Longest "limp-home" journey?
Discussion
Not really home, but my old Polo GTI's gearbox finally decided to give up in Aberdeen city centre during morning rush hour. Managed to limp it to my work 7 miles away with the most godawful metallic grinding noise ever heard and struggling to get it in gear. Limped it to the VW specialist after work with the knackered box with my Dad following behind ready with the tow rope! That was 10 miles away. A couple of weeks later and my wallet £900 lighter the car was back on the road with a fully reconditioned box :-) Loved the car despite it's flaws and knew about the gearbox issues before I bought one so had no complaints!
Scoobman said:
608 miles
With two buggered pistons
It made it!
I drove 2000 miles with no pistons. With two buggered pistons
It made it!
No actually it was about 250 from Hook in Hampshire to Redcar in Cleveland on 3 cylinders in a 1.3 Mk2 Escort. I had to drive with the windows down as oil fumes were coming in through the cooling vents in the dash. Cost me £10 for a spare engine which some friends helped me fit and it got me all the way back down to Portsmouth before blowing up again (cheaper than a train ticket back though
).WeirdNeville said:
clarkey328is said:
I drove 60 miles with a rear top mount gone in my 328. Luckily, the shock and spring are separate. Didn't go over 50 because it would start to get a wobble on after that!
Is that it?I drove my 328i from Skye to London(ish) with one failed rear shock absorber. Right hand bends were fine. Left hand bends tried to kill you.
Edited by WeirdNeville on Tuesday 22 November 19:41
Having said that, I keep a spare in the car now as it takes about ten minutes to change
Escort Mk2 exhaust downpipe fell off in my (then) rather refined local shopping street. Stopped to retrieve but it was too hot to pick up for a while. Had to stand there looking stupid for a while. Then 5 miles home with flames under the bonnet and incredible noise.
500 miles across France in summer with no cooling fan on my Triumph Stag (viscous coupling broke up). Cooling is not great on the Stag. Should be no problem as I had fitted a Kenlow fan sourced from the scrappy. Kenlow fan was fragile and blades broke up so had to keep removing opposing blades to get some sort of balance. Fine on the Autoroute, scarey in traffic.
Triumph 2500S rear LH shock mounting rusted right through the wheelarch. Ever driven with an undamped drive wheel ? Luckily only 5 miles home.
Headgasket leak between two cylinders on my XJ40 Jag. Disconnected the injectors and drove 60 miles home on 4. Don't know why I did this as I had recovery.
500 miles across France in summer with no cooling fan on my Triumph Stag (viscous coupling broke up). Cooling is not great on the Stag. Should be no problem as I had fitted a Kenlow fan sourced from the scrappy. Kenlow fan was fragile and blades broke up so had to keep removing opposing blades to get some sort of balance. Fine on the Autoroute, scarey in traffic.
Triumph 2500S rear LH shock mounting rusted right through the wheelarch. Ever driven with an undamped drive wheel ? Luckily only 5 miles home.
Headgasket leak between two cylinders on my XJ40 Jag. Disconnected the injectors and drove 60 miles home on 4. Don't know why I did this as I had recovery.
Not quite limp home mode, old Army Landy series 3, clutch fluid gone, gear lever stuck firmly in 4th won't budge.
Birmingham to Aldershot in rush hour, starting the car on the starter getting going reeeaally slowly up to the next roundabout only to slow to a stall. Pull away on the starter until the engine catches and away we go again. A tortuous trip but I laughed all the way back.
Incidentally, the REME mech asked why I didn't piss into the hydraulic reservoir to get some fluid into it? Right, bonnet up, dick out standing on the offside wing in rush hour having a piss???? Numpty.
Birmingham to Aldershot in rush hour, starting the car on the starter getting going reeeaally slowly up to the next roundabout only to slow to a stall. Pull away on the starter until the engine catches and away we go again. A tortuous trip but I laughed all the way back.
Incidentally, the REME mech asked why I didn't piss into the hydraulic reservoir to get some fluid into it? Right, bonnet up, dick out standing on the offside wing in rush hour having a piss???? Numpty.
590 miles with a failing front wheel bearing.
First noticed the problem in Braemar (effectively the edge of the Queen's Balmoral estate in Scotland. Symptoms were a rather scary lack of brakes coming down the Grampian mountains near the Glenshee Ski Centre!
Decided to nurse it as far as I could and pump the brakes between corners as was travelling with friends on a driving holiday. Amazingly it didn't get much worse so I kept going and going... through Dundee, Edinburgh, Kielder, Darlington (stopped to watch the BTCC at Croft) and finally all the way back to Bournemouth. 590 miles.
The bearing started to finally screech it's last near Newbury but I got it home despite the squealing. The bearing had about 3-4mm of play in it when removed it. I know was lucky.
First noticed the problem in Braemar (effectively the edge of the Queen's Balmoral estate in Scotland. Symptoms were a rather scary lack of brakes coming down the Grampian mountains near the Glenshee Ski Centre!
Decided to nurse it as far as I could and pump the brakes between corners as was travelling with friends on a driving holiday. Amazingly it didn't get much worse so I kept going and going... through Dundee, Edinburgh, Kielder, Darlington (stopped to watch the BTCC at Croft) and finally all the way back to Bournemouth. 590 miles.
The bearing started to finally screech it's last near Newbury but I got it home despite the squealing. The bearing had about 3-4mm of play in it when removed it. I know was lucky.
Gloucester to Chester with no alternator. My battery ran out of power in the middle of rush hour gloucester traffic so discovered my alternator was knackered. Recharged my battery and borrowed one to drive home, first ran out just after birmingham where the hard shoulder appears so managed to coast into a service station. The second ran out as I pulled into my drive!
Nuerburgring to Stourbridge with a major overheating issue which left me stranded about 2 miles from the hotel in Breidschied.
Thankfully, some helpful Swedish gentleman stopped to help me get a replacement expansion tank cap which helped me stabilise the system a little over the next 550+ miles.
Thankfully, some helpful Swedish gentleman stopped to help me get a replacement expansion tank cap which helped me stabilise the system a little over the next 550+ miles.
This topic has inspired me to finally stop lurking and join......
Ive had a few - 1 month driving 100 miles a day in a Rover 414 with a pretty badly failed HG, starting procedure as follows:
Open bonnet, remove spark plug from no.1 cylinder, turn engine over and impress passers by with 4 foot jet of water from cylinder, then very quickly re-insert spark plug and start engine before cylinder fills with water again and becomes hydraulically locked....
Fill header tank with water and drive...
It was so bad I had to do this even if I had just stopped for petrol - the time taken to fill the tank would flood the cylinder again. This was in the middle of winter, so the lack of heater was fun for 100 miles....
I was a trainee and utterly skint. Once I got paid, I stuck a used head and new gasket on, and then wrote it off a few weeks later.....
About a year later I had a mondeo I bought for 200 notes - the oil filter had cracked (unknown to me) and I ended up driving ten miles with no engine oil. Sounded awful. New filter and oil and it done another 50,000 faultless miles before I sold it
Ive had a few - 1 month driving 100 miles a day in a Rover 414 with a pretty badly failed HG, starting procedure as follows:
Open bonnet, remove spark plug from no.1 cylinder, turn engine over and impress passers by with 4 foot jet of water from cylinder, then very quickly re-insert spark plug and start engine before cylinder fills with water again and becomes hydraulically locked....
Fill header tank with water and drive...
It was so bad I had to do this even if I had just stopped for petrol - the time taken to fill the tank would flood the cylinder again. This was in the middle of winter, so the lack of heater was fun for 100 miles....
I was a trainee and utterly skint. Once I got paid, I stuck a used head and new gasket on, and then wrote it off a few weeks later.....
About a year later I had a mondeo I bought for 200 notes - the oil filter had cracked (unknown to me) and I ended up driving ten miles with no engine oil. Sounded awful. New filter and oil and it done another 50,000 faultless miles before I sold it
Dijon to Nottingham, avoiding motorways due to self imposed top speed of 45mph due to ac compressor dieing and as my volvo was crap if the belf which also powers the.fan + alternator shreadded would shred into cambelt equaling a large engine rebuild 
Lookily made it home over two days of 12hr driving, surely this is the longest ever.car trip from dijon to nottingham of 24hrs
Matt
Lookily made it home over two days of 12hr driving, surely this is the longest ever.car trip from dijon to nottingham of 24hrs
Matt
Heathrow to Edinburgh in a 2CV with a dodgy clutch (hardly disengaged) about 15 years ago.
I was into 2cv's at the time and saw a 2CV Beachcomber advertised for £150 so I arranged to fly down first thing one morning and pick it up. Managed to get on the motorway with the minimum of stops, and pretty much drove non stop to Edinburgh apart a break for some shut eye. Never again.
