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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2010 12:30:28 GMT by rmad
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a wheel bearing collapsing seconds before a bus passed me, luckily wasn't going fast and managed to stop before hitting anything
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DutyFreeSaviour
Europe
Back For More heartbreak and disappointment.....
Posts: 2,944
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A fair few - EVERY TIME A BOLT SNAPS ;D Driving - hitting the humpback bridge between Coltishall and Neatishead (Wroxham I believe) at way too much speed (sign for limit was AOL!) and taking serious air - I knew the car was dead as soon as I hit the tarmac....  |
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Back from the dead..... kind of
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Jacked my old 106 rallye up, put axle stands at the front of the sills, removed the 1300 8v and put a 1600 16v in it's place, and generally start building the engine back up.
I take the battery out of the boot, put it in the front of the car, fill the engine with oil and fit the rad and bonnet.
I go underneath to tighten the aux belt pulley, and as I pull down on the ratchet, the front of the car moves down and the back of the car lifted about 15" off the ground, the whole thing pivoting on the maxed out axle stands with me laid underneath it. I looked across to see the top of the passenger side stand slide down the sill, luckily stopping after about an inch when it hit a little divot. I very very gingerly pushed the car back up (so I could get out from under it) then loaded the boot of the car full of wheels and a bag of cement to rebalance it!
Turns out the extra weight of the 16v and the lightness of the stripped out rear end meant that the car's center of balance was exactly where the front jacking points are on the sills.
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2010 12:49:11 GMT by cobblers
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Last winter. Arrived at work to find our carpark was sheet ice and it was a public open day. Cherwell council seem to have an aversion to grit bins but luckily the border to Northamptonshire is only a mile or so away and at the top of the hill on the entrance to Overthorpe there was grit. I parked up my trusty 1275GT, fetched the plastic Tote box and dustpan I'd taken from work and proceeded to fill the box with grit using the dustpan as a scoop.
The car meanwhile was happily idling away held on the handbrake. Just as I picked up the now quite heavy box of grit and headed back towards my waiting car, the handbrake decided it was bored of this game and the car started to roll off. Cue 18 stone of flab chasing a runaway Mini down the hill. Luckily I caught up with it and managed to get in before it hit anyone.
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Garage - Not double checking that my friend had put the axle stand in the right place and having the car sit it's weight down on the petrol tank. Noticed before any serious damage was done.
Driving - Nearly skittling a biker on a recent driving lesson when he pulled out of a queue of traffic and didn't see me.
Passenger - Narrow road from Eckington to Staveley. A big lorry (I know them as quarry lorries, they've got the big rigid square box on the back for transporting aggregates) decided to reverse into my Dad's Datsun Sunny estate. Parents got out to 'have a polite word' but the lorry driver seemed completely oblivious and started to drive off with the Datsun attached to the back of his truck! My brother and I must've been about 6 or 8 at the time and we've never seen my Dad be so athletic when he ran, opened the door of the truck while it was moving and got the driver to stop. Scary stuff. Even with a bust radiator, fan, bonnet, grille and bumper, the Datsun drove fine all the way back home and got repaired.
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mrj
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,662
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well, my biggest moment was changing a cam belt on my mothers Lancia Zeta turbo (same as Peugeot 806 and Fiat Ulysse); i trusted the drawing in the book of lies and had the wrong marks for the camshaft. That followed to weekends removing the head and replacing the bent valves. Since then i do not touch any "new" car .... ;D
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- 1971 VW 1600 TL Fastback
- 1978 Passat GLS Variant
- 1980 Audi 100 5E
- 1981 VW aircooled panel van (sold)
- 1983 VW Jetta Mk.I
- 1984 VW Polo Coupé
- 1984 VW Passat hatchback
- 1987 VW Passat Variant
- 1987 VW Passat hatchback
- 1988 VW T25
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Dom
Part of things
Limey
Posts: 617
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After arguing with my dad on whether to stop, taking a motorway services exit much too fast and far too late in a packed Scenic (all my stuff, moving to Glasgow) with parents and GF. Tight turn but I pumped the brake so as not to lock and managed to slow down. Very hairy!
Costa coffee was drunk in silence with shaking hands.
For an annoying oh curse word, seeing the oil light come on, pulling over fast and taking a chunk out the tyre. The oil light went out after that...
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Copey
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,845
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rear wheel once stripped 2 of its studs of thread and subsiquently snapped the other 2 and about 80mph!
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1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire GLSi with 2.0 Zetec
1985 Ford Capri 3.0 (was a 2.0 Laser originally)
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gtvsaviour..... i can honestly imagine that sick taste in your mouth as you took off over the bridge .....lol
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The tit pulling out in front of me at 3mph this morning whilst I was doing 60 left my sphincter twitching like a rabits nostril. and in the garage? blowing holes, setting fire to myself, breaking things.......pretty much each time i go to work on the car I have some sort of 'moment' however most are quickly rectified  |
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wanted, 25th hour. Required daily, cash waiting
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,786 
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A fair few - EVERY TIME A BOLT SNAPS ;D Driving - hitting the humpback bridge between Coltishall and Neatishead (Wroxham I believe) at way too much speed (sign for limit was AOL!) and taking serious air - I knew the car was dead as soon as I hit the tarmac.... I did exactly the same in my old beetle, when i was 17. But i also added a 180 spin and reversing at 50mph into another car on the other side of the bridge. Definately an 'oh curse word' moment. Stamping on the brakes in my Sprintfire ont eh way to retro show last year, only to have a lower wishone mount strip it's thread and pull out of the chassis ! |
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mr speedy ...youve just reminded me ...when i was 14 i borrowed the money off my nan and bought a 66 beetle.. when mum &dad went out i went for a spin ..in more ways than one... went down a side road in the snow and spun it round in a road up on 2 wheels landed broke the 2 wheels it landed on and wedged it behind a lamp post managed to get my bro to pick it up take to his house .took all the wheels off and the 2 smashed wings and told my dad we were doing it up!!!!!!!!!
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A fair few - EVERY TIME A BOLT SNAPS ;D Driving - hitting the humpback bridge between Coltishall and Neatishead (Wroxham I believe) at way too much speed (sign for limit was AOL!) and taking serious air - I knew the car was dead as soon as I hit the tarmac.... I did the same thing on a local humpback, took off in my Holbay powered Hillman Hunter, i knew it was gonna be bad when the car launched, when it landed it collapsed the front suspension, pulled the sump off, and collapsed the dashboard and rear seat, the scuff in the road is still there 20 years later, and its still the furthest one out.  |
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Garry
East Midlands
Posts: 1,722
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Sat as a 5 year old lad in the carseat in the back of my Dad's race prepped road-going Volvo Amazon. The left rear wheel comes off down a highstreet and went through a chemist's front window.
Second moment was when Dad retrieved it, reattached it and drove home, he told me never to say a word to anyone. So whats the first thing I say to Mum when we got in?
''Hey Mum, we crashed into a shop!!!''
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impmann
Posted a lot
Overcoming stupidity is the greatest challenge left to mankind
Posts: 1,089
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Every morning when the alarm goes off...
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1964 Hillman Imp
1976 Hillman Imp
1967 Hillman Imp
(And a few projects dotted around the country)
Just cos something is good for you doesn't mean its good for everyone - for example Marmite does not make good Dog Food.
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Probably one of my first was not long after passing my test, hooning around with two mates in the car, far too fast approach to a crossroads giveway - went straight across with all four wheels locked, between the gaps in the crossing traffic.
Had a few in various rally cars, the most recent in the early hours of Sunday morning, on frozen icy mud. 40mph in to a tree hurts. A lot!
Oh and one from many years ago: just reversing into my parking place at work and the front wheel fell of my Spitfire - lower trunion broken. I'd just driven 15 miles at speeds of 80+ to get there. Questionable if I'd still be here if it had gone ten minutes earlier.
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My biggest oh shhiiiiii moment was with my modern Honda Civic daily, I'd had it about a week. Our house was on a steep hill, intersected by the M66 motorway, our house was just uphill of the bridge over the motorway. I was unloading a set of wheels out of the boot of the Civic in the alley at the back of the house (Civic facing downhill, handbrake on a good 4 clicks) and when I rested my knees on the back bumper to lift a wheel out the car proceeded to roll away. I managed to scramble into the car and yank the handbrake on just in time. Had the car rolled away, it would have broken a ramshackle fence and plunged down the embankment towards the inside lane of the southbound M66!! At the request of the wife I called the AA out to it with a suspected handbrake fault, and the chap came, yanked the handbrake on and off a few times, took it for a run round the block and concluded that I'd not put it on far enough. The comment on the sheet he left said: 'Test driven - Restored customer's confidence in handbrake'  3 months later Honda issued a recall on all late model Civic handbrake mechanisms... |
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1967 Morris Traveller 1971 Series IIA Land Rover 1991 Golf GL 4+e 1992 Corrado G60 1986 E28 BMW 528i |
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,627
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Every morning when the alarm goes off... PMSL |
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My Mazda 929 estate had been making some nasty grinding noises from the brakes. I'd taken the front wheels off to look at the pads, but through the inspection hole I could only see the outside ones. Foolishly I assumed the inboard pads would be in similar condition (low but with some meat on 'em)
A few days later I was approaching a roundabout, applied the brakes with the accompanying grinding noise, then BANG! The pedal goes to the floor and I'm heading towards the busy roundabout at 40 mph. Luckily there was a pavement and wide grassy area to my left so I applied the weedy handbrake slowly and swerved onto the pavement, onto the grass and dodged a few saplings, finally coming to a stop. Horrible moment.
The inboard pads were down to the metal and had just flew out of the calipers. Since then I've been much more thorough in checking my brake pads (all of them!)
I didn't have breakdown recovery either so I had to drive back home using only the handbrake to stop a tonne and a half of satin black Japanese iron. That wasn't fun.
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as I now own a half dead deli 
