Problems with cars you have owned.

[BTB 500]

The HC Viva (quite possibly the HB too) had a bi-metallic strip 'circuit breaker' that cut the power from the battery if the current exceeded a certain value. I found this out while bowling along a sunken lane in Cornwall late at night with the front spotlights and HRW I'd added to the car both switched on. The longest couple of seconds of my life!

I had a mk 1 Cavalier company car where dipping the headlights (this was done by a foot switch!) caused the interior light to come on.

I had a number of Talbot company cars. The gearlever of an Alpine came off in my hand once, and I had a Solara stop dead in the outside lane of the M1 for no apparent reason. That was actually very scary - by the time I realised I'd lost all power I had HGVs thundering past on the inside so I had to pull as close to the central reservation as I could, and then get out of the passenger door into the centre lane ...

I had a Fiat 126 and drove that home down the A3 on one cylinder once after the spark plug cap sheared off on the other one.

Happy days

 

[BTB 500]

Apparently these are super rare now with the voice instruction working. Starting to appreciate but probably only to a very small community!

Mine was an 85/C in a nice metallic mid-blue and I had no problems whatsoever with it apart from the occasional false warning from the dash (which the MG version had as well). That was pretty revolutionary for 30+ years ago.

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After that I had an 89/G Montego estate (2.0 petrol) which was a fantastic car but fell apart with rust There hadn't been a speck of it on the Maestro - quite possibly the VDP models had a different paint process.

 

[whitenemesis]

.....................

After that I had an 89/G Montego estate (2.0 petrol) which was a fantastic car but fell apart with rust There hadn't been a speck of it on the Maestro - quite possibly the VDP models had a different paint process.

Ditto! I had a white estate 2.0L, great car but one could see the yellow rust stains appear after every wash. Finally threw the towel in after a rusty wheel arch ripped open an MoT tester's overall

 

[BTB 500]

Ditto! I had a white estate 2.0L, great car but one could see the yellow rust stains appear after every wash. Finally threw the towel in after a rusty wheel arch ripped open an MoT tester's overall

I'd bought mine from a main dealer and tried to get the rust sorted under warranty/goodwill but they weren't remotely interested - sounds familiar?!

It was dark blue metallic and I resorted to periodically coating the rust patches with metallic Hammerite, which didn't look too bad from a distance. I traded it in for a Nissan Micra for my wife when a local garage did a "£1000 minimum part-ex for anything with an MOT" offer one weekend

 

[Giantvanman]

I had a Mk 2 Cavalier which threw a conrod out of the block on a rainy, windy night whilst on the A1M…previous owner had been ham-fisted and managed to push the dipstick tube/holder down into the block so whilst I thought I was being careful by religiously checking the oil…had to have a complete short engine.

A Beetle whose windscreen washers were 'powered' by the pressure from the spare tyre so when the jets started to dribble rather than spurt, the spare tyre was flat…remedies with a combined bottle and pump from the breakers jury rigged with a rocker switch.

Also in that Beetle, me and friends bailed out in clouds of smoke on the Commercial Road in East London. The guy in the back sat in the middle of the seat which caused the springs to depress and short out the battery which was underneath…remedied with cardboard from a shop doorway.

A Carlton that decided it didn't want me to close the manual sunroof anymore using the mechanism unless I held it and caressed it just so. Lots of tales of older cars from my early days of driving when I couldn't afford to take them to a garage for any reason.

That all pretty much ended when I bought my first nearly new car, a Citroen ZX.

Utter prat moment with a bike…I bought an old Honda CG125 in the mid-eighties as learner bike (the only bike smaller in stature is a monkey bike, by the way) and on the way home one day, it broke down. I was convinced it was a fuelling issue with a line or carburettor being most likely at fault as I had quite a bit of fuel in the tank. Breakdown duly called and he was flummoxed as well. After about half an hour of failed attempts, I had an epiphany; this fuel lever seems to have writing on it, says I……for those who are not bikers, it was commonplace for bikes to have a lever which shut the fuel off, had a position for 'main' and a position for RESERVE which it had to be on when the fuel was low. One half turn and bike fired up first time…what a donkey I felt.

 

[tanuie]

Early fords, the windscreen wipers were vacume driven and when you went up hill they completely stopped.

 

[ringway]

Early fords, the windscreen wipers were vacume driven and when you went up hill they completely stopped.

Brilliant!

 

[Ted]

Early fords, the windscreen wipers were vacume driven and when you went up hill they completely stopped.

Yes but on the overrun they went completely mad!

 

[Giantvanman]

How about 1980s Ford earth wire fault that caused many to dimly light and flash brake lights, reversing light and indicators when the indicators were switched on?

 

[ringway]

How about 1980s Ford earth wire fault that caused many to dimly light and flash brake lights, reversing light and indicators when the indicators were switched on?

I remember seeing many a Mk3 Escort with that problem. Also, I remember them having rear light clusters full of water.

 

[Giantvanman]

I remember seeing many a Mk3 Escort with that problem. Also, I remember them having rear light clusters full of water.

Fiestas and Sierras too as well as the odd Granada…and the Cortina Mk 5.

 

[Giantvanman]

Another one and close to my heart; Land Rover Defender rear cross members.

In 2010 I was close to buying a brand new 110 to replace my ageing 90 but I noticed several newish ones with rusty rear cross members. The tipping balance was seeing a cosseted six-month old example with a brown rear cross member…the chassis paint was notoriously fragile. I decided not to spend nearly £35k on a car I would have to spend no small amount on the make right from the off.

 

[cb1965]

OK firstly let me state that I love Subaru Imprezas and I have owned 5 over a 17 year period completing nearly half a million miles in them. Four of the 5 were epic super reliable road rockets, but one was a ba5stard child of Satan!

Bought new in 2003 I was so proud of my lovely blue (aren't they all) STI! For a week it was great then the suspension developed a peculiar bouncing motion on certain road surfaces so it went back to the dealer. After several unsuccessful attempts to cure it I upgraded the springs to Prodrive springs and all was well until it developed an electrical fault.... that immobilised the car in mid drive. Six months that one took to find. Then the rear shocks started clonking (a common fault it turns out) so they were replaced under warranty, then the water pump went.. replaced under warranty, then the rear shocks again...replaced under warranty, then the top mounts... replaced under warranty, then the rear shocks AGAIN!!!.

Then as it got to two years old it started to behave itself and I actually made the mistake of deciding against selling it. It ran well for a year, but 3000 miles out of warranty the rear diff went and despite the fact it was proved the diff oil that had been recorded as being changed by the dealer at the 30K service hadn't been changed Subaru would pay for none of it. £2K later the ba5tard spawn of Satan was back on the road, but by then I'd had enough.

I found a nice 2 year old Civic Type R and did the deal to trade it in for it. The Honda dealer said 'give us a few days to valet the Civic and service it' so come back on Saturday.... Saturday came and off I went and on the way the ****ing heater matrix gave up in the STI and filled the interior with steam..... so 12 miles from ridding myself of the car from hell it made sure I had to keep it... l spent another £1.5K fixing the Devil child and did the deal a few days later.

I swear it let out a blood curdling screech as I handed over the keys. The new owner wrote to me a few months later asking if I had any receipts for previous servicing work done... I suggested he send a container for them

 

[kid-jensen]

In the 2 years I had a Mini (70's vintage) I blew up 3 engines, including a snapped crankshaft.

In all that time I never had a flat tyre.

Should have taken out the spare tyre and carried a spare engine.

My old Jensen ysed to let-in all the liquids it was supposed to keep out, and let out all the liquids it was supposed to keep in.
Also, it needed new mains and Big ends, Hydraulic Tappets, Rear Axle, Power Streering Rack, Radiator fans, torqueflite Transmission, Rear springs, regular front suspension rebuilds and a complete ground-up bare-metal respray.

I still loved it and was traumatised to see it go..

I think it's a kind of mental illness.

 

[baxlin]

I remember seeing many a Mk3 Escort with that problem. Also, I remember them having rear light clusters full of water.

Fords with water....

My Dad had a 66 Anglia from new, and the boot leaked from day 1.

The main Ford dealer in Nottingham "solved" it by drilling two holes in the lowest points of the boot floor, and not protecting the raw edges.

 

[ringway]

my old jensen ysed to let-in all the liquids it was supposed to keep out, and let out all the liquids it was supposed to keep in.

That's very funny.

 

[kid-jensen]

Thanks.....I can laugh now, but at the time.....

 

[ringway]

I remember the night when the idler pulley disintegrated on our LWB Sprinter rendering, amongst other things, the power steering pump useless.
Turning the steering wheel was a gargantuan task on the 8 mile journey home. Oh what fun I had at mini-roundabouts.

 

[BTB 500]

My best mate had an Escort Mexico (yellow & black) and we found you could open any of the external locks with the keys to my Vauxhall Viva. It got nicked (not surprisingly).

I lost reverse gear on my Fiat 126 - that wasn't too serious as you could open the door and push it backwards with your foot (while still strapped in).

The 3.0 Granada I had also eventually lost reverse on the (auto) gearbox and that was a bit too big to push. To start with it was intermittent and it usually engaged if you gave it a quick blip of throttle. One day I pulled into a dead-end layby off a main road to turn around, and found a police patrol car there. I put the Granada in reverse - nothing. Blip of throttle, nothing. Big blip of throttle - reverse came in with a bang and we went wheelspinning backwards past the police car in a cloud of dust and gravel (which to their credit they completely ignored!).

 

[del320]

Pah!

What about the time the hydraulic clutch disitegrated on my SAAB 99 Turbo. I was standing at the lights when she lurched forward and stalled.

What fun I had making my way some six miles through Edinburgh becoming an expert in clutchless gearchanges. Forced to stop at lights, I had to stall the car then wind it back into life on the starter motor.

Hideous experience for anyone with a scintilla of mechanical sympathy!