Tell us about your automotive hard luck stories !

[beanhead]

Ha I just read a post in another thread by 1Wild/Randy and he mentioned the Turlock swap meet.

In (2003 or 4) I cruised up there with a friend in my dang near new S10 Blazer, 4x4, 4-door, had just about every bell and whistle they came with at the time..it was a really nice ride. We got to town, stopped at the Circle K for drinks and snacks and while we were in line, we hear people shouting "hey that car's on fire!" I look over to see everyone pointing at my blazer (huh the irony of that name)....the front end was smoking and as I ran out the door the hood went up in flames...at a gas station....fire trucks were there within minutes but it was too late. The entire front end of the thing was destroyed.
To make matters worse we found out we'd flubbed the date of the swap meet, it was the following weekend....dammit!
Never did learn the cause, just that it was a total loss.

 

[OneWheelPeel]

Somehow after all of the miles driven in all of the cars and trucks that I have, I've yet to blow up an engine while out on the road. Somehow I have always been able to get home. I've never completely blown up a transmission or rear axle either.
I've encountered flat tires, ran out of gas, had collisions, small fires, had a timing chain break, lost control and went off the road but never anything catastrophic.

Same here, had close calls tho. Both times it was racing damage, once cracked a piston in a Pontiac which resulted in a ton of blowby and oil leaks from the pressure. The other time was in the Mustang I mentioned above, I drove it up to Sonoma to race and after a pass I noticed water leaking. A freeze plug was sort of rotted out and started to go, so had to nurse it all the way back to home, around 140 miles, watching the temp and stopped to add water a couple of times.

I reached in the window and started a VW I was working on. It was in gear. It drove itself across the driveway and through the shop door. I dove into the window and pulled up the brake but it already smashed through the door. I stopped it just before it rear-ended a customer's car in the bay. Guy standing out front said "you don't see that every day".

I had a similiar thing happen with an AutoStick bug I push started, it got locked to my bumper, asked my brother who is no longer in the bug, are you sure its in neutral?
He says yes, I jump up and down on the bumper to release the car and off it goes! I caught it before it hit anything tho.

 

[cr8crshr]

Cannot say that I have had any at all!!! And if there are some in the past, they have long been forgotten. There is one incident, though, that I had that was actually really funny...Back in the day, while I was stationed at Charleston AFB, SC, my roommate left his car with me while he was flying a trip. A 69 Jag XKE. He told me to drive it rather than my clunker Chrysler Windsor that I had at the time. Well, I took it to work at the Base one morning, and as I was shifting from first to second, the shifter came right out of the boot and left me in 2nd gear. After work. I limped back home and left it until he got back from his trip. I picked him up at the base in my car, and he wanted to know where his was, so I told him what had happened. He said not to worry and waited until the next day, Saturday, to see what was up. We pulled the seats and the front 1/2 of the carpet, took the console off, and lo and behold, the linkage loop for the shaft had separated from the top plate of the trans. Jags utilized a top loader trans at that time. We removed it and took it to a welding shop in town and had it re-braised, put it all back together, and cracked open a cold beer. Worked perfectly until he lost control one night and put it into a guard rail for a total loss. Funny story to me, but maybe not so to others, nor him...cr8crshr/Bill

 

[Ron H]

upgraded to a 60 Pontiac Ventura

Speaking of Pontiacs, posted this story before, but it’s a memory I still like to vent on. As a jr in HS the first car I bought after driving dad’s 63 GP (389 tri) and mom’s ’66 T-bird, was a ’67 GTO vert. It had about every option possible and in pristine shape. Had no idea what a keeper that was, but who knew back when? Had tons of fun with and in it. Got the itch for another car so sold it to a hippie sort. HUGE mistake and him living in town made it worse.

I’d spot the GTO around town and every time I did had more damage on it, caved in rear, next time caved in front, etc. Spotting it parked in a mall lot, decided to go up to take a closer look at it. His GF was sitting in the passenger seat with her feet on the dash, not a bad looking gal, but looked like she was overdue for a shower and stoned. Inside looked like a garbage can and doubt it was washed since I sold it to him.

Dirtbag walked back to the car while my blood was boiling. I said what the hell have you done to my car? When I sold it you could eat off the gas pedal? He said ‘ain’t your car anymore.’ I left it by telling him while looking at his girlfriend, had I known you were a slob I wouldn’t have let you buy it. You belong in a VW Beetle.

Couple months later I spotted it in the rear yard of a GM dealership. Their junk lot. It was further gone, windshield smashed, top ruined popped partly open, hood bent near in half, windows open, sitting outside. Just couldn’t believe it. Felt guilty like I had let that GTO down letting that POS buy it. Longer story about that dealership, but went in to see if they’d take $200 bucks for it. Lol, they wanted $750 for it! Told the sales guy you can’t be serious right? I sold that car a year ago in cherry condition for a thousand bucks!

