Most Bizarre

[keithyboy]

Following on from bastardchild's frankly bizarre pliers-through-the-tyre incident, what has been your most bizarre failure/breakdown?

Mine was in my Lada driving days. It was an old 1300 and it was a nightmare. It used to blow fuses all the time for fun but, when a bottle of tipp-ex got wedged in the wiper linkage, the fuse didn't blow, the motor burned out.

[stuey]

fiat uno -changed the gearbox and forgot to do up a couple of the bolts it worked loose and the engine/gearbox partially parted company and tore the centre out of the clutch plate.. towed it home and then had to do the whole job again + buy new clutch ... lesson learnt (threadlocked em after that!)

[bstardchild]

BC in Bizarre



If you guessed what it was then this will not be a surprise

[IDY]

Self-inflicted - one nice summer evening I was changing the glass in the sunroof. The job took far longer than it should due to rusted screws and I ended up finishing it in the dark. Because I couldn't see what I was doing I gave up on the last screws and decided to do them in the morning. Woke up late the next morning, running late to get to work I lept in the car and drove off. As I accelerated out of town there was a sudden bang and the glass blew out. It completely wreaked the sunroof mechanism and was completely my stupid fault

Lesson learnt, now if I haven't finished a job on the car overnight I leave things on the driver's seat to remind me to finish it before using it ;D

[steveh1975]

I haven't had anything odd happen for quite a few years but going back through the mists of time I managed to do this...




More a case of stupidity than properly bizarre. I decide to change the rubber seal around the hatch on the 944, to do this I had to remove the glass hatch. What I overlooked is that the hatch is pretty heavy and an awkward shape, therefore you really need an extra pair of hands otherwise one little slip and this happens!

That was a fairly expensive mistake.

[Lankytim]

Meh, that will tube ok.

[Adam]

I've left all sorts of random tools under the bonnets of various cars.... it's a wonder I've never had anything wedged in the cam belt!

[zetecvan]

It wasn't a breakdown, but a couple of odd incidents.

Driving to work on the M60 just passing the Bolton turn off, and a wagons trailer on the opposite carriageway hit a pigeon, which catapulted it towards me. It landed on my windscreen wiper boss, splatting blood up the windscreen and over the bonnet (It was a white BMW E30). Feathers were stuck to the wiper boss.

I cleaned up the mess when I got home that night.

Then two days later when I was going home from, at exactly the same junction another wagon hit another pigeon which was catapulted onto my other wiper boss. Blood and feathers were everywhere again.

[bmcnut]

When I used to have my clubby estate me and my dad were trying to hang the exhaust. As it was a Minex stainless system it didnt fit exactly right and was a bit of a 'mare to get on. We had the front pipe on loose and put the back end on. When it was almost on my dad twisted it to straighten it up, and dispite it being a pig to adjust for the previous half hour, it slipped round nice and easy. Easy enough to wedge my thumb between the exhaust hanger and the fuel tank with enough force make me think I realy should go down the hospital. I didnt and it still gives me $h1t to this day. Lucky my thumb was there realy, otherwise I would probably have been looking at a new tank!

[skinnylew]

ditto ^^

the most annoying thing was leaving the face plate and box of my Alpine stereo on the roof after going shopping then watching it fall off into the road, then going back for and seeing it intact until a lorry ran it over

[Mr. AJ]

May 17, 2008 9:17:57 GMT skinnylew said:

ditto ^^

the most annoying thing was leaving the face plate and box of my Alpine stereo on the roof after going shopping then watching it fall off into the road, then going back for and seeing it intact until a lorry ran it over

Haha, Similiar thing happened to me in a cherry picker van. Driving down a dual carriageway. Bear in mind this was stupid o'clock on a nice summers morning, Not a car in sight either way the entire time we'd been on that particular road. we heard a clunking sound bouncing along the roof followed by a similiar noise on the road. Looked in the mirrors to see one of the orange warning beacons bouncing off down the street, thanks to the rubbish brakes and 40mph speed (Which was like warp speed in that old clunker.) it took us a while to stop. I got out and seen as there was no cars to be seen took a leisurely stroll back to pick it up. I got to a few feet away and was relieved to see it was still in one piece.

That was, Of course until a few seconds later and an artic comes belting around the corner smashing it into hundreds of little pieces.

Then there was the time that one of the pneumatic hoses on the same cherry picker decided to break, curse word hydraulic fluid all over a customer stood next to the van.

Oh and the time the same van decided to eject its driveshaft on yet another dual carriageway.

and the time its electrics farked up and the indicators decided to stay light constantly.. unless the hazards button was pressed, which turned them off. No idea why, and it fixed itself later in the day.

[BenzBoy]

I had the gearstick shear off in my hand as I went for reverse in my Skoda Rapid.
I didn't have breakdown cover, but luckily there was a stump over which the gearlever fits so I had to slide it over and attempt to find gears that way.

[bortaf]

Once had a cortina stall at the end of me road, popped the bonnet to find the remains of a cat wrapped around the timing belt, must have been sleeping on the engine ?
Made a right frikken mess

[dave21478]

I hit a pheasant at some speed in my mini, which vaporised the spotlights and pushed the grill back with enough force to bend the slam panel and smash the distributer cap. I was up a wee road in the hills and pre mobile phone days too - that was a chuffing long walk to the nearest house to borrow their phone.

[dave21478]

oh yeah, and that same mini went through a phase of cutting out when going up hills or accelerating hard. I spent weeks faffing with that thinking it was fuel starvation or something. It turned out to be my metal-bodied tyre pressure guage had slid behind the dash clocks and got trapped so accelerating or going up a steep hill would make if rock backwards and short out the wire to the rev counter, which was killing the ignition.

[cherryturbojames]

May 17, 2008 12:20:34 GMT bortaf said:

Once had a cortina stall at the end of me road, popped the bonnet to find the remains of a cat wrapped around the timing belt, must have been sleeping on the engine ?
Made a right frikken mess

funnily enough exactl the same thing happened on my brothers mk4 cortina he had years ago to say it was a mess is a massive understatement

[skamanfrank]

May 17, 2008 12:56:09 GMT cherryturbojames said:

May 17, 2008 12:20:34 GMT bortaf said:

Once had a cortina stall at the end of me road, popped the bonnet to find the remains of a cat wrapped around the timing belt, must have been sleeping on the engine ?
Made a right frikken mess

funnily enough exactl the same thing happened on my brothers mk4 cortina he had years ago to say it was a mess is a massive understatement

Long lost brothers reunited by Retro Rides ;D

[harris66]

was following a metro a few years back, a bit wet and dark when some old dude stepped out infront of the metro, he went over the bonnet, over the roof and into the road infront of me, i stopped sharp and as i got out the old fellow got up, had a go at me and then walked off not saying a word to the metro driver!!

[purplevanman]

replaced the brakes on the rear of mk1 escy with a mate helping, drove to work next day and was overtaken by rear wheel, check other peoples work as well as your own!!!


Over filled the oil on the beachbuggy(rover V8) and thought it would be fine wrong, within 1/4 mile you couldn't see behind me

Plenty more if i could remember

[Broke4speed]

Didn't happen to my car...but it was hilarious.
I was fallowing a friend as he transported (drive) his racecar (97 Eagle Talon) with a perspex rear window. The car is a hatchback so the window is at a shallow angle. As he starts to accelerate, and hits about 50km/h, the rear window suddenly flies off. I was following reasonably close, so the screen flies over my car, and lands on the roadway about 50-100' behind me. Luckily there were no other cars, so we had a good laugh.