Bizarre breakdown ... and cheap fix - Ian (Cape Town)
Strange day indeed!
Left at normal time this morning, dropped junior at school, got back in car reached for smokes... discovered the Zippo had been left at home. damn.
So used the car's ciggie lighter.
Now, the lighter needs to be held in a bit to heat it up to ciggie-lighting hotness...
Carried on, normal route, got a few miles down the road in stop/go traffic, reach for new ciggie, push in lighter, wait for it to heat up.
Suddenly, car goes "ROAR" for a second, and warning lights come on - engine and autobox. Car is in limp mode - gearbox works, but needs to be changed manually. Crept down to gearbox specialist - Thinking "here comes a huge bill!".
Explain story. He grins, climbs into car, gets out owners manual and flips to fusebox.
Turns out fuse #20 is a 20A fuse, which bizarrely covers the ciggie lighter AND the reverse light.
Replace fuse, problem solved!
Wonder what would happen if the reverse light bulbs blew? Limp home again?
So, went next door to spares shop, bought a pack of fuses and then to the takeaways for a box of matches!
I'll keep them in the glovebox!