What's the worst mechanical failure you've had while driving?

[Ozstatman]

Back in the late 60's driving my mates '55 Ford Customline back from the drags at Surfers Paradise to Sydney,  a distance of about 600 miles, a rear axle snapped about 20 miles north of Coffs Harbour. No real drama and was able to coast along then pull over and stop using the hand brake. Only trouble it was in the middle of nowhere and it was a 100 degree summer day. While I hitched to a service station about 10 miles back for drinks and refreshments another bloke hitched into Coffs Harbour to a wrecking yard and picked up an axle and complete backing plate and brake assembly. Skidding along the road on the backing plate hadn't done it any favours. All this occurred relatively early in the day but by time the parts arrived it was afternoon and we only got going again late afternoon. All was well after that and got home safely. But why did the axle snap?The very likely explanation is, the car had been bought about a week prior and to prepare it for the trip had been up on a hoist and "slipped off" landing on its left side. That was the side axle that snapped!

 

Another time, borrowing my sisters 100/4  Austin Healey, driving home from the beach, the brakes failed. Pulled over, got out and found a hard brake line had split open and also that the leaking brake fluid was on fire! The fluid was leaking onto the  hot exhaust pipe! Where I stopped, there was a guy across the road digging in his garden. "Borrowed" his spade and scooped up spadefuls of dirt/gravel from under where the fire was and extinguished the flames. Then drove home using downshifting and the handbrake to get me there, a distance of about 20 miles! Fixed later that afternoon with a new section of brake line.

[Ozstatman]

4 hours ago, edinmass said:

I threw her out of the car, and the noise was gone. 

Wish it were that easy.

 

About 10 years back driving on the Newcastle Freeway in my 1941 120 Packard Coupe, in overdrive at about 70 mph, the wife says: "Isn't the car running well?" Well it was until, less than a minute later, a horrible grinding noise started coming from the overdrive. I would have thrown her out of the car if that would have helped, but I suspect the noise wasn't going to go away by doing that. Instead took the car out of overdrive and continued our  journey.

[nickelroadster]

I was driving to school in Wyoming in a 1964 Triumph TR-4 when I over reved the engine and threw a rod about twenty miles North of Medicine Bow.  My emergency towing insurance says it only pays to the nearest place that the vehicle can be repaired.  Medicine Bow was not that type of place nor were any of the other small towns on the way to Laramie so I got towed about eighty miles.  There was a rod sticking through the block but I still got a core charge refund on buying the rebuilt engine.  I suppose that when they got my old engine they didn't look very closely at it.  (It was quite dirty.)   

[Laughing Coyote]

22 minutes ago, nickelroadster said:

I was driving to school in Wyoming in a 1964 Triumph TR-4 when I over reved the engine and threw a rod about twenty miles North of Medicine Bow.

I know the area your talking about.  Not much of anything, but nature in those parts.  My pops use to take us kids up there all the time when we lived in Cheyenne when I was younger.  

[Steve9]

8 hours ago, jrbartlett said:

Keiser -- My grandfather had the identical '55 Royal Lancer, in that color combination. That car had the quietest engine I've ever encountered; at idle in drive you literally could not hear the engine from inside the car. The car survived until the late 1970s in Houston, Texas, but we lost track of it after that. 

 

As for wildest breakdown, I was driving a box van down the road when the steering wheel fell off and onto my lap. I had to quickly pick it up and stick it back on the shaft to regain control. Thankfully there was no one coming at me. 

Thats when you hand it to the person next to you saying “Here you wanna drive?”.

