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2years ago, Citroen ZX Diesel throttle cable snapped whilst taking daughter to pre school, called AA out and towed home.
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1968, MGB, cracked valve seat & lots of steam - just been wellying it from Chelsmford to Hull.
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1975, in a three month old Cortina 2000 Mk 3 when the starter motor came adrift in the Lake District. The impudent RAC mechanic tried to tell me I hadn't maintained it! I think it had only done about 4,000 miles.
I had a 1977 Mk 4 after this, and that broke down in Ormskirk town centre on market day when the clutch cable came adrift. That too was about three months old. Change to Vauxhalls and not one ever let me down.
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In the UK - 1989 - dropped a valve in a Cortina Mk5. Drove a further 50 miles on 3 cylinders, and got a garage to strip it down at the desination - bought new head from a scrapyard.
Same year - I'd just done a load of work on a Stag, and it broke down within half a mile. I'd knocked the fuel cut-off plunger. Took a few minutes to work out what I'd done though!
In Kenya - 1995 - Points closed up on a Mitsubishi Shogun. Unfortunately in a bit of a dangerous place. 20 people descended on me, 3 of them claiming to be mechanics - before I could even get the bonnet up! Credit to them - I was on the road in 20 minutes.
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Sept 2001, near Derby. '91 Rover 214Si. Went to take off, no drive to wheels. It was a broken driveshaft. Small spot of corrosion under the rubber 'torsion balance' had allowed a crack to propagate across the whole shaft, about an inch in diameter. AA towed car home, replaced shaft with a UKP20 used item from a breaker. Never had any more trouble.
Previous to that, same car. Cold wet day in 2000, stopped at lights at bottom of a hill. An acorn fell from a tree onto the car, making a loud "bong" noise. Engine stalled. Tried to start, no joy. Took a few seconds to work out what was going on. AA man arrives, and shows me what the problem was. Design of bonnet means that water runoff from the bonnet seam shoots straight onto the top of the ignition coil, which had eventually cried enough. Bodged up enough to get to work. Replaced coil, lots of silicone grease around terminal. Lack of preventitive maintenance to blame, my fault.
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About two years ago, the wiper suddenly stopped on my 1996 %-Series - the arm had detached from the bit that rotates below the windscreen (technical term). Very heavy rain meant I couldn't risk driving on, so had about 90 minutes wait for AA, who jury-rigged a fix with a piece of string! That got me as far as the nearest dealership, who provided a new arm and wiper for £30 including labour.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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Thirteen years ago, when the battery on my Orion failed. AA took 45 minutes to arrive and by that time the battery had recovered enough to start the car. I've never had a problem since.
Andy
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Mondeo TDCi currently cutting out every other journey. So, last happened on Friday evening. Got it booked in tomorrow. If anyone sees me stuck on M11/A14 between now and then, that's why. Serves me right for singing this car's praises once too often. Just goes to prove my previous theory that cars are perfectly fine things, until they play up...
Splodgeface
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About 25 years ago: flat battery at a hotel in the NE. Since then I've done about half a million miles in six cars -- Ford, Audi, VW, MB -- with no failures. Puts the breakdown issue in perspective for me, or am I being complacent?
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Last year. Coming back from a party at midnight with 7 month pregnant wife and toddler. Front O/S brake flexable hose on 306 split. As we were a couple of miles from in-laws in London I drove very gently there and stsyed the night. Called the AA early on the Sunday morning. Told them exactly what the problem was. Out came a patrol man who said that they are not allowed to touch brake components 'cause of liability mate'. I said I would change the pipe if he lent me his tools. Instead he offered me the AA's new 'if we can't fix your car we'll give you another one' deal. Asked him what the car was - a Smart (the two seater thing). Great. Waited another 4 hours for a relay truck to take us all back to Nothampton. Changed both front pipes in under an hour that afternoon.
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Last March - camshaft sensor failed on my 5 series so the ECU stopped the engine. Freewheeling in the outside lane of the motorway ... wheee!
Lovely call to the dealership:
"My 5 has broken down"
"Eh?"
"5 series. Broken down"
"Pardon?!"
etc....
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Which of course is why you're right that driving a new car gives you reassurance that it won't break down, whereas a semi-classic cannot be relied upon...
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2001 Vectra DTi refused to start due to injector problem.
Also broke down after it took off on me the day after it had been serviced because (we deduced later, the garage never admitted it) the mechanic had overfilled the oil so that the first time it got used at any speed the excess oil got into the wrong place and, being a diesel, the engine decided to use it as fuel and accelerated away on its own.