Swore I’d never sell a car I cared about to anyone within a 100 mile radius to give me better odds I’d never have to see it again.

 

[Budnicks]

Anyone run out of gas in heavy traffic? The car won't start and you had no tools? Unplanned repossession?

yeah sort of on hwy-24 going west from Oakland/Berkeley to Concord
at least it wasn't in the Caldicott tunnel, it was starting to act up
I got to just before the hwy-24/hwy-680 merge up against the left median,
hot freaken' sun 100*+ mid summer
I didn't runout of gas, the fuel pump took a dump, was acting like vapor lock,
but the pump was giving up the ghost
in an 84 S10 4x4, 60* v6/auto POS, I let it cool off hood up maybe 45 min.s
it fired back up enough barely (drove it like maybe 2 miles)
limped it to get to the 680 freeway, under an over pass, in the shade at least
closer to home too...
I called on my suitcase Motorola 'car phone', a buddy/Jim, my then racing partner
worked at Concord Nissan, as the Parts Mngr
to come tow me home, PITA for sure...

 

[dfrazz]

Three biggest ones were:
Coming back from a fishing trip in the Colorado Rockies, my dad took a hairpin turn too fast and we rolled his ‘72 Chevy truck down a mountain. No seat belts but somehow survived with only some broken bones.

Totaled my first car (‘77 CJ-7) when a guy in a ‘71 Duster turned in front of me.

Broke the driveshaft in my ‘68 Charger doing 80 mph on a highway. Talk about pucker factor.

 

[Kern Dog]

yeah sort of on hwy-24 going west from Oakland/Berkeley to Concord
at least it wasn't in the Caldicott tunnel, it was starting to act up
I got to just before the hwy-24/hwy-680 merge up against the left median,
hot freaken' sun 100*+ mid summer
I didn't runout of gas, the fuel pump took a dump, was acting like vapor lock,
but the pump was giving up the ghost
in an 84 S10 4x4, 60* v6/auto POS, I let it cool off hood up maybe 45 min.s
it fired back up enough barely (drove it like maybe 2 miles)
limped it to get to the 680 freeway, under an over pass, in the shade at least
closer to home too...
I called on my suitcase Motorola 'car phone', a buddy/Jim, my then racing partner
worked at Concord Nissan, as the Parts Mngr
to come tow me home, PITA for sure...

Oh boy....
I've travelled those roads many times....680 to San Ramon, 24 to Orinda and East Oakland, 205 to Tracy and Livermore...
I forgot about failed fuel pumps. I had a few conk out in the '84 Chevy.
One time I got sleepy when driving home from work. It was a foggy, cloudy day too. I pulled off the freeway and parked at the shoulder of a 2 lane road and conked out for an hour, maybe 90 minutes. I woke up and tried to start the truck, a '71 Chevy C 10.
I had the headlights on during the drive and forgot to turn them off when I stopped. The battery was too weak to start it up.
No cell phones back then. No roadside call boxes either.
I walked a couple of miles to some office building and had my "wife at the time" come out to bring jumper cables. I was about 40 minutes from home.
It took awhile for her to make it to me since there were several KFC restaurants along the way. She liked to eat chickens.

 

[Budnicks]

My worst was in my 76 Power Wagon
I just was finishing up (mid - late 1980's)
lifted 4"s rear 6"s front, nice new wheels & tires 33x12.5-15's
(or was it Q78's/35's ?, maybe) & 4.30:1 gears & Detroit lockers...
I had built a nice LA 360 for it, pocket ported heads, gasket matched alum. intake
new valves, new Purple shaft cam, Rhoades anti-pump lifters, Crane ductile iron adj. rockers
new DC Orange HP ignition box, all new interior engine parts etc.
new headers, new 2-1/4" h-pipe & exhaust system "Turbo Mufflers"
exit out the rear of the rear tires...
I had just rebuilt the transfer case & trans too, just a few months prior,
just had the seat redone nice bomber jacket leather,
had some cool (at the time) etched glass
(Moly Hatchet style Viking on a horse etchings)
on both wing windows & rear window slider on each side/rear, I had just put in...
(all got broken)

It was in almost the same area (as above) too, 680/24 merge, going west
on the other side, going west towards the Caldicott tunnel
I got my almost totally finished, customized 76 Power Wagon,
sandwiched in between 2) 1 ton MMM carpet vans fully loaded,
that were racing each other to a jobsite
traffic was stopped, so was I waiting for it to move,
I saw these two guy playing games on 680 freeway in traffic too
& then these 2 jerks come hauling *** (like 75+) up & around the corner
& I assume they didn't see traffic stopped...
1st white 1 tone Dodge van hit the back of my truck, freaken' hard, buckled the bed
& bent the rear frame up some...
The 2nd 1 tone van veered, slightly sliding right & he hit a car next/right to me,
bounced off it & hit my right side, both vans were, full on tires/smoke,
brakes locked & sliding & shoved my truck over, like 20'
& I was between the 2 vans, trapped...

I got a lil' whiplash & a bruised arm, I hit my head on the windshield, cracked it too
then hit it on the back window, broke that, behind my head
from the seat belts stretched so much thrown forward & then back...
No major injuries...

It started up
I was able to drive it off, battery was leaking really bad, so was the "new" radiator
but it was totaled, I got like $12k from the insurance co. (State Farm)
I think I had more than that in it, in parts at the time...
Not to mention my time...

All 3 of US had State Farm Ins., I got screwed, didn't know any better
should have sued the **** out of them & MMM Carpets too...
Just wasn't my mantra...

I was & still pissed about that one...

 

[64BEL]

In 2018, we had to have the transmission rebuilt in our Grand Cherokee. The guy working on it was farming that kind of work out at that point, so it ended up at a transmission place in Milwaukee. Long story made shorter (believe it or not), it ended up back there 2 or 3 times with problems. The impact of one of the times it had problems was when we had driven it to the Pigeon Forge area in TN for a vacation that fall. One day we were attempting to drive to the top of Smoky Mountains Park when it kept going slower and slower on the way up. It was a little rainy, so the pavement was wet. Finally, close to the top (I guess we were close), it wouldn't move at all, and we were on the side of the road. I got out and checked it and could see a nice rainbow oil sheen all over the road where it had puked transmission fluid out as we climbed the mountain. I had visions of having to rent a car to get home while we left the Jeep there to be fixed by some unknown shop. After awhile of cooling down, I was able to get it to move, so we attempted to continue but it finally wouldn't move again after a short distance. I let it cool down longer, then pulled a quick K turn on the road and pointed it down the mountain. I costed it downhill in neutral for 5+ miles, I guess it was. When we got to the bottom, surprisingly, it moved when I put it in drive. I was able to drive it and we made it to the cabin we had rented. I called our mechanic back home, and he theorized that it had been overfilled with trans fluid, because the level was about right when I checked it and it definitely had puked a bunch out. It amazes me to this day that we were actually able to drive it the 750+ miles to get it home to WI. After which it found itself back in the shop for another rebuilt transmission.
And we never did get to the top of that mountain.

 

[64BEL]

This one is from around 2014 or 2015. At my previous job, I had to work on my department's fleet of vehicles myself as the place had laid off the mechanic due to budget cuts necessary due to company mismanagement at the top. 2 of my vehicles were 15 passenger Dodge Ram vans. The '97 had developed a fuel leak (which stunk) from a crack in the plastic injection rail. I got a "new" rail at a local salvage yard (remember, the place was broke) and installed it. Pretty simple. I test drove it around the property and all was well. That night, I left instructions for one of my employees to move the van that evening. Fast forward a few hours and she calls me at home and tells me the van started on fire after she moved it. What!? I asked her, do you see flames? (could be a blown radiator hose, I hoped), and she said yes. Now?! I asked, and she said yes. Being on the local fire department and my pager being silent, I asked - did anyone call the fire department? I don't remember the answer, but I said I gotta go! and I headed to the firehouse. My pager went off as I was on my way there. As I drove there, I remembered that my instructions were for her to park the van near a building. Oh boy! I drove the first engine out on the call. I'm sure I set a personal record for getting it there, parking, getting the pump in gear, and getting the hose lines charged with water. The van was fully engulfed in flames, but, thankfully, the building was untouched. I freely admitted to to the guys on the FD that I had just repaired the fuel rail that day on the van, figuring it was somehow my doing. But I didn't feel guilty. I wasn't responsible for the lame management putting me in the position to be my own mechanic (along with the responsibilities I'd actually been hired for) in the first place. Still, I was puzzled. I had checked that van carefully after I worked on it and drove it around for several miles testing it out with no signs of a fuel leak. Hmm.

The next day, I went to work and conducted a post mortem. I went to the location where the van had been parked after I worked on it and found something interesting. There was transmission fluid on the ground with a trail of it from the spot where I had parked it all the way around to where it had erupted in flames. Aha! It had blown a transmission line and sprayed transmission fluid onto the exhaust, finally igniting once the exhaust was hot enough. What are the odds? Somewhere I have pictures of the burned out hulk as it was loaded onto a flatbed and hauled away.