[PONTIAC1953]

in 1978 i was driving my 1953 Pontiac Chieftain Custom Catalina around the streets of Fresno, Calif on a light raining day, going 35 mph and the engine quit running, having had the 268 straight eight completely rebuilt, balanced, blueprinted two years before, this problem blindsided me, got the car home, and the next day with sunshine, i started checking everything, when the compression test revealed #7 cylinder having zero compression, i drained the radiator and engine, removed the cylinder head, and found that the new egge's aluminum piston had failed in the oil ring groove, leaving the headless piston skirt still attached to the wrist pin and connecting rod. being that the complete engine rebuild was now two years old, egge's refused to stand behind their poor quality aluminum piston casting, i bought another set of oversized pistons (0.060 over) and went back to Fresno to have the 268 block bored out, i re-assembled the engine, and put the car back together. i later sold the 268 with 8,000 miles on the second set of piston, because i decided to put a Pontiac 287 V8 in my car.

[Str8-8-Dave]

1969 GTO RA IV automatic was the car.  The worst disaster came in phases for that car.  One day I noticed it was dripping oil so I hoisted it at the Sunoco station where I worked at the time and found a stress crack in the oil pan stamping.  The car was still in warranty so I took it to the dealer who opined I'd obviously hit something with the car and he refused to warranty it.  Push came to shove and finally a GM service field rep showed up and told Mr. Red Holman Pontiac Dealer- ya better put an oil pan on the kid's car, I have 3 more oil pans just like his in my office...

 

Late the next day I went to check on the car and it was on a hoist dripping green anti-freeze which led to my asking why that was.  Turns out the mechanic got the pan off the car and found half the plastic teeth off the timing gear in the oil pan so they took the water pump off along with the FEAD pulleys and damper, timing cover, gears and cam chain and put a Cloyes steel gear set and heavy duty chain in the car so long story short they had the cooling system open to accomplish other repairs.  They finally gave it back to me.

 

A few weeks later I noticed a very slight audible knock when I touched the accelerator.  Once the car got moving you couldn't hear it.  We hoisted the car several times and never figured out what the noise was.  One cold January day I was driving the car on the freeway in a snow storm.  I decided I could do a little better than the 45mph the car in front of me was doing so I put my signal on and looked in the mirrors to make the pass and there was lotsa white smoke going out the tail pipes.  I looked down at the oil pressure gauge in the rally gauge pack and it was bouncing off zero.  I was just approaching the Grand Blanc exit on US 23 so I switched off the ignition, coasted up the exit ramp into a Gulf station at the top of the ramp.  I raised the hood and EVERYTHING was dripping oil.  Phone calls were made and captain hook showed up and towed the car into Superior Pontiac Cadillac n Grand Blanc.  They pushed the car inside and hoisted it.  The mechanic there produced a pocket knife and cut the belts off at the crankshaft pulley, reached up and grabbed the pulleys and turned them and the crank damper back and forth about 45 degrees with a good clunk at each end of the play travel.

 

What happened was the guy at Red Holman put the crankshaft damper bolt in finger tight and never torqued it to the 200 ft. lb. required torque so over time the straight key on the crank ramped out the seal flange until the flange burst ripping the front seal out of the timing cover.  

 

The dealer repaired the car but couldn't get a replacement super duty oil pump so he rebuilt mine.  Unfortunately some shavings were in the pressure relief valve passage and car would start up with 130 PSI oil pressure which made for some funny looking spin on oil filter cartridges among other things.

 

Between that fiasco and the preceding failure of the GM nitrophyl float that absorbed fuel and sank in the 4MV Quadrajet and set the car on fire I'd had enough wide tracking.  By that time I had started at Ford.  I traded the GTO in for a 1971 Lincoln Mark III.    

[rocketraider]

10 hours ago, keiser31 said:

 

It was those disco platform shoes...

 

Yah, at 6'3" I wore the stupid things too.

 

Craziest for me was coming back from a cruise night about 75 miles from home. Took an off-ramp off I-85 to get on US29 in Greensboro NC and the 74 Hurst/Olds blew a rear wheel cylinder. I managed to get the car thru the (red) traffic light and cross traffic without hitting anything and then limped the car home. Had one of my hotrodder kids and his little brother with me. The little brother was a city cop, and I found later he'd told his whole platoon not to mess with me because I could outdrive anyone on their entire force.