Over the 32 years I have been driving about most of the car trouble I have had has stemmed from something done at the garage in the 2 or 3 days before.
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1989, Cavalier, 36,000 miles from new, Fast Lane A3 Kingston bypass, Distributor broke up and siezed, stripped teeth from gear
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which one is the fast lane?
I thought there was only the left hand lane and the overtaking lane(s) on most roads :)
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The A3 fast lane?
Northbound.
The fast lane on the A3 is the outside one from the M25 Junction to about 1/4 mile from the Speed camera. It then switches to the inside lane for about 400 metres past the camera, where it then switches to the Middle lane. Under the first underpass it switches to the outside (of three) lanes where it carries on that way until 1/2 mile beofre the Robin Hood gate, where it abrubtly switches to the inside lane, sharp left at the no Left Turn, into the service road. After half a mile where the service road pops out again the fats lane abrublty switches into the middle lane, preferable within the space of 15 metres. ;)
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Or, alternatively, lanes one, two, three etc...:-)
Only time I've ever broken down was in an otherwise very reliable Vauxhall Magnum 1800 acquired secondhand in the late 1970s with just over 13,000 miles on the clock.
About a month after acquiring it I set off in poor weather conditions to visit a hi-fi exhibition and, within about a mile, the engine began misfiring.
As I only had about another couple of miles to go to the exhibition I carried on, only for the car to eventually stagger to a halt.
Calling out a relative, who helped at the time with my general car maintenance, to come equipped with a torch to help me undertake the normal ignition checks etc revealed nothing amiss.
The car was left overnight and towed back to the relative's garage work area.
The following weekend eventually revealed that the neoprene timing belt had stripped several teeth. It was the first time I had ever seen this type of belt and was very suspicious of them for a long time afterwards..:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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My ancient mark III fiesta ejected its exhaust across the A38 near derby 6 years ago while overtaking at 80+.
Scary and funny at the same time.
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About 4 years ago, in a 1987 1.6 Vauxhall Cavalier.
Went to pull away from a junction, and no drive was forthcoming - engine and gearbox spinning freely.
Turns out that the CV joint had disconnected itself from the driveshaft.
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august 2003 on a slip road off motorway heading for gatwick , lights were red i stopped lights changed i appear to stall , only a snapped cambelt. police came as i was in a dangerous position and they towed me to hotel car park with blue lights flashing. lucky no engine damage citroen zx 1.8 furio. and very kind policeman was only supposed to tow me to safety but as it was only a short distance further he very kindly agreed to take me all the way very kind indeed.
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2002, Dead battery in a 1993 GMC Sierra (big American pick-up truck). It was an automatic so no chance of a push start. Luckily it happened on my front drive.
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1986. My first journey in the Escort Mk2 which I'd just paid my mum £500 for. Picked it up from mum's at 10 am, returned on the back of an AA truck at 2 pm. Needed an engine rebuild, which mum paid for. And no, I hadn't been thrashing it.
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Immobiliser playing up on my Mk IV Golf SDI. Stopped the car now and again.New door lock assemnbly was the cure under warranty.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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June last year...
Just joining the M25 from the M4 at the merge the engine on my 1986 spider coughed and shutdown.
Turned out to be the rev sensor for the (bosche) fuel injection system.
JaB
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"offered me the AA's new 'if we can't fix your car we'll give you another one' deal. Asked him what the car was - a Smart (the two seater thing). Great."
Lol, we broke down in Dec (Galaxy, engine management control relay u/s - diagnosed by the goods folks in the Technical forum!) and were offered the same.....not much use for two adults, three kids and a dog stuck 90 miles from home!!
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Broke down about 8-weeks back in my Punto JTD. Faulty fuel pump couldn't cope with too much throttle or steep hills. Nursed it to the dealer who took 2 weeks to identify the fault (Good old Fiat dealers...)
Last 'proper' breakdown was in my Peugeot 205 in 2000. The distributor had gone. Most of the electrics (ignition module, distributor etc.) went that summer because I had been stupid enough to have the engine steam-cleaned to identify an oil leak. Don't steam-clean an engine! Got it fixed for free that afternoon by a friend of my future father-in-law who owns a garage and had one in-stock
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Tempting to reply to the effect that I've been very upset a few times but never actually broken down....
Anyway, late 1960s, 105E Anglia, capacitor in distributor went open circuit.
2001, Mk3 Scorpio Auto, starter motor failed.
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Use it up : Wear it out : Make do : Do without
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