Car troubles you've experienced

[Stan]

I've enjoyed the car threads, especially how folks like to complain about vehicles they own or used to own. :-o

This poll is about car troubles that can generally be blamed on the vehicle itself (or perhaps the owner for not maintaining it). Go ahead if you want to talk about accidents or other incidents, but maybe we need another thread/poll for those. Of course, a mechanical failure that CAUSED an accident is fair game. I deliberately omitted "ran out of gas" since that's probably not the vehicle's fault. :D

Tell us your tales of vehicular trauma!

[kakn7294]

We've had dead batteries - in fact, I had one not too long ago, at the gas station of all places. We've had a couple of alternators go bad on us, one on vacation in Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg. I've ridden in some pretty cruddy vehicles - namely my BIL's Bronco (shh, don't tell my sister I think it's cruddy - she thinks it's great!). My favorite car experience though was in May 2006 when a tree ran in front of me on my way to work, just inside the main entrance to the hospital where I work. Now everyday when I go to work, there's that darn tree standing there with it's large chunk of bark missing just waiting to run in front of me again. I blame that one on the fact that my Jeep is front heavy and is rear-wheel drive with tires that just don't seem right for it - at the time, I just didn't know it. It often slides on wet surfaces.

[luvdiznee]

I've had 2 not so major but not so good experiences, with my 2000 Toyota Corolla, in the past month. The first was I was driving and the roads a bit slippery so when I went to make a turn my car spun and hit the curb. All seemed ok, until I got out of work and realized I had a flat tire. The other occured when I was on the NYS Thruway going to Syracuse (about 1 1/2 hrs away). I was almost there, then I hear this noise, so I'm slowing down and realize my muffler is dragging. That was more of a pain but at least fixable at no cost w/in a couple hours. It's funny, I've had AAA for the past 7 years (bought my car brand new) but NEVER used it until these times. :(2 uses in 7 years. But I geuss there's a good side to that, too. :thumbsup:Knockin' on wood.

[MauiMouse]

I've had some bad luck with vehicles. I've had 3 accidents, and all 3 weren't my fault. The last one was the worst. The other driver went through a red light & I hit them. They both were killed, husband and wife. That was a tough one, but you learn over the years that it wasn't your fault. Then I've had a ball joint fail and lost a tire, luckily in a K-Mart parking lot. I've had some other things happen, but those are probably the worst two.

[ftwildernesskid]

I think in a former life my husband and I must have stolen cars or abused cars in some way. We have the worst car karma ever. For example, 4 days ago the clutch went out in our truck, and 2 days ago the head gasket broke in our minivan. :mad: Cars just don't seem to stay "healthy" at our house. That is on top of problem after problem with cars we've had along the way. If only we could afford 2 2008 ones and start all over!

[BronxTigger]

A few years back, must have been 2002 or 3, I went with a friend to Thanksgiving dinner. I was living in Denver and I left my car at their house and we drove up into the mountains to a friend of theirs in their SUV.

Well, on the way back we decided to open the sunroof for just a minute or two to look at the stars. It was 2 degrees outside, and the sunroof got stuck OPEN. We had to drive all the way back to Denver in 2 degree weather with the open sunroof. At least it wasn't snowing/raining! But that was just the beginning!

On the way home from their house, I stopped at a 7-11 to get a Coke because I was really thirsty and really tired. This should not have been a problem, except that it was 10:30 at night and my car would not start. And nobody at the 7-11 spoke English. These guys came up and took some of my Coke and poured it on the battery and then the car started and I drove home. The crazy thing is that I had just had the car checked out a few days before and they had said nothing really was wrong with it. But the thing that connects to the battery was worn out or something and needed to be replaced. :mad:

[Jimenyfan]

I lost my power steering completly while driving with one of my sons, that was a wonderful experience trying to manuever my car in a parking lot, radiator stopped working in the dead of winter and had to try atleast a week and a half before I could get it fixed.

[BMan62]

Let's see...

1) '68 Ford Mustang - couldn't keep a muffler on it until the night was run off the road and rolled it (then it wouldn't come off without a torch!)

2) '73 Mercury Capri - Shattered Pressure Plate - box full of neutrals in the middle of I-83

3) '73 Capri (again) - Vacuum advance went bad - this was one of three styles of vacuum advances and the only one that was not still available

4) '76 Ford Pinto - Rocker Arms on overhead cam would come loose at inopportune times - bad tensioner springs (Cloud of black smoke and immediate loss of power - always in traffic!)