[Studemax]

I was driving about 70MPH on a superslab when I heard this funny whine building over the music on the radio. I turned off the radio and the whine was still building. I backed off the throttle to slow down and the whine reduced in pitch. I pulled over on the side of the highway and about 15MPH the engine made some horrible noises, the truck jerked, and quickly stopped. The engine wouldn't start, and I couldn't push the car when I put the trans in neutral. Had the truck delivered to my mechanic. Turns out I'd been to JiffyLube and the shop apes didn't tighten the plug on the transmission. All the lube leaked out and at high speed the gears melted together. Had a used transmission from a local yard installed by the shop. I have the blackened gearset out in the garage in a box of parts. I have NEVER been back to Jiffylube again.

[rocketraider]

Jiffy Lube would have paid for that transmission.

 

I learned my lesson with them on 93 F150. I was stuck in a stretch of 90 hour weeks, truck was 2k miles over on oil change and they were all that was open on a Sunday, which was 1st day off I'd had in 7 weeks. They changed the oil and when I got home noticed a hand-sized puddle of oil under it.

 

Took it back and drain plug wouldn't snug up. They put one of those pan saver things in it and after that no one else would touch it. Went like that for 3 years, and every time they touched the truck I'd find something they'd screwed up.

 

Finally got a shop I'd dealt with for years to change it, and they put a new STANDARD SIZE drain plug in and it snugged right up, no leaks. So that told me the undercar ape had probably put the wrong drain plug in it.

 

If I'd used my head I'd have just let it leak out and had me a big old failure, and gotten a new engine out of all that aggravation, but I have more scruples than to do that.

[kgreen]

I was driving my '64 Tbird as a daily driver which decades past the intended use of that car; it definitely stood out in traffic.  The car was a very dependable, smooth running car.  I can only think of one time the car was stopped on the side of the road and that was for my failure to tighten the points after adjustment.  One day I had to pull over, but not for my failure, but to help a friend that I noticed was stalled out in his nearly new car.  He remarked that the open hood on his car being rescued by a much older car was embarrassing, and jokingly requested that I hurry with my assistance and move along.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Not as exciting as some stories, but our 39 Packard did require assistance getting home twice. 

First was worst, blown head gasket.  AAA operator got very frustrated as she could not wrap around "who makes Packard?" "Uh, Packard.  It is an antique, they don't make them anymore"... Silence, then, "ok I guess I will enter Packard under make".... 

Second time was a bad condensor, getting dark and rather than fight with it we got a flatbed home, unfortunately prior car on the  flatbed had an oil issue of some sort, which got on my tires and ultimately all over the garage floor... 🤮

[JCHansen1]

Among others, I had a 35" drivers side rear wheel come off a first gen Chevy Blazer going about 45 mph during a test drive. I was going through the truck for someone. The dealer had farmed out a rear brake service and bubba was obviously absent for lug nut day. When the wheel came off, the truck veered almost instantly into the oncoming lane until I brought it back to the side of the road. A review of the video I had running showed I missed a head on collision with a passing Suburban by about 5 seconds. After the truck came to a grinding halt, the video also showed me weaving a string of obscenities that as far as I know is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.

[1912Staver]

One of my MGA's broke the crankshaft right at the center main. 

[Dandy Dave]

Trailering a Chevy Suburban with a Chevy Suburban and I lost the Brakes on 695 going north in the Bronx area of NYC. Traffic was at a complete stop on a road that has a 45 minimum speed. Bounced off of a Mercedes and another car full of rubber neckers looking at what was on my trailer bounced off of my drivers door. The motor got shoved back and broke off the tail shaft as it slid along a concrete abutment. Also the gas tank was ruptured and it caught on fire. The doors were crushed shut and I managed to climb out of the passenger side window. The 1990 Suburban I was driving was going to be retired and the 1995 Suburban on the trailer was going to replace it. The fire completely destroyed the 1990 and did get under the hood of the 1995 and melted the plastic parts and wiring harness. The 1990 was scraped by the tow company. The 1995 and my trailer I managed to save. AAA would not pay for the towing in that area. Bad day all the way around. Dandy Dave!

