What the unluckiest you've been with a car?
Discussion
What is the unluckiest you've been with a car?
Over the past 24 hours, fortune has truly deserted me. I've suffered two major mechanical failures on each of my vehicles and they've made the past day miserable. In isolation, either would one strike me as remarkable but for both to happen within hours of each other is just the worst luck!
It started off riding to work on my motorbike last night. Everything was going well to start with; the roads were dry, traffic relatively light, the tank was full of fuel. As I came down onto Scotswood Road, I entered the roundabout off the A1 sliproad heading towards Newcastle. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and then a mechanical noise like a pedal cycle chain when you're freewheeling. The throttle would open, but there was no drive going to the back wheel. I could hear the chain clattering inside it's case and I knew then it was broken. I pulled over at the roadside, looked through the chain inspection port and yes, it was broken. No real warning it was about to go, it was occasionally a little noisy when cold but was lubricated and only had one small tight spot on inspection. Thinking it'd be fine was my downfall, made even more irritating by the fact I was going to get it replaced at service next month.
As I stopped, a colleague of mine pulled up. I told him to let my boss know I was coming, and to send a van along if they could spare one to pick me up. I'd already rang our switchboard with the same message, but I didn't have much confidence it would be delivered there. So began the arduous task of pushing the bike into work. Three miles, lots of hill, and nowhere to store my lid other than wear it. I was f
king baking. As I passed the Rolls Royce factory, one of our vans turned up but sadly, it was a smaller van and there was no room for the bike. I declined an offer to take a lift and leave the bike! 
A group of girls did pull up in a Fiat 500 asking if I needed help or a lift, but in the absence of towing facility I had to thank them and wave them on their way.
An hour and twenty minutes later, I flopped into work. The bike had begun to feel like lead as I pushed it along, I was dying for a drink and dying to get to work where I could get my bike kit off and cool down. If it'd been a bigger bike, there would have been no way it could have been pushed all that way! I know you'll be thinking "why not just get it recovered?". Well, luckily the Honda garage isn't all that far from where I work, so I shuffled the deck of cards in my mind to work out how I'd get home in the morning after work. I'd take the bike to work, leave it secure in the car park there, and wheel it along to Honda next week before starting a shift and get it fixed there. As for getting home, well, I'd already planned a trip across to the East end of Newcastle in the morning to pick my car up from a garage. Which brings us on the next bit of 'worst luck'.
Finishing work, I head over to the East end of Newcastle, waiting for the garage to open. It's open shortly before 8AM, which seems like luck. Sadly, my car (an old Jaguar XJ8) is tucked up in the bigger garage next door that doesn't open until 0830AM, as there wasn't space to store it overnight in the small garage where I was getting the work done. Indeed, I'd put it in for MOT last week and it had failed on a rough rear wheel bearing. I asked the garage to replace the rear bearings, retest it and I'd have it back. That was last Thursday, and I'd taken the car to them on Saturday. The job had slid when they needed a press for the back bearing and it was yesterday I rang them and they told me it had been retested and was ready to take home.
By the time I was finally able to get to the car, establish who was to be paid, make payment and head on my way, it was getting on for 9AM. Disaster struck again soon after, as I hit the central motorway leaving town. There was a sudden thump from the back of the car, and it pitched into a fish tailing motion. The ASC system seemed to draw the slide up and pull the car straight. Suddenly the ABS warning light was illuminated, with a flashing message on the dash saying TRAC/ASC not available. Of course, I was fking fuming by now and though perhaps something had gone wrong in changing the wheel and something like being connected up or whatever. The car still drove straight, didn't make any funny noises, and the warning lights didn't go out. Stuck for options on how to get home off the busy roads, I nursed it back. On pulled up on my drive, I switched off and back on again - still showing the ABS warning light. Jumping out of the car, I see smoke drifting from the rear N/S wheel. Having seen this before on my 106 Rallye, I knew instantly that a brake pad was binding on. I rang the garage and they offered to recover it back to their premises to fix. Recovery was arranged for 2PM, on the basis that I was absolutely shattered and couldn't wait up for it.
So now, I'm sitting waiting for recovery - who knows what'll happen next? Perhaps the recovery truck will crash en route to the garage? This is also the third car MOT I've done in as many years, but the second time I've been left with a binding rear brake. I had the same issue on my 106 Rallye after that was MOT'd, which necessitated another trip to the garage to get it fixed.
Has anyone ever had worse luck than that, barring awful crashes?
Over the past 24 hours, fortune has truly deserted me. I've suffered two major mechanical failures on each of my vehicles and they've made the past day miserable. In isolation, either would one strike me as remarkable but for both to happen within hours of each other is just the worst luck!
It started off riding to work on my motorbike last night. Everything was going well to start with; the roads were dry, traffic relatively light, the tank was full of fuel. As I came down onto Scotswood Road, I entered the roundabout off the A1 sliproad heading towards Newcastle. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and then a mechanical noise like a pedal cycle chain when you're freewheeling. The throttle would open, but there was no drive going to the back wheel. I could hear the chain clattering inside it's case and I knew then it was broken. I pulled over at the roadside, looked through the chain inspection port and yes, it was broken. No real warning it was about to go, it was occasionally a little noisy when cold but was lubricated and only had one small tight spot on inspection. Thinking it'd be fine was my downfall, made even more irritating by the fact I was going to get it replaced at service next month.
As I stopped, a colleague of mine pulled up. I told him to let my boss know I was coming, and to send a van along if they could spare one to pick me up. I'd already rang our switchboard with the same message, but I didn't have much confidence it would be delivered there. So began the arduous task of pushing the bike into work. Three miles, lots of hill, and nowhere to store my lid other than wear it. I was f
king baking. As I passed the Rolls Royce factory, one of our vans turned up but sadly, it was a smaller van and there was no room for the bike. I declined an offer to take a lift and leave the bike! A group of girls did pull up in a Fiat 500 asking if I needed help or a lift, but in the absence of towing facility I had to thank them and wave them on their way. An hour and twenty minutes later, I flopped into work. The bike had begun to feel like lead as I pushed it along, I was dying for a drink and dying to get to work where I could get my bike kit off and cool down. If it'd been a bigger bike, there would have been no way it could have been pushed all that way! I know you'll be thinking "why not just get it recovered?". Well, luckily the Honda garage isn't all that far from where I work, so I shuffled the deck of cards in my mind to work out how I'd get home in the morning after work. I'd take the bike to work, leave it secure in the car park there, and wheel it along to Honda next week before starting a shift and get it fixed there. As for getting home, well, I'd already planned a trip across to the East end of Newcastle in the morning to pick my car up from a garage. Which brings us on the next bit of 'worst luck'.
Finishing work, I head over to the East end of Newcastle, waiting for the garage to open. It's open shortly before 8AM, which seems like luck. Sadly, my car (an old Jaguar XJ8) is tucked up in the bigger garage next door that doesn't open until 0830AM, as there wasn't space to store it overnight in the small garage where I was getting the work done. Indeed, I'd put it in for MOT last week and it had failed on a rough rear wheel bearing. I asked the garage to replace the rear bearings, retest it and I'd have it back. That was last Thursday, and I'd taken the car to them on Saturday. The job had slid when they needed a press for the back bearing and it was yesterday I rang them and they told me it had been retested and was ready to take home.
By the time I was finally able to get to the car, establish who was to be paid, make payment and head on my way, it was getting on for 9AM. Disaster struck again soon after, as I hit the central motorway leaving town. There was a sudden thump from the back of the car, and it pitched into a fish tailing motion. The ASC system seemed to draw the slide up and pull the car straight. Suddenly the ABS warning light was illuminated, with a flashing message on the dash saying TRAC/ASC not available. Of course, I was f
king fuming by now and though perhaps something had gone wrong in changing the wheel and something like being connected up or whatever. The car still drove straight, didn't make any funny noises, and the warning lights didn't go out. Stuck for options on how to get home off the busy roads, I nursed it back. On pulled up on my drive, I switched off and back on again - still showing the ABS warning light. Jumping out of the car, I see smoke drifting from the rear N/S wheel. Having seen this before on my 106 Rallye, I knew instantly that a brake pad was binding on. I rang the garage and they offered to recover it back to their premises to fix. Recovery was arranged for 2PM, on the basis that I was absolutely shattered and couldn't wait up for it. So now, I'm sitting waiting for recovery - who knows what'll happen next? Perhaps the recovery truck will crash en route to the garage? This is also the third car MOT I've done in as many years, but the second time I've been left with a binding rear brake. I had the same issue on my 106 Rallye after that was MOT'd, which necessitated another trip to the garage to get it fixed.
Has anyone ever had worse luck than that, barring awful crashes?
Funnily enough, I used to work onsite at BA in the same area. The first car I bought was a VW Polo. In short, it ended up with oil getting into the top of the cylinder causing an intermittent misfire. Eventually it was discovered (a year after I bought it and it being back to the place I got it from numerous times) that this was caused by the fact that the oil pick up was shagged, basically starving the engine of oil. Ah well, you live and you learn.
So I have broken down on the same stretch of road as you
So I have broken down on the same stretch of road as you
Last October I bought the second most reliable car in Britain, according to the polls.
Since then I have replaced its Dual Mass Flywheel, clutch, alternator and battery. This lunchtime I replaced the passenger side door mirror glass. It now owes me nearly twice what I paid. I will be driving it until 200000 miles I reckon!
Since then I have replaced its Dual Mass Flywheel, clutch, alternator and battery. This lunchtime I replaced the passenger side door mirror glass. It now owes me nearly twice what I paid. I will be driving it until 200000 miles I reckon!
Brand new Renault Zoe.
150miles into ownership - total battery failure, car off road two weeks , Renault then replaced car.
1mile into ownership of replacement car heating stops.
800miles later heating stops again, looks like it'll be off the road until end of next week as they have found many parts that need ordering.
150miles into ownership - total battery failure, car off road two weeks , Renault then replaced car.
1mile into ownership of replacement car heating stops.
800miles later heating stops again, looks like it'll be off the road until end of next week as they have found many parts that need ordering.
SuperchargedVR6 said:
A snapped chain and a binding caliper doesn't seem all that bad to me, in the grand scheme of owning 2 machines comprised of 100s of intricate parts.
They could have been worse. It's definitely the unluckiest I've been with a car, and sod's law that both failures have struck within hours of each other. Luckily the Honda garage is a short push from work. I can get the bike pushed to Honda for repair, and collect my car from the garage on Monday. Fixed, I hope. Well I was unlucky but only have self to blame really. Was shedding one of those old Volvo 440 hatchback things and maintained it according to what warning light happened to come on.
All was well until the the 'oil low' lamp failed at some stage and it seized up some time after that due to lack of oil.
All was well until the the 'oil low' lamp failed at some stage and it seized up some time after that due to lack of oil.
I used to have a BMW 750i for commuting (lived in Exeter and worked in Warwick) and an Impreza for the weekends. The viscous fan seized on the 750 and sent fan blades all over the place, including piercing the bonnet. As a result I had to use my Impreza to commute the following week and someone crashed into me coming out of Sainsburys. Two insurance claims going on at once.
Pothole said:
Last October I bought the second most reliable car in Britain, according to the polls.
Since then I have replaced its Dual Mass Flywheel, clutch, alternator and battery. This lunchtime I replaced the passenger side door mirror glass. It now owes me nearly twice what I paid. I will be driving it until 200000 miles I reckon!
Oof! At least with the Jag, it's cheap and the MOT pass has only cost £140 for the wheel bearing work. That, two tyres and a bottle of radweld now mean the car has cost me more than my sofa, but for quite a while it didn't!Since then I have replaced its Dual Mass Flywheel, clutch, alternator and battery. This lunchtime I replaced the passenger side door mirror glass. It now owes me nearly twice what I paid. I will be driving it until 200000 miles I reckon!
Owned my Civic Type R for about 6 months, first car so I was pretty clueless to be honest.
Picked it up from Wales to drive it back to London, clutch went on the way, had to call AA, pay for UK national recovery, and new clutch etc.
1 week later drove up to Scarborough to visit a friend, front brakes were down to the metal for the last 50 miles, which screwed my discs aswell, had to get it done at a main dealer the next day as they were the only ones that had it in stock.
After arriving back in London, realised my tyres were past their legal limit, so had to replace all four.
Went over a speedbump and my catalytic converter ripped off, had to get that replaced. As it was in the shop, the garage pointed out to me that the entire subframe was twisted, and the car had been in a crash. The front bumper was actually blue on the inside, just painted black on the outside.
This meant an MOT failure the following week, cost me £1200 to fix.
Various other things went wrong over the time I owned it, including the AC stopped working, Rear LED lights stopped working, rear windscreen heater aswell. Breather pipe for air filter went missing, meant my air filter kept falling out everytime I revved it and kept lodging itself in the engine bay.
To be honest, my own stupidity meant I bought an absolute shed, as I said it was my first car. Some very expensive lessons learnt!
Picked it up from Wales to drive it back to London, clutch went on the way, had to call AA, pay for UK national recovery, and new clutch etc.
1 week later drove up to Scarborough to visit a friend, front brakes were down to the metal for the last 50 miles, which screwed my discs aswell, had to get it done at a main dealer the next day as they were the only ones that had it in stock.
After arriving back in London, realised my tyres were past their legal limit, so had to replace all four.
Went over a speedbump and my catalytic converter ripped off, had to get that replaced. As it was in the shop, the garage pointed out to me that the entire subframe was twisted, and the car had been in a crash. The front bumper was actually blue on the inside, just painted black on the outside.
This meant an MOT failure the following week, cost me £1200 to fix.
Various other things went wrong over the time I owned it, including the AC stopped working, Rear LED lights stopped working, rear windscreen heater aswell. Breather pipe for air filter went missing, meant my air filter kept falling out everytime I revved it and kept lodging itself in the engine bay.
To be honest, my own stupidity meant I bought an absolute shed, as I said it was my first car. Some very expensive lessons learnt!
It does seem to come in threes!
I had DMF failure on a Mondeo, clutch, flywheel, starter cll changed. The injectors went soon after, and the fuel pump was suspect. When the power steering pump gave up I took it to the Ford garage for service then headed up to the second hand car sales area and traded it in. I dont think that Sales spoke to Service when they offered a PX value but it was bottom dollar anyway
I had DMF failure on a Mondeo, clutch, flywheel, starter cll changed. The injectors went soon after, and the fuel pump was suspect. When the power steering pump gave up I took it to the Ford garage for service then headed up to the second hand car sales area and traded it in. I dont think that Sales spoke to Service when they offered a PX value but it was bottom dollar anyway
swisstoni said:
Well I was unlucky but only have self to blame really. Was shedding one of those old Volvo 440 hatchback things and maintained it according to what warning light happened to come on.
All was well until the the 'oil low' lamp failed at some stage and it seized up some time after that due to lack of oil.
Had you just assumed the engine had stopped using oil? All was well until the the 'oil low' lamp failed at some stage and it seized up some time after that due to lack of oil.
Unlucky OP but the way you built it up I was expecting something serious.
I've had a mk4 golf TDI shart its clutch completely (no indication of impending failure or slipping - just first gear, then second, then a box of porridge)
A 6n polo water pump completely failed on me once as well, cooking the car on the way home from work.
Both of these were in week old cars, the polo with a full service history and bought from a lady who'd owned it from new.
The 2 that really take the biscuit were a scirocco that crapped its gearbox reversing it off the MOT ramp, and my Suzuki SV650 which I slid on diesel in the wet, then paid ~£500 to fix only to have some scrote steal it 2 days after getting it back from the garage.
A 6n polo water pump completely failed on me once as well, cooking the car on the way home from work.
Both of these were in week old cars, the polo with a full service history and bought from a lady who'd owned it from new.
The 2 that really take the biscuit were a scirocco that crapped its gearbox reversing it off the MOT ramp, and my Suzuki SV650 which I slid on diesel in the wet, then paid ~£500 to fix only to have some scrote steal it 2 days after getting it back from the garage.
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