I was into 2cv's at the time and saw a 2CV Beachcomber advertised for £150 so I arranged to fly down first thing one morning and pick it up. Managed to get on the motorway with the minimum of stops, and pretty much drove non stop to Edinburgh apart a break for some shut eye. Never again.
LotusOmega375D said:
A disproportionate number of these tales seem to be from folk driving home from the Nürburgring.
That must tell us something....
Yup. When you get to the Nuerburgring - stay there!That must tell us something....
Just thought of another. Sheffield to Retford down the country roads in my old polo in winter. Head gasket blew so only had 2 cylinders, but couldn't keep to a low gear because it had boiled off/pissed out all it's water. So trundled along at 30mph in 4th for about an hour in winter with no heater at 1 AM. I'd also left my phone at my mates so couldn't call anyone. Did not like.
140ish miles.
I had travelled from Bridgwater to High Wycombe in my S40 Diesel to look at an MR2.
The MR2 was a total shed so I made my excuses and left. About oooh 10 metres up the road as I accelerated up the hill the S40 went BANG rattle rattle rattle. It kept running so I didn't stop it for fear it wouldn't start again.
God knows what had gone wrong but it did all of about 25mpg at 55mph the whole way. In the town people were turning to look as I went past, and at one point I got overtaken by and air-cooled camper that made less noise!
The oil was full of metal when I dropped it, so it just sat in the yard for a few months before the scrap price went up.
I had travelled from Bridgwater to High Wycombe in my S40 Diesel to look at an MR2.
The MR2 was a total shed so I made my excuses and left. About oooh 10 metres up the road as I accelerated up the hill the S40 went BANG rattle rattle rattle. It kept running so I didn't stop it for fear it wouldn't start again.
God knows what had gone wrong but it did all of about 25mpg at 55mph the whole way. In the town people were turning to look as I went past, and at one point I got overtaken by and air-cooled camper that made less noise!
The oil was full of metal when I dropped it, so it just sat in the yard for a few months before the scrap price went up.
Loads!
Mid-Kent to Beckenham in rush hour in a Rover 214 with no compression on 1 cyl due to a blown exhaust valve. Sounded like absolute s
t and needed to be revved to stop it stalling. Clutch was slipping as well, queueing up a hill was fun, rev the engine to get moving, clutch slips!
Thaxted in Essex to south London with no alternator at night. Switching the lights off whenever I got to a lit bit of the motorway! Nearly made it as well...
South London to Birmingham with a barely functioning clutch - was fine when I got onto the motorway, but hard work!
Various periods driving with vacuum leaks, having to left foot brake and keep one foot on the gas to stop it stalling.
Clutch pipe burst on MX-5 and on each application became harder and harder to disengage. Just got it home!
Heater hose split on way to the MOT - driving along with windows down, heater on full whack, a/c on (for the fan), just to keep the engine cool!
Probably loads more!
Mid-Kent to Beckenham in rush hour in a Rover 214 with no compression on 1 cyl due to a blown exhaust valve. Sounded like absolute s
t and needed to be revved to stop it stalling. Clutch was slipping as well, queueing up a hill was fun, rev the engine to get moving, clutch slips!Thaxted in Essex to south London with no alternator at night. Switching the lights off whenever I got to a lit bit of the motorway! Nearly made it as well...
South London to Birmingham with a barely functioning clutch - was fine when I got onto the motorway, but hard work!
Various periods driving with vacuum leaks, having to left foot brake and keep one foot on the gas to stop it stalling.
Clutch pipe burst on MX-5 and on each application became harder and harder to disengage. Just got it home!
Heater hose split on way to the MOT - driving along with windows down, heater on full whack, a/c on (for the fan), just to keep the engine cool!
Probably loads more!
CambsBill said:
Dieppe to Maidenhead (via Calais) four-up in a Mark 1 Escort with a broken exhaust manifold. Very load, very slow and my first lesson in how critical exhaust back pressure is to engine performance! (I was only 18 at the time)
Similarly, my Dad and I had the exhaust snap at the bottom of the downpipe on a Jetta 16V. just outside Lille. Secured the dangling exhaust section with a rubber strap from the spare wheel attached to the heat shield which just about did the job. We did the 400 miles or so to Cheshire. Ears pounding, lots of looks on the car deck of the ferry.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff