in the 1980s and left it on the new owners forecourt only for it to "end" a high speed police car chase within 30 minutes of her having handed over the keys! (She hated it though).

 

As for another myth... hows about all mercedes made after the 190e are amazing reliable cars.

 

m0rris

[Pete-M]

As for another myth... hows about all mercedes made after the 190e are amazing reliable cars.

 

Heh, my old 190E was probably the least reliable car I've ever owned. Piece of shit, that was.

[Rod/b]

Suddenly, I wasn't so much amused, as wondering about the possibility of a suicidal truck. Spooky, eh?

 

We part exchanged our Fiat Tipo (one with the digital dash) for a Renault Megane a few years ago.

 

The trader we bought the car from delivered the Megane and drove the Tipo to the scrapyard. On entering the scrapyard a fire started behind the instrument panel.

 

I thought that was quite spooky, we had had the car a number of years.

 

My wife's first car did something similar. It was a Talbot Samba. It caught fire just ouside the dealers as it was being taken in to PX it for an MkV Escort. Her dad parked it, put the fire out, walked in, did the paperwork, tossed the keys to the dealer and drove off in the Escort.

 

Karma, however, obviously rules, as the Escort turned out to be the biggest pile of shit going.

[Rusty Pelican]

A friend of mine bought an old Sunbeam Stiletto for scrap , whilst ripping out the dash there , jammed by the heater was a photograph , It was of his Mother who died when he was young , research via the DOOVLA proved it used to be his Mothers old car

Car was then restored by him instead of being scrapped

Spooky

[Timewaster]

Stolen from another forum:

Is this actually possible? The gap in the ring of disc in the last pic makes me think its a set up.

 

Oh, and RustyPelicans photo story

[simmo]

Re the disc ring, it looks like it has spat out the inner pad so damage may of been caused by the caliper piston, which would have a smaller contact area.

[barefoot]

...and surely it's a rear disc which don't do anything anyway?

[simmo]

That's what the driver must of thought when it first made a noise

[richardthestag]

That's what the driver must of thought when it first made a noise

 

If it had been mrs thestag no doubt the radio would have been turned up

[Lord Sterling]

On the spooky cars bit, I remember seeing something on TV many years ago about a family who had a Blue mk1 Ford Sierra, the Sierra was involved in an accident and subsequently written off, the car was taken by the insurance company (who presumably sold the car to someone who repaired it After that, wherever the family went, the Sierra would spookily just happen to turn up, even when they went to London for a day. I dont remember what programme it was, but thats all I remember.

[Rod/b]

TALES of the UNEXPECTED?

[Des]

Maybe mother of the family was hot and had a stalker, he bought the car for seat sniffing, gear knob licking, collecting hair etc. Got it repaired to employ in follow and observe activities.

[danthecapriman]

With reference to that rear disc, during my time as a mechanic I once had a Volvo 740 saloon in with a rear brake efficiency problem. on removing the wheel I found that the caliper had seized, the pads, which were also wedged in at an angle, wore down to their back plates which then wore the disc away! All that was left was the hub section of the disc sat where it should be and turning freely, and the caliper seized and rusted solidly to the remains of the friction surace of the disc. Very similar to those pics. Never seen anything like it before or since then.

Makes you wonder how and why the owner kept trying to drive it! surely anyone would have noticed there was a problem long before that happened!?

[dollywobbler]

Makes me wonder whether a tale my mechanic chum in Brum told me is actually true. Reckons he had a customer come in complaining of poor brakes and a clanging sound, and the rim of the disc was clattering around as the middle had gone completely.

[Pete-M]

I had a Rover P6 years ago that had a sticky rear caliper, which is an inboard nightmare of a job unless you know a few tricks.

 

Me, I didn't know the tricks, so ignored it and kept driving. A short while later I heard a clang from the back of the car, but to drive it, nothing had changed. Brakes didn't seem to be sticking as badly, but the handbrake no longer did anything much at all.

 

Get under the car to investigate and there's half a disc on one side. The caliper was stuck solid and the disc had obviously just shattered.

[Guest]

The only way you will get your car to handle is to fit coilovers to it.

[Negative Creep]

The only way you will get your car to handle is to fit coilovers to it.

 

 

Or making the ride as stiff as possible = sporty

[CreepingJesus]

The only way you will get your car to handle is to fit coilovers to it.

 

 

Or making the ride as stiff as possible = sporty

 

Like all myths, so easily torn to shreds by reading a good book! Like Allan Staniforth's 'Race And Rallycar Sourcebook', of which I must hunt down my copy. Good bedtime reading...

[barefoot]

Does anyone remember the tale about the Reliant Robin that was 'clocked by the police at 104mph'?

 

I seem to recall it being taken away for testing because the rozzers couldn't believe it could do such a speed.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Guest]

Does anyone remember the tale about the Reliant Robin that was 'clocked by the police at 104mph'?

 

I seem to recall it being taken away for testing because the rozzers couldn't believe it could do such a speed.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

I remember a bloke in Scotland having a row with the rozzers because they caught him doing 120 mph in a built up area, in an old 205 XRD. He had a massive spat with them because it was around the time the LTI 20-20 radar gun was getting a bad press for being wrongly calibrated. The police wouldn't back down and said their evidence was unequivocally correct. Our man said they were talking bollocks because by the gun's reckoning the 205 got from 0-120 in about three seconds in the distance he pulled away from the lights and got papped.

 

The judge ordered the car to be taken to Knockhill to see what speeds it was actually capable of. After all that the babylon finally dropped the case.

 

Would have been an interesting day out anyway.

[richardthestag]

Used to have huge fun hiding marbles in one particular mates hub caps which drove him nuts. Funny how every car he owned made this funny tapping noise as he drove along. he took a tina mk3 thing back to the bombsite he bought it from, to read the riot act at the salesman who removed the stones and marbles from the hub caps.

 

We all found it very funny but mate went freekin nuts. was quite unreasaonable about the whole affair. Anyway his next mota was an automatic 1.6 tina - mainly though so that he could finger his GF while driving .... eughhhh. My entire marble collection went into the fuel tank of that baby, he did ask us what we had done beacsue the car kept making dinging noises when the fuel was running low but didn't have anywhere near the effect that I was hoping for. It was stolen shortly after and found floating in the Thames - i mean like how are they going to get the smell of fish off those seats.

 

Anyway back to myths, does anyone know if a bag of tate and lyles finest in the fuel tank does bugger up the fuel system and bring the car to a complete halt?

 

Not a myth, my old boss Larry who had a brand new XJ40 2.9 company car (Pub landlord shite) tried to solve his overheating problem by pouring water in the fuel tank.

[Cavcraft]

'If you turn the ignition on/off three times in a row it'll knock off the speed limiter'.

Oh no it doesn't, well not on an Iveco Cargo it didn't.*

 

 

 

*But jacking the cab up and ripping the wire out did. This enabled you to get your next breakdown a bit quicker.

[cms206]

Anyway back to myths, does anyone know if a bag of tate and lyles finest in the fuel tank does bugger up the fuel system and bring the car to a complete halt?

 

 

Not sure on that one, but apparantly polystyrene balls from a beanbag or similar will royally fuck everything up, as will a couple of balls of cotton wool.

 

Must remember not to upset my tame mechanic...

[M'coli]

Polystyrene dissolves nicely in contact with petrol to leave a sticky, gooey mess.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Would these things just clog the fuel filter or bugger up the carbs, injectors or whatever?