     

[39BuickEight]

My first car, 1988 S-10 Blazer, crank broke in half while cruising down the highway at 60 mph.  This was around 1998.  In fairness, it did have over 200k on the original engine, and I drove it hard when I was young, so it was due for a problem.  It's odd though that the crank broke in a 135 HP vehicle.  Dad was a drag racer in the 1970's and couldn't believe that was what actually broke.  We bought a new crate 3/36,000 2.8L from the local dealer for $1500 and installed it the next day.  Ended up with 275k miles on the vehicle before I sold it in 2003.  It still ran good, but was succumbing to really bad rocker rust.

[edinmass]

13 hours ago, Laughing Coyote said:

I know the area your talking about.  Not much of anything, but nature in those parts.  My pops use to take us kids up there all the time when we lived in Cheyenne when I was younger.  

 

Centennial is one of my favorite places to visit for a few days of peace and quiet.

[Delco32V]

Mine was in a 1979 Malibu station wagon V6 factory 3 speed on the floor. 

 

Leaving center city Phila, going up the on ramp to 95, hit a bump and the clutch rod from the lever to the fork fell out. 

 

No clutch in rush hour traffic. Had to float the gears and when stopped, shut it off and start it in 1st gear.

 

Did that for 40 miles. Then fixed it by using the factory bumper jack to get underneath it to slip the rod back in and fix the spring holding the two together. Lucky it didn't fall and kill me.

 

 

[TexRiv_63]

16 hours ago, Paul Dobbin said:

  What's with the red turn signals?  1955 wqs way before emergency flashers, even for volunteer firemen.

Not red, amber. When the laws changed and required amber signal lenses instead of clear they came out with a spray-on clear amber paint, one of many cheap things I did to this car. Digitizing the old slide this picture came from darkened the color.

[prewarnut]

As a teenager I always wanted a Saab Turbo. Well, I found one - the cheapest for sale. Well, rule #1: never inspect a car at dusk.....My shiny black car with black anodized trim was really a repaint over burgundy but I didn't notice the door jams were poorly covered until the next day.... Rule #2: know something of which you intend to purchase. I had the seller follow me home so I could use his plates (quite nice of him). About 2 miles from my house, the loudest screeching began. Unlike others here I had no one to throw out of the car. The seller gave me 50% back on the spot (also real nice of him...or was it?). I guess rule #3 is not to accept such offers but I did. The emotions of having a "Turbo" and thinking I would fix anything were too great. At home I found out there was no oil in the gearbox. Most manual gearboxes don't get checked unless you unscrew the inspection plug. Saabs apparently have a dipstick but the end was broken off and didn't look like such to me (I thought it was a broken exhaust heat shield mount). No amount of flushing it with oil, etc solved it. The cost of a transmission rebuild for me at that point was prohibitive. I had a lot of seat time turning the ignition to position 2 for a few months until I sold it as-is and broke even....

[Rusty_OToole]

Around 1968 I bought a well used 63 Dodge 330 two door sedan.  Did a tuneup on the slant six including adjusting valves. The valve mechanism was caked with hard black carbon so I wire brushed it and blew it clean with an air hose. This was my downfall, too much sludge must have gotten into the pan and clogged the oil pickup. My brother borrowed the car and blew the engine about 3 miles from home. Didn't even slow down until the rod came thru the block. Was going to change the engine but ended up trading it for a 62 VW.

[Bleach]

 

Nothing this catastrophic happened to me. I did have an incident while driving my '02 Ford Excursion with the 7.3L Powerstroke a few summers ago. We were on our way from the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon UT. I had a sudden loss of power going up a bit of grade on the highway from Lake Powell followed with thick smoke erupting from under the hood. I ended up stopping on the semi busy 4 lane highway. There was oil dripping everywhere under the front of the SUV. I opened the hood and there was oil everywhere. It looked like the engine blew up though there were no awful sounds before the incident. It still cranked over normally but would not start. Well we were in the middle of nowhere and no one stopped to help. There was no cell service where we stopped. I walked forward and back by the road and nothing.

