Have you ever broken down?

[jbi]

List your previous owned car's and if you have ever broke down in them...

1995 Vauxhall Omega 2.0 - No breakdowns
1986 Ford LTD 5.8 - No breakdowns but so much blow-by would not run with air filter on
1991 Mercury Cougar 3.8 - Dizzy cap let water in, had to abandon car in library car park
1996 Dodge Intrepid 3.5 - No breakdowns
1995 Fiat Cinquecento 1.0 - Engine went bang at 40k, had to be recovered
1995 Volvo 850 2.5 - Sticky hydraulic lifter would sometimes make the engine hard to start
1992 Toyota Celsior 4.0 - Air suspension would freeze in cold sometimes

Currently Owned

1985 Land Rover 110 2.5 - Wheel came off at speed one time and would conk out up hill's due to air in fuel line.
1997 Volvo S70 2.5 - No breakdowns
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 - No breakdowns

Which cars have let you down?

Edited by jbi on Tuesday 13th November 20:34

[phib]

Out of circa 40 cars only ones to let me down are range rover sport and series 3 land rover.

Phib

[jbi]

MajorTom said:

I cried like a baby in my Range Rover yesterday

engine went bang?

[DanielSan]

Twice, once I ran out of fuel and once I put the wrong fuel in, though I stopped the car before it stopped so I don't think it counts.

[big_boz]

Audi A4 1.6 - broke down with a dead fuel pump on a really hot day on the side of the M1. I did what they tell you to do an got out of the car and sat on the other side of the barrier and waited for the AA..... didn't notice the red ants crawling up my leg and biting me!

BMW 316 E30 - snapped cambelt - dead

Lancia Y10 - snapped cambelt - easy fix

Fiat Panda - Snapped cambelt - easy fix

Fiat Cinqucento Sporting twice - first time Dead ECU, resulted from inadvertently driving through a fjord, second time injector packed up.

Hyundai Coupe - TPS Sensor issue

[Nick1point9]

jbi said:

MajorTom said:

I cried like a baby in my Range Rover yesterday

engine went bang?

I think he meant that he had an emotional break down.

[jbi]

Nick1point9 said:

jbi said:

MajorTom said:

I cried like a baby in my Range Rover yesterday

engine went bang?

I think he meant that he had an emotional break down.

either is a possibility

[V6GTA]

Pug 306 XT - Never broke down
Mondeo LX - Limped to work one day as distributor packed up.
Ford Ranger - Never Broke down
Alfa 156 1.8 - Never broke down
Alfa 156 GTA - Water pump failed but limped home slowly.
Alfa 147 2.0 - Never broke down but did run out of petrol once.. 20 metres from the garage.
Alfa 147 GTA - Never broke down.
Alfa 147 GTA - Alternator Failure - Dead car at side of the road.

[Robatr0n]

1989 Mini Thirty - Twice. Dizzy picked up and then the Ignition Coil packed up. Both in Tiwckenham.
1990 Audi Coupe 2.0E - Once. Fan switch packed up and it over heated. In Twickenham!
1991 Audi S2 Coupe - Once. Fan switch packed up but I had a piece of wire and a fuse so wired it directly to the battery to take it to the garage. Had a few niggles such as wiper circuit burning out killing my lights, indicators and wipers in the pouring rain on an early morning hoon. Luckily a friend & fellow PHer played wingman and guided me home.
1992 Fiat Tipo 1.4 i.e Yes! ECU died whilst on the outside lane of the M4 and killed all power to the car. My brother was driving and managed to get to the hard shoulder with no lights, indicators or power! The ignition is prone to getting wet in the rain and packed up on the Hogarth roundabout a couple of months back. Involved me pushing it clear and trying to dry everything out with an old rag in the pissing rain. Oh and monumental brake failure.
1993 TVR Chimaera - Not yet (touch wood!).
1996 E34 540i - Not yet.

