Longest "limp-home" journey?
Discussion
Some epic trips in busted cars makes mine seem tame.
My fan broke on the way back from Le Mans on a really hot day whilst in an epic queue for a toll. Luckely BMW E30's have a huge heater matrix, all windows open and heater on max with the vents pointing out the windows. Got so hot inside the sterio came up with a temp warning and shut itself off and the sat nav has never neeb the same. Kept the temp down though and limped home, it wasn't so bad on the move with air flowing though the rad.
My fan broke on the way back from Le Mans on a really hot day whilst in an epic queue for a toll. Luckely BMW E30's have a huge heater matrix, all windows open and heater on max with the vents pointing out the windows. Got so hot inside the sterio came up with a temp warning and shut itself off and the sat nav has never neeb the same. Kept the temp down though and limped home, it wasn't so bad on the move with air flowing though the rad.
possibly a little of topic.
a few years ago decided I would have a quick blast,the weather turned nice so carried on into the Yorkshire dales 100 miles or so from home the fuel tanks down to a quarter so decide time for a top up,guess what left my wallet at home DOH !
think my civic type r was the slowest but most frugal of all time but made it home with the light just coming on
DOES this count ?
a few years ago decided I would have a quick blast,the weather turned nice so carried on into the Yorkshire dales 100 miles or so from home the fuel tanks down to a quarter so decide time for a top up,guess what left my wallet at home DOH !
think my civic type r was the slowest but most frugal of all time but made it home with the light just coming on
DOES this count ?
pmjg66 said:
possibly a little of topic.
a few years ago decided I would have a quick blast,the weather turned nice so carried on into the Yorkshire dales 100 miles or so from home the fuel tanks down to a quarter so decide time for a top up,guess what left my wallet at home DOH !
think my civic type r was the slowest but most frugal of all time but made it home with the light just coming on
DOES this count ?
Oh if we are counting driving to somewhere with much less petrol than we need then that is a different matter. I have played petrol light roulette for most of my life.a few years ago decided I would have a quick blast,the weather turned nice so carried on into the Yorkshire dales 100 miles or so from home the fuel tanks down to a quarter so decide time for a top up,guess what left my wallet at home DOH !
think my civic type r was the slowest but most frugal of all time but made it home with the light just coming on
DOES this count ?
Once got 485miles out of a tank in my MR2, Bagshot to Harrogate and back, plus a trip to work. I had my wallet but as i was driving during the day i sat at Lorry Speeds in the inside lane for the whole way. Although it made up for the Time it took me 2 full tanks in the MR2 to get from Harrogate to Bagshot, i love summer evenings.
A few years ago a Turkish Delivery driver turned too sharp in our works car park and sheared the towbar straight off the back of his Lorry. He was driving one of those rigid Lorries with the trailer on the back thats the same size again, fecking big thing it was.
We needed it out of the yard so one of the lads agreed to weld it up with a buzz box so he could get to the nearest repair place. Well you would want it doing properly if you were going all the way back to Turkey!?
The next time he came 6 months later the repair was still in place!
My longest one personally is about 10 miles in a 3 series with disintegrated water pump bearings. I had rung my dad and got him to pick up a new pump and just as I pulled on his drive the old one exploded.
We needed it out of the yard so one of the lads agreed to weld it up with a buzz box so he could get to the nearest repair place. Well you would want it doing properly if you were going all the way back to Turkey!?
The next time he came 6 months later the repair was still in place!
My longest one personally is about 10 miles in a 3 series with disintegrated water pump bearings. I had rung my dad and got him to pick up a new pump and just as I pulled on his drive the old one exploded.
Edited by Leptons on Wednesday 23 November 08:42
This thread just made me register, since I've got a few. Two of which are going for the distance record.
I was a passenger in this one, so doesn't really count but its worth telling anyway since the same car will pop up another time. A couple of years ago I bought a knackered BMW 520i with some friends and on the 40 mile trip home the brakes became worse and worse with the pedal inching ever closer to the floor until they were gone almost completely. Made it home alive, despite having to unexpectedly stop at a railway crossing. Made it with inches to spare. I have never pressed the imaginary passenger brake pedal as hard since.
I once had to drive a '57 Ford Fairlane for someone's wedding. The original car I was supposed to drive was broken so they dusted off this thing. It hadn't been driven in three years, the whitewall tires were rock hard, the brakes needed three pumps before they did anything. Which was give you the option of not doing anything at all or lock up all four wheels while pulling to the right. Once the engine warmed up you could only lightly touch the accelerator because otherwise it would start to chug before spewing out huge flames through the exhausts with a huge bang followed by an immense black cloud. And the bonnet popped open when driving through a pothole. It took massive amounts of patience and very careful driving so the wedding guests wouldn't catch on that this thing was anything other than a complete and utter deathtrap. Nursed it back home at 35mph since it wouldn't go any faster anymore. The suspension has since fallen out from under the car and the engine caught fire.
And now back to the BMW. We bought it to do a 2000 mile banger rally, so it was entirely expected to be crap. We just didn't expect it to be this bad. So after fixing the brakes and doing bugger all to the rest of the car we set off. 50 miles from home a cooling hose snapped, fixed it with zipties. 150 miles later in the middle of France the real trouble started however. Turns out the viscous coupling had died, or had been dead all along. This coupled with the fact that half the dashboard gauges weren't working, one of which was the temp gauge, caused us not to notice the car was overheating badly. The pressure in the cooling system blew out a chunk of plastic near the top of the radiator with a loud bang and lots of smoke. With no spare parts available, no breakdown cover (oh what lovely foresight!) and us strapped for time, we bought a bunch of aluminium tape, heat resistant glue and some C-clamps and bodged the radiator back together. The remaining 1800 miles were driven with the windows open, heater on full blast and a self imposed speed limit of 60mph and regular toppings of cooling fluid. Brakes worked really well though.