I noticed a turnout behind us that we had passed. I waited for when no cars were around and then put it in neutral and coasted the SUV backwards to the safe spot. I also managed to get one bar of service in that spot. I managed to reach AAA and in about 45 minutes a flatbed arrived and took us about an hour to Kanab UT. It was late evening by the time we arrived. The towing company was affiliated with a diesel shop so it was dropped off there to be checked out the next morning. That evening while at the hotel I researched what kind of failure could seem so catastrophic. I narrowed it down to a high pressure oil line that was part of the fuel injection system. They usually need to replaced by 100K miles and I had 103K miles at the time. So I passed that info on to the shop when they opened the next morning. After a couple of hours they confirmed that one of the two HPOP lines did indeed rupture. It wasn't as bad as it could have been and no damage occurred but it did lose about 1/2 of the 15 quarts of engine's oil. It was a terrible looking mess. They had to order parts so we lost two days of our trip. They got it all repaired and cleaned up. We just decided to just drive home after that with no extra sight seeing. We didn't go to either Bryce Canyon nor Yellowstone as we originally planned to avoid any more breakdowns.

So far it still runs good without anymore issues for now.

[Robert G. Smits]

On 9/1/2021 at 5:03 PM, 30DodgePanel said:

remember something like that happening on my way to Russ and Abbys La Pizza house from the south side traveling north on SE 14th before you cross over the bridge as you're going to the east side... talk about a small world. 

You re correct, it was spring of 83.  Great Pizza!!

Edited September 3, 2021 by Robert G. Smits
Addition (see edit history)

[JamesR]

On 9/1/2021 at 11:28 AM, Bhigdog said:

Driving through a Philly suburb with my 1970 Chevy pickup a tie rod end come from together to apart putting me into the curb. A pair of pliers and a coat hanger wired it back together and I drove it near a 100 miles home...........Bob

 

That happened to me in one of my full sized early '70's Chevies about 35 years ago. Like you and Keiser31, my failure happened at lower speeds, and therefore I survived. I'd had the car out on the highway a few days before that, as I recall. Very fortunate it didn't happen then. I can't think of a more catastrophic failure (for the driver and passengers.) I think I'd rather have brakes fail than steering completely go out, though I guess it would depend on the scenario. Usually brakes give you a tactile warning they're going out...usually a bit more gradual. A spontaneous fuel fire would be bad, too, though.

[Buffalowed Bill]

It was 1969. I had decided to go back to college and finish what I had started seven years previously, but first I wanted to get in a little traveling so I quit my job in the sawmill and took a three month hiatus from work and school. A friend and I spent the first  month and a half on a driving tour of Mexico.

 

It was late April and decided to take a driving tour of the US. I had about $300 left from the mexico trip, so it was going to be a trip on the cheap and done solo. I bought a 1959 four door Studebaker Lark, V8 auto, for $100 from an old woman who could no longer drive. I took out the back seat and opened up access into the trunk, put a mattress on a piece of plywood and hit the road. Not a lot of room for my six foot plus frame but, what the hay I was young and in shape and it was part of the adventure. I would be stopping about every third of forth night in a either a motel or one the many old cheap hotels that use be in the downtown of most American cities. The hotels were my choice for the adventure and their relatively cheap price of @$2-3 a night.

 

I had been on the road for something over a month and was heading west towards home (Seattle). As I headed north along Michigan's eastern shore, the engine temp began to go up on the gauge. I had added and oil pressure gauge before I left home, but it never wavered. I put in a new thermostat, checked the timing and checked for cool places on the radiator, but found none. The car was still running good and considering that I was down to $40 and gas credit card, I was limited as to what I could do anyway.

 

Going west out of the UP I was on the outskirts of Marquette Mich. on a secondary road. They were my choice of travel anyway but the troubling ever rising temperature made the choice that much more prudent. On a two lane road and stuck behind a slow moving truck, I kicked it down as I made a pass. There was an instantaneous and unmistakable high pitched screech from the engine which immediately died. Fortuitously there was a bar or cocktail lounge right there and I coasted into the parking lot. Oh s... what to do now? Well I don't know if it solved any problems but for me it was time for an attitude adjustment!

 

After about two hours of conversation with locals, I had no shortage of people willing to help but what to do. Several guys came out to the parking lot with me. I checked to oil and found it still up but the engine would not turn over fast enough to run. One of the guys offered to give me a push. After due consideration which led to desperation we gave it a try. At 30mph I dropped the trans into gear. There was the same high pitched squeal and the engine came to life, but with an extremely loud knock, but it was running. There was oil pressure still showing 40 lbs I went for it. I could not risk shutting the engine down and it would begin to die when the RPMS dropped, so I have to keep them up at something in excess of 1000 RPMs. The louder the nocking went the higher the volume went up on the radio. About 9:00  I picked up a young hitchhiker. How long could I go, hell I didn't know, but I had most of a tank of gas and each mile was closer to home. 

 

At about midnight, just outside of Superior Wisconsin there was a loud bang. That was it, so I coasted off to the side of the road and jumped in back to sleep. My new friend slept in the front seat. I got up about 7:00 and just for giggles looked under the hood. I expected to see oil on the ground but instead the level was still up on the dipstick. I thought what can I lose so I got back into the car and clicked the starter, and it started! The noise was deafening, but there was still oil pressure showing so I started driving. I don't know how far I drove like that 10-15 miles. Just outside of Duluth I spotted a wrecking yard and pulled in. Much of that drive was with no oil pressure showing on the gauge. 

 

When the yard open I told the owner of my plight. What would he give me for the car? Upon inspection he was amazed that there was not a speck of rust but would not take my word for the fact that the engine was toast, so he hit the ignition and it started again, but now he was convinced! After some haggling we settled on $15 for the car, the amount that I needed for a bus ticket to Seattle. He even took me in to the bus station in Duluth. The final part of the adventure was the two and a hlf days on the milk run to Seattle. With other passengers chipping in eating money. Thank you for your patience, but I don't know how to narrate the catastrophic failure without telling the whole story.

[junkyardjeff]

Lost third gear in the C-4 thats in my 55 Sunliner while in Florida and had to tow it home,the cooler I installed was not doing its job but managed to work enough to go down there 5 other times.

[Max4Me]

Broke a rocker arm on my 1969 Mustang.  Smoked profusely all the way home.

 

Why I teach my kids basic automative skills:

My daughter had the accelerator stick open. Knew enough to turn off the ignition and muscle the truck to the curb (no more pwr steering, and she knew that would happen). Again, my daughter- driving (knowing her, "flying low") in the fast lane on the freeway the driveshaft came loose from the differential. Turns out the garage had snapped an end of one u-bolt holding in the u-joint after having rebuilt the differential. She was able to move to the side of the fwy without further incident.

[caddyshack]

I was pheasant hunting in Iowa and my 1980 Ford Bronco did not have any clutch at 30 mph in a very remote area. Was with my young son and I was quite concerned and did not want to shut off the truck and be stranded in no mans land. Pulled over and just turned off the ignition while still in gear. The pin and cotter key were missing from the tranny connection and nothing in the tool box would even come close to working. There was a telephone pole with a dozen or so nails in it, so I removed the largest nail and was able to reconnect the clevis to the tranny using the nail as the pin. Drove 140 miles home and was never so thankful. Just another weed in the garden of life.    Skip  

[Larry Schramm]

Having driven a lot of older used cars  in my every day life I have had a lot of things go wrong, but worst was about 6 years ago when we were on a tour in Orange Virginia with one of the antique vehicles.

 

We had the '1915 Buick truck and we were two days into a five day tour when we were going up a slight hill and a rod let loose and create a hole in the side of the block.   Turns out that someone that had worked on the engine before I bought the truck uses a grade one or two bolt for the pinch bolt for the wrist pin.  The bolt failed by necking down and then came apart, scored the cylinder broke off the top of the rod, then the rod went through the side of the block.

 

Nothing that over $4,000 was not able to fix.

 

Drive 'em, break 'em, fix 'em, repeat.

 

Old cars are not for the faint of heart or wallet. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[41 Su8]

1983, driving an old F150 past Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.  The front fenders were so rotted out, that all of the cab's weight was on the steering column and not on the frame.  The steering shaft snapped  while moving at about 25 MPH on the down grade.  I thought enough  to turn the key of and down-shift and coast to a stop.  The truck had to be scrapped after that.     John

[keithb7]

I was 16. I bought a 1973 Ford Capri V6. It was in poor mechanical condition. Overheating. Knocking. Ticking. Not good. 
 

I drove it to visit my girlfriend. (my wife now for many many, years) At midnight  on the way home the engine surrendered. Loud knocking. I think a rod cap separated. Engine stalled. I was descending a hill. It had a 4 speed manual. I bump started it down the hill and kept going. It sounded terrible. I made it to a red light at the bottom of a hill. Very difficult to keep running, I was working the gas pedal.  Lots of oil burning now. Hemorrhaging oil all over the road. I could see the oil slick on the road, in my mirrors, under the street lights. Engine stalled. Miraculously I cranked it over snd and it started again. 
 

The Light turned green. I accelerated ahead. Reminiscent of a smash up derby car limping along. The car moaning and groaning. Very loud knocking as the engine was destroying itself.  I was getting closer to home. I was determined to make it. About a ¼ mile later she had enough. Sized up now, she took one last breath and stalled. I coasted her to the shoulder. Turned on the 4-way flashers. I collected my empty wallet and walked home, after mid-night. 
 

The next morning I went back. The flashers were still on. In the daylight I could see a hole in the block. There was quite an oil trail further up the road. I traced back the crime scene. I had quite a chuckle when i saw the oil slick back at the red light. 
 

We dragged the car home with dad’s truck and a rope. I bought a used engine. Ran it in the car for 6 months then had to rebuild it. Hard lessons were learned. Many pancakes flipped at the local iHop to pay for it all.  To this very day the skills I learned rebuilding that engine benefit me still. 
 

Here she is. An old pic of my ‘73 Capri. 
 

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by keithb7 (see edit history)

[Shipping reccomendations]

Driving onto a long exit ramp off of I84 in west hartford traveling at 68 mph in a 1936 Cord and applied my brakes and nothing,  no brakes and right down to the toe board and pumping brakes didn’t help. Luckily was able to stop using the emergency brake. Drove rest of way home using emergency brake. Apparently the left front brake line had moved slightly and the steering arm put a hole in the original copper brake line.

[Bryan G]

While not often appreciated at the time, many of my favorite life events involve a breakdown of one sort or another, and the recovery. I was thinking that this weekend as I learned what happens when the distributor cap pops loose on your straight 8 Chrysler while you're merging onto a busy highway...I found the whole thing quite comical (in the end) but it wasn't bad enough for this thread. For that I guess I'll go with the day a customer asked me to pick up her late model Ranger/Mazda pickup from the dealer where it had just been treated to an alignment & tire rotation. I turned out of their lot and built up speed but immediately made a mental note to call them when I got back to the office; this thing has a terrible vibration! It was getting so bad that I slowed down to about 45 and then...the right front dropped. It took 3 of us about 10 minutes to find the wheel, out in the middle of a soybean field. I remember an older gentleman in a K-car stopped to check on me. He'd seen the whole thing and I can still see his face, his eyes as big as saucers. I also remember the look of the brake rotor, ground quite flat on the bottom.

 

Eventually I hitched a ride back to the dealer where, still shaking, I walked into the service manager's office. When I told him the story he didn't even look up, didn't bat an eye. "Oh, again?" I could have been killed and he didn't even offer me a ride back to my office! (That was over 20 years ago. I ran into him again about a month ago and he was still just as charming, still overflowing with the same customer-service skillset.)

[rocketraider]

Some people just deserve to be 👊...

 

😃

[plymouthcranbrook]

Although not to me I had the fun of observing an interesting breakdown a few weeks ago. I was following a small four door sedan(Honda, /Toyota, something) and as he turned left I followed. After about a city block suddenly his right turn signal came on and the brake light lit as he turned into a parking lot, well almost turned into a parking lot. As I watched I saw the left front wheel and what looked like some part of the suspension bounce along for a short way ahead of the car. The car dropped and stopped quickly and as I went further down the road I saw the driver standing looking at the front of the car as if he did not believe it could have happened.

[MarkV]

2015 Chevrolet Volt in 2018 had just been in for a recall on the front axle had everything replaced drove 75 mph to Palm Springs got there checked into a hotel then went to dinner turned into the parking lot and the wheel fell off! Took an hour to get the car on the tow truck. Then I had to Uber it to the airport to get a rental car.  Turned out the dealership during the warranty work did not tighten the bolts. It took out both tires and I made them pay for a new set of Michelins plus a new axle had to wait days for parts! It was crazy 

[32buick67]

Composite cam gear shredded at 45mph while my wife and I were heading home from a 20mi drive around town.

Cause=fixed, and car now back in action thanks to the experts on this forum.

[32buick67]

Oh yeah, and another time my family and I were about 1mi from church when the fuel pump failed because someone many years ago decided to make a fuel link arm with welded brackets instead of using a proven stamped OEM fuel link arm and the weldments failed on the Sunday.  The fuel pump failed just before church, and then we tried to limp home with the car, and then eventually the DIY welded fuel link arm failed catastrophically, so we walked and towed this antique home.  By the grace of God I found a new pump of correct # and parts, and installed it and it worked perfectly ever since.  Shame on me for not checking the innards of the fuel pump to ensure reliable operation before loading my family into the car to go for a jaunt.

 

Who doesn't like fixing past efforts to preserve the future?

 

At least our kids were patient and helpful...it like the 1980s again....walking uphill both ways in 2ft of snow to school...

Now I have Solidworks model and 3D printed models of the fuel and vacuum links for the next round...

[Graham Man]

While driving to work near Madison I entered the clover leaf to get on the express way, all of the sudden my 1980 VW Rabbit lost all power and the gas pedal went to the floor.  VW had this goofy slotted fiber washer to clip the accelerator cable to the gas pedal, it disintegrated.  One look and I knew what to do, off came the shoe laces and a loop on one end, tied to the cable on the other.  Hand throttle got me to work and home, that was a job to drive... it had a 5 speed.

 

Other than running out of gas, my old cars have always got me home.  For some reason most of my old cars do not have functioning fuel gauges?

[TAKerry]

Fuel pump on my expedition died while I was first line at the red light. Very busy road on the south side of Lancaster. City police showed up and helped me  push it down the street a few hundred feet to a parking lot. The officer told me the light was the city line and if we got it to the parking lot he didnt have to worry about it anymore, LOL. This was a year ago August. A month ago my wife was running and the 'new' fuel pump went kaput again! I wont even get into the problems she had with AAA.

 

In my Trans Am, I had the starter crap out at a street show/cruise night. These cars are notoriously bad on starters. Being an auto I had no recourse but to call a tow truck. It was about 8pm when the event ended that I found this out. One lone fellow stayed behind with me until the rollback showed up. I had a new starter installed the next day and havent had a problem in the 3 years since. BUT everytime I go someplace now I wonder if the starter is going to work.