[SebastienClement]

I have ever broken down yet.

The closest I've come was having my auxbelt snapping and loosing the alternator / PAS. Made it to the garage without problem though.

[vixen1700]

I've owned a TVR for nearly 15 years.

[big_boz]

V6GTA said:

Mondeo LX - Limped to work one day as distributor packed up.

you should have just walked

[HustleRussell]

2001 Renault Clio Cambelt Failure, ran out of fuel
2000 Caterham 7 Electrical short, Ran out of petrol, Engine mount failure, Wheel bearing failure
2003 Mondeo TDCI Camshaft position sensor
1996 E34 525i Never let me down yet, a couple of limp-homes though! (cooling system)

[Prof Prolapse]

Nova 1.2 - Headgasket
Astra 1.6 16v - Motorway barrier.
Astra 1.6 8v - Wall.
Mx5 mk1 - Coolant hoses burst, battery, ditch.
MR2 turbo - Battery / regulator.
Mx5 mk2 - no problems.
XJR - no problems.
Nissan micra - TPS failure (reboot of ecu would let you get home)
Mini cooper S - No problems.
Golf mk2 gti - Ran out of petrol, HGF failure, dizzy failure.

So thats 7/10 have broken down. 70% failure rate. Amazing.

[kambites]

I think I've been stranded twice - once because the fuel gauge got stuck on the MG and I ran out of fuel, and once because a tyre failed catastrophically on the Corrado and I couldn't get to the spare because I had a cast iron wood burning stove in the boot which I couldn't lift on my own.

[HustleRussell]

Prof Prolapse said:

Astra 1.6 16v - Motorway barrier.
Astra 1.6 8v - Wall.
Mx5 mk1 - Coolant hoses burst, battery, ditch.

I don't think that driving into a motorway barrier/wall/ditch counts as a break-down

[cocopop]

Fiesta – cam belt snapped.
Escort – catalytic convertor failed blocking exhaust. Something else broke, but I forget what it was.
RX7 – never broke down.
Corsa - never broke down (even running on no oil at one point).
Supra – never broke down.
MX5 No 1 – clutch.
MX5 No 2 – binding brake caliper.
MX5 No 3 – turbo failure. Then replacement turbo failure. Then power steering system failure.

[northwest monkey]

jbi said:

Nick1point9 said:

jbi said:

MajorTom said:

I cried like a baby in my Range Rover yesterday

engine went bang?

I think he meant that he had an emotional break down.

either is a possibility

One caused the other probably

[DaveH23]

I have only ever owned 3 cars.

Vauxhall Corsa A - Never broke down - 1 year ownership
Peugeot 306 1.6 - Never broke down - 2 year ownership
Peugeot 106 GTi - Broke down twice in 5 years.

First time after having fast road cams fitted the timing belt wasn't fitted properly and jumped a cog writing the engine off.

Second time the alternator packed up and drained the battery.

[northwest monkey]

HustleRussell said:

Prof Prolapse said:

Astra 1.6 16v - Motorway barrier.
Astra 1.6 8v - Wall.
Mx5 mk1 - Coolant hoses burst, battery, ditch.

I don't think that driving into a motorway barrier/wall/ditch counts as a break-down

I've "broken down" once when a Landcruiser Amazon reversed into me at about 25mph!

Apart from the above, I don't think I've broken down properly for ages.

Jeep Cherokee wouldn't start once but I hadn't shut the doors properly & the battery drained.
Ford Probe had a problem with ECU & also wouldn't start. That did threaten to break down on me on the M62 one night but I got it home (just) - split HT leads.
Citroen Picasso coil pack thing packed up on motorway so was running on 3 cylinders - got home (just) thanks to garage owning neighbour (ta Gary if you're reading!).
Water pump failed on 3.0 Jag X-type but kept filling it with water to get back home.
Used to break down all the time when I had a Cortina, but I just took that as a sign it fancied a rest