5) '93 Chevy S10 Pickup - Driving through Georgia on the way home from Florida (not WDW) a police radar detector shut down the entire electrical system, in traffic, at 70+ mph - luckily it was only for a couple seconds and did not cause an accident

6) '00 Nissan Xterra - Rear Shock Unattached - must have been loose from factory, came loose and started banging against the undercarriage

7) '00 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS - DW's car - Cracked Engine Block from factory

About the only vehicle I have had that did not have some kind of problem was an '89 Chevy Silverado Pickup - 6 years and 90k miles and never a problem!

[princessjojo]

This is really funny to me about my own car. I guess because it didn't happen to me, but to my mom.

It was actually the same day we left for our last WDW trip. My mom rode with us to the airport so we didn't have to leave my truck there forever and pay a 2nd mortgage to get it out of parking. The whole intent was for her to bring the car back the day before or of our return. We arrived at the airport, turned the truck off, got out and checked in fine. All was working really well because we actually left about 30 min late and would have missed our filght except the rain had delayed our departure. So far, so good. She got back into my truck, left and about 15-20 minutes later stopped to get her some breakfast. When she went to get back in to go the rest of the way home, the truck wouldn't start. The battery was dead. And not just "it won't start" dead, but "it won't even think about turning over" dead. And there she was in the Bojangles parking lot with no one she knew around to help her.

Long story short, AAA put a new battery in and she got home fine. The thing is it was completely unexpected. There were no signs of problems with the battery dying. It was just a freak accident, but I had to laugh at her when she called. None the less, she was not happy about it at all. She is very short tempered and I could see her cutting her eyes at me as I spoke to her on the phone.

That's just one of the many things I've had happen to me in my cars...

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

I have a Nissan 240SX that hasn't run in 5 years. It died 4 times in 2 1/2 weeks - day and night time. I had it towed to Nissan 3 times. They fixed a couple of things and the 3rd time they said nothing was wrong....they could get the car to start. I explained....it starts....it just dies. So I made it just over a mile from the dealership and it died. I called and they said....sorry there's nothing we can do - you're car is fine.

I followed the manuals instructions for maintenance work. I took excellent car of the car. It was extremely clean too. Just a <bad> car from a <bad> company. I'll NEVER own a Nissan again.

My 2006 Honda Civic had the battery die right after an oil change. The mechanic said they probably were running the radio while working on it and it ran down the battery. They were great and just changed out the battery for me.

[princessjojo]

Oh, yeah! That piece of junk oldsmobile I used to have. Well let me tell you, it was previously owned by the devil himself. It never failed that when I would come home late, very late at night while in college the tail lights would go out and once or twice all of the lights. I don't know about you, but if any of you are familiar with the 2 bridges that cross the intercoastal waterway going into Wrightsville Beach, well it's not so fun driving across them in the dark with no headlights. The first time I just hung on and prayed really hard. The second time I just stopped and pulled over just before I got to the bridge. After a while a cop came along and followed me home since I was only a few blocks away.

Now that was miserable, too.

I see you don't have an option for blowing the motor up. I've done this, too, but I guess that would be my fault since I didn't put any oil in the thing.

[Stan]

you don't have an option for blowing the motor up

Well, you're only allowed 10 options on these polls, and anyway who could get more than that set up within the 5 minute limit?

Let's see, other possible choices...
"door fell off"
"cup holder broke, dumping hot coffee on feet"
"CD player wouldn't quit playing IASW song"
"power window(s) wouldn't close"
"floor rusted out from A/C water leak"
...and so on.

[dolphinmickey9170]

I've had them all except a fire. Thank God!!

[Tink&Goofy]

How about "all of the above"? Actually, not quite - I haven't had a car catch fire...yet....

All I can say is thank God for AAA!

[ljv1975]

I was going to write about this in the other car post, but this seems like an appropriate place. I have 2 stories.

My first real car that was all mine was a used 93 Chevy Cavalier. It was very cheap, but when my Dad and I test drove it (Dad is a mechanic), everything seemed just fine. Well, it didn't take long before I found out that when the weather was warm the radio and the windshield wipers would stop working. I have no idea why - probably just an electrical problem? :confused: Sometimes, even if it was hot out, when I first started the car they would work, but if I had to stop to get gas or run into the store, when I started the car again, they wouldn't work. Also, there was a bad seal on the windshield and sometimes there would be inches of water on the floor in the front. Once I got stranded on the side of the road on my way home from work because it was pouring rain and the wipers which had been working just stopped in the middle of the windshield and wouldn't move! Thank goodness for cell phones. Oh yeah, once I drove through a pretty big puddle on a back road and my hubcaps just broke off - now that was pretty crazy. I still don't understand that one.

A couple years ago DH bought a 94 Corsica for $400 from a guy he works with. We had only one car at the time, so he bought it just to drive back and forth the 2 miles to work from our house until we got another more reliable vehicle for him. Anyway. . .We had to go pick it up and I came back home and thought he was following me. Well, half way home the catalytic convertor (sp?) and muffler started dragging on the ground. Well, they fell off in the middle of a main road which he then ran over. After pulling over and retrieving the pieces, he started home again. As he turned onto the back road near our house and began going downhill he realized there were NO BRAKES at all. The pedal went all the way to the floor, but nothing happened. Luckily, no one was around as he flew through a four way stop and was able to use the emergency hand brake to skid onto the side of the road. He called me and I looked up the number for the tow truck. I have to say I did find the whole thing hilarious :secret: especially because no one was hurt.

Well, those are our stories of car horror. Sorry it was so long, but I tried to paint a clear picture for you guys!!

[Stan]

Your brake story reminds me of a buddy in college who decided to cure his bicycle (caliper) brakes from squeaking with just a tiny amount of vaseline. About a block from his house he went sailing right through a stop sign, cars skidding, drivers cursing at him, etc... only funny because he lived to tell us about it.

Another college story was from a coworker who ran over roadkill in the middle of the night in his old Valiant, then couldn't persuade any mechanics to hold their noses long enough to investigate the clunking noises from his suspension. I think he had to fix it himself.

[MsMin]

10 years ago when I didn't have 2 nickels to rub together I had some car experiences. I had an old 89 Sentra that wouldn't idle and it was standard. We lived in Mobile and I had to keep one foot on the clutch, one foot on the gas and one on the break when I was on hills. I used to get the kids to push the car to start it. When the starter went out and the kids were young so I took the starter out and walked to Auto zone w/ the kids (up hill of course :D) Lucky we ran into a neighbor and they gave us a ride back and I put my own starter in the car :clappy: My greatest repair job. It was an embarrassing car b/c it made other car alarms go off when we passed by.
I cracked a crank shaft and had a door fall off a mini van:blush: A lady gave me a jump rope in the mall parking lot. I had small kids at the time and we tied a big bow. It was still under warranty so I went right back to the dealer who asked me to move the van from the front of the dealership b/c it was an embarrassment. That's when I lost it.
My dad had a 57 olds that caught on fire. We were building a new house out of N.O. and he used the car as a truck and there was a hole in the floorboard and he accidentally put some oily rags on it and poof... Thankfully I never had one catch on fire but I did have my steering column start smoking on the spillway btwn Lafayette and BR and I got so scared I jumped out the car. :car:
My best tire story was once I had a flat and I took an eyebrow pencil to plug the hole a bike pump to add air and got to the gas station b/c I couldn't figure out how to get the spare out.

[BronxTigger]

I forgot about the time I was driving on a highway so I was going about 55-60 and this big pheasant came from the side and hit my windshield right behind the rear view mirror. The whole windshield cracked and that plastic stuff that coats it was peeling off. It happened so fast I didn't know what was going on. I saw some feathers (like in the cartoons) swirling around. Fortunately I was able to pull over to the wide shoulder to figure out what was going on.

There was no other traffic except for one car that had been coming the other direction. I was by myself and he pulled over on the other side of the street and approached my car. I was scared because I was alone (it was daytime) and the highway was empty. But all he did was tell me what had happened and then he wanted to know if I was going to keep the bird or if he could have it for dinner!

[Piglet822]

Stan, you have no idea how many memories you just brought back for me. Some funny, some not so funny.

One time I remember very well. A girlfriend and I were driving up to Delhi, NY to check out the college she was going to. I drove her car and literally moments before we left I asked her if she had a jack. She did not. I grabbed my jack and tire iron from my car and threw it in her trunk. I still say someone was watching over us that night - sure enough we got a flat tire on the way up to the college. If I hadn't thought to bring that stuff who knows how long we would have sat on the side of the road waiting for help.

There was another time I was on the Garden State Parkway driving my Mom's 64 MG Midget and the hood flew up!!!!! Scared the dickens out of me and now I can't see :eek: I somehow kept my composure and was able to ease the car onto the shoulder of the road and closed the hood. I then drove down to where my Dad worked and showed him the damage. Try explaining that to your parents when you're supposed to be home sick from school :blush:

[RedheadWriter]

I blew 2 head gaskets on my first car, which was a real hooptie

My mother has to replace her muffler every year on her 1991 Toyota Corrolla.

[2Epcot]

Last year was not a good year for tires. I had 3 flats all within a 4 month period. Each time the tire had to be replaced, and could not be repaired.

[DisneyCrazyET]

I had a flat once. I pulled off to the side and a police man pulled up behind me. Asked what was the problem, changed the tire for me and all the while kept tellling me this wasn't something he had to do.
I've had the pulley on the van break three times so far. The belt fell off and I had to be towed twice. It seems to happen every 30,000 miles.
A dead battery once when I was younger and with girlfriends on vacation. Got a jump and drove to the auto store and they replace it for us. Also, the muffler came loose on our way to Fla.( again with girlfriends) we just fixed it ourselves. This was back in the early 80"s.

[kakn7294]

Here's another interesting tidbit about my old car - a '93 Chevy Cavalier. When the car was 10 years old, I took her in for her annual inspection only to be told that there was a part that was rusting on the frame (something the body shop called a strut tower - it held the shocks to the frame in this particular car) and needed replaced. I wanted the work done but the body shop was having a hard time getting a replacement part - they weren't made new anymore and all the salvages they could come up with were also pretty rusted. The manager kept telling me that it was time for a new car - I was more adamant that he was going to find me that part. It took a couple of weeks but he finally located one - it cost me $400 for the part and shipping - from Florida! It was worth the expense though as I drove that car for another 3 years.

[ElenitaB]

Oh, where to start! LOL

Right before I headed out ot California to start grad school, my dad bought me a used car: a Plymouth Duster. Since he was not well, my mom drove out to San Diego with me. Outside of Chicago, the muffler fell off. And in the middle of the dessert in Utah, the water pump gave out. We were in the middle of NOWHERE... 55 miles to the nearest town. I had to hitch a ride to that town and then the car had to be towed. It took a day for the part to arrive. I was so glad not to be alone! This was all way before the era of cell phones. A few years later, the car's brakes gave out with no warning heading down a hill. Fun fun fun!

Years later I had a VW Bug. Loved that car but didn't love the habit the fan belt had of falling off. Much like Beth's Sentra, this car didn't like to idle.

One of the main reasons I bought my Saturn was that it came with a service warranty (as it was used, it was through a third party). Although the car hasn't given me any problems yet (knock on wood), wouldn't you know that there's a class action suit out against the third party.

[conorsmom2000]

Oh, I so wish my sister posted on Intercot....she has the worst car karma that I've ever seen! Like her 197? (something) Opel (I think that's how it was spelled) that had a rusted floor board that resulted in a huge hole - you learned to pull your feet up onto the seat whenever there was a puddle! :D

This wasn't exactly car trouble, but it is definitely car guilt. In 1987 my twin brother had a 1980 Pontiac Gran Prix - he just loved that car! One beautiful day in September, he asked if I wanted to go for a drive. I had said, yes, then, famous last words, asked if we could take our dog with us. Well, we were driving around for a while and the dog started getting antsy - my brother, who had never had allergies before, was suddenly have a reaction to the dog hair flying around (teary eyes, etc.) We decided to head home and just as we were heading up a huge hill, the dog jumped on my brother and he lost control of the car. We jumped a curb (both passenger tires were blown out and the rims were completely bent), hit a sign, and wrapped the car around a tree. All three of us hit the windshield, which was completely shattered, but we were seriously lucky to have walked away - two inches to either side and one of us would have crushed our legs. I only had the lap part of the seat belt on (stupid teenager) and I was thrown so hard against the seatbelt my entire stomach was black & blue for a month. Needless to say, the car was just beyond totalled and my brother was devastated. To this day, if he wants to antagonize me, he'll mimic "let's take the dog!!" to make me feel guilty (which I still do!)

Aside from that, I've been pretty lucky with cars - most of my issues have been anoyances. Like, my 1987 Dodge Daytona - first, it had a rearview mirror that would not stay on for anything. I'd get it glued back on, then 2 months later, I'd be driving along and bam! It'd fall off again. It also had a hood that constantly popped open - it never fully opened because there was a safety latch, but every little bump would make it pop open that one inch. Anyone driving with me automatically got into my car by going around the front, slamming down the hood, then getting in the car. :D

My only real car issue was with my 2003 Chevy Trailblazer. The truck was 3 years old, 2 weeks out of warranty, and the stabilizer bar had to be replaced. I was completely floored that a 3 year old SUV, with only 20,000 miles on it, would have to have something like the stabilizer bar replaced! And, of course, being 2 weeks out of warranty, that cost us $800. :mad:

Overall, I've been pretty lucky! :thumbsup:

[thrillme]

Well we had a LOT of OLD junkers. I'll try to limit myself to just ONE. A 73 Chevy Impala. Took on a pretty heavy rear end crash by a new Caddi and not only lived to tell about it. Left a lot of people wondering what brick wall the caddi ran into. Poor man just kept saying over and over to the officer at the scene..."why is there almost no damage and my caddi's totaled???" The officer just looked at him and said "sir...you just ran into a sherman tank that's why" (he bent my muffler and cracked two taillights). The car earned "braggin rights" for it's "toughness".

In the meantime the car used almost a quart of oil a week. I told my husband and he advised me to go to Sam's and buy it by the case..."it's an old car they do that". SIGH...later I was up to 2 quarts of oil every week. No problem he'd pick up an extra case for me and power wash the driveway. One day I was at a light leaving from work and it froze. The rear end went out. My husband once again sided with the car and asked me if I had put any oil in the rear end :confused:...I told him there was only ONE end I'd put oil in :thedolls:.... the rest was up to him. (Unless he wanted me to just pour it all over the car and see where it seeped in)...

There was NEVER such a thing as taking this precious baby to a mechanic. They NEVER knew what they were doing. I "shortened" the life of the car because 3 years earlier the "shifter" was off (you had to put it in the gear BEFORE where it actually was...he didn't tell me that) and I drove it one day in a lower gear and I broke a two dollar and fifty cent rocker arm (yes it took $2.50 to fix it but I paid for it for YEARS).

I think there was something every few weeks with this car. At the end of it's life I put nearly 3 quarts of oil in at my last fill up. I now carried 2-3 CASES of oil in the trunk. Finally one day it started making a strange tapping noise. A little later black smoke filled the car and I was fortunately able to coast off an exit ramp. He let EVERYBODY know how I blew up the engine....It would have lasted much longer if I wasn't so rough on it 3 years ago.

Of course this was only ONE nightmare of many old vehicles I owned.

Needless to say...I drive a NEW car now (well it's a year old). My father just doesn't understand why I'm tired of OLD cars.

[Stan]

I think 1973 was the first model year with the 2.5 or 5-mph bumpers, maybe that helped. Or maybe it was just the extra 1000 lb of steel in a car of that vintage. :D

I guess it's not a surprise that this "bad car experiences" poll/thread is more active than my "good car experiences" one (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=127260). ;)

[snowflakegirl]

Let's see.... I went through a bad run with car troubles for a while, so I have a few stories and this may be long :blush:. Mostly because I was going through college and grad school and was limited to the nicest used cars my budget would allow (which wasn't much).

I bought my first car the summer before my senior year of college. It was a used 1995 (this was 2002) Ford Taurus. It was great. I loved it. A couple of annoying dead battery moments and a tow truck driver flooded my engine while trying to explain to me that it wasn't my battery that was dead and if he just held it that way long enough it would turn on, which needless to say it didn't and I ended up with both a dead battery and a flooded engine. The summer after my senior year, my now husband, and two of our best friends took a trip to Six Flaggs in Mass. On our way back to Maine my transmission died stranding us on the side of the road on the Mass Pike at 9pm. I had AAA plus and my parents mechanic was just within the 100 mile towing area so we found a tow truck that could seat four and made our way back to New Hampshire instead.

My next car was a 1994 Mercury Cougar with low mileage. It was great for two years. Then I had a series of problems with the alternator. We had a couple of problems and were told they had been fixed. Put in a new rebuilt alternator. Went to the movies that night, on the way home the car died in the middle of a busy intersection. Had the car towed back to the mechanic that had installed the alternator and made them fix it. My husband left for Maine and I had to work the next day. I picked up my car went to work and left straight from work for Maine, keeping an eye on everything the whole way there. Made it 2 hours, I'm on 495 in Mass when all the lights on my dash start going out... I see what's coming, manage to get off the highway and coast into a parking lot, where, you guessed it, I had to have my car towed again! Turns out the rebuilt alternator was actually faulty. Had my parent's mechanic work on it and replace it and it was fine. Then one day I'm leaving my internship (at an elementary school) and driving to meet some friends when there's this horrible grating noise and my car stops moving smoothly. I stop and call AAA... when they go to put the car on the tow truck, my car moves forward, but the front wheel doesn't... because it's no longer attached to the car.

Next car was a 1990 Toyota Camry station wagon. I had it for two weeks when the brakes went, while I was driving. Luckily I was able to stop okay and had them fixed within a day. Eight months later I was leaving work when I turned my key and the car didn't start. I figured it was probably the battery ... but actually something having to do with the exhaust had heated through some wires to the starter etc etc etc ... My husband handled that one because by then I was done with it. Luckily I was done with school by then and we were able to get a newer used Pathfinder that has been treating us well for the past year and a half (knocking on wood now).