Another year, another banger rally. This time the chariot of choice was an early Saab 9000 turbo without third gear, and it was a 3500 mile trip through Scandinavia. The clutch slave cilinder gave out in Copenhagen causing the car to leak brake fluid and not really building up enough pressure to disengage the clutch properly even when the reservoir was topped up. Overnight the reservoir had drained, we drove 10 miles through downtown Copenhagen with no clutch before we could refill the brake fluid reservoir which at least restored some pressure to the system. We soldiered on like that for the remaining 2900 miles or so topping up on brake fluid every morning.
I was a passenger in this one, so doesn't really count but its worth telling anyway since the same car will pop up another time. A couple of years ago I bought a knackered BMW 520i with some friends and on the 40 mile trip home the brakes became worse and worse with the pedal inching ever closer to the floor until they were gone almost completely. Made it home alive, despite having to unexpectedly stop at a railway crossing. Made it with inches to spare. I have never pressed the imaginary passenger brake pedal as hard since.
I once had to drive a '57 Ford Fairlane for someone's wedding. The original car I was supposed to drive was broken so they dusted off this thing. It hadn't been driven in three years, the whitewall tires were rock hard, the brakes needed three pumps before they did anything. Which was give you the option of not doing anything at all or lock up all four wheels while pulling to the right. Once the engine warmed up you could only lightly touch the accelerator because otherwise it would start to chug before spewing out huge flames through the exhausts with a huge bang followed by an immense black cloud. And the bonnet popped open when driving through a pothole. It took massive amounts of patience and very careful driving so the wedding guests wouldn't catch on that this thing was anything other than a complete and utter deathtrap. Nursed it back home at 35mph since it wouldn't go any faster anymore. The suspension has since fallen out from under the car and the engine caught fire.
And now back to the BMW. We bought it to do a 2000 mile banger rally, so it was entirely expected to be crap. We just didn't expect it to be this bad. So after fixing the brakes and doing bugger all to the rest of the car we set off. 50 miles from home a cooling hose snapped, fixed it with zipties. 150 miles later in the middle of France the real trouble started however. Turns out the viscous coupling had died, or had been dead all along. This coupled with the fact that half the dashboard gauges weren't working, one of which was the temp gauge, caused us not to notice the car was overheating badly. The pressure in the cooling system blew out a chunk of plastic near the top of the radiator with a loud bang and lots of smoke. With no spare parts available, no breakdown cover (oh what lovely foresight!) and us strapped for time, we bought a bunch of aluminium tape, heat resistant glue and some C-clamps and bodged the radiator back together. The remaining 1800 miles were driven with the windows open, heater on full blast and a self imposed speed limit of 60mph and regular toppings of cooling fluid. Brakes worked really well though.
Another year, another banger rally. This time the chariot of choice was an early Saab 9000 turbo without third gear, and it was a 3500 mile trip through Scandinavia. The clutch slave cilinder gave out in Copenhagen causing the car to leak brake fluid and not really building up enough pressure to disengage the clutch properly even when the reservoir was topped up. Overnight the reservoir had drained, we drove 10 miles through downtown Copenhagen with no clutch before we could refill the brake fluid reservoir which at least restored some pressure to the system. We soldiered on like that for the remaining 2900 miles or so topping up on brake fluid every morning.
I had a clutch arm break, so no clutch, in the start of rush-hour traffic in Glasgow.
I had to get through Glasgow and onto the M8 for about 30 odd miles, then get home with no clutch.
Not too much of a problem.
Also the alternator drive belt snapped once and left me with no alternator/dieing battery. I decided to complet my journey of 50 + miles to get home then had to go another 25 to the garage for a new belta dn alternator.
It was winter/dark nights and a bit 'damp' so needed wipers and head-lights, still made it ok.
Escort vans, unstoppable
I had to get through Glasgow and onto the M8 for about 30 odd miles, then get home with no clutch.
Not too much of a problem.
Also the alternator drive belt snapped once and left me with no alternator/dieing battery. I decided to complet my journey of 50 + miles to get home then had to go another 25 to the garage for a new belta dn alternator.
It was winter/dark nights and a bit 'damp' so needed wipers and head-lights, still made it ok.
Escort vans, unstoppable
Longest was Le Mans to Tonbridge in a G Reg V8 Ranger Rover Vogue. Not only was it covered in Camo and fully laden with 5 lads, generator, tv, playstation, 10 man tent etc, it also had no Brake master cylinder and had a blown manifold. To say i nearly pulled the steering wheel off a few times wouldn't be an exaggeration. There was also a fuel strike on and we had limited supplies (2008). All in all, a fun journey home.
hman said:
40 miles with a failed coil pack - it was a v6 audi so not that bad
Had a coil pack go on a V6 Audi on the 2nd day of a roadtrip. Got to Brussels fine, got on the motorway the next day and found as soon as you gave it any throttle it would judder and misfire. Not impossible to drive, you just needed patience to build up speed. Not fun when you have a large chunk of autobahn in front of you. Had no idea what was wrong at first so we started fiddling with the air filter and other tinkering. Eventually got to Finland and back, about 3000 miles. Found that with a lot of patience you could open the throttle more and more a get up a little bit of speed, managed 120mph over what seemed like an eternity. Eventually got home after a slightly disappointing road trip and found it could have been fixed with some nail varnish or 2 inches of insulation tape.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff