Problems with cars you have owned.

[Deleted96908]

My first car was a Singer Chamois Sport

You mean an Imp?

Nice engine from a Coventry Climax though

Edit, Apologies Mike - didn't read your post properly and until reading Ted's post below, I'd assumed it was just a splash 'n dash Imp makeover.

 

[Deleted96908]

My first company car (not admitting to the Suzuki van) was a land crab.

It suffered, almost from new, from a leaking exhaust manifold gasket. New manifold, new down pipe, new engine mounts and still it would start to leak tractor like a few days after the latest fix.

Spoiled, what was for the late 70s, a brilliant car.

 

[Ted]

. Nice engine from a Coventry Climax though.

Which was of course developed from a fire pump engine!

 

[Mike Walker]

I knew that^^

 

[Mike Walker]

I could also tel you a story about a Morris Marina I once owned or the Austin Montego company car that got flooded and written off in the underground car park at Euston Station.

 

[notsofast]

1978 Toyota Corolla coupe - Had imbalanced propshaft which felt like a square wheel at 70mph.
1979 Porsche 928 - Oil cooler hose burst and left a trail of oil for more than a mile right through town before the big red light came on - replaced the hose with no engine damage.
1985 Audi 100 Avant - regular appetite for CV rubber boots. Had the car for 5 years and could pull the driveshaft in less than 20 minutes with all the practice. Some low life stole the radio and the car unfortunately burned out as a result.
1990(ish) Fiat Croma had an insatiable appetite for engine oil - Eventually threw a rod on the motorway.
2000 Astra 1.6 auto - befell the same fate as the Croma. Also had a bent rear axle that ate the tyres every few thousand miles and caused the car to jump sideways each time it went over a pot hole or bump - never put the kids in that one much.
1998 A140 (Pink - Her car) broke front coil spring taking out the tyre. Same car later had the output shaft bearing on the gearbox go out - It was the beginning of the end for that car with me.
1964 Bedford CA Dormobile - Driving from Scotland to the German F1 round in 2007. Clutch started to slip before boarding the ferry in Newcastle. Nursed the van all the way to Switzerland and back. Had a spare clutch friction plate at home which must have been the easiest ever to install - Try pulling the gearbox out of my CLS on the garage floor on wheel ramps in 30 minutes.......

Had around 35 used cars to date and generally very lucky with most of them as far as reliability. The most reliable has been a Mercedes (1992 230TE W124) and the least reliable has also been a Mercedes(1998 A140 W168).......The one car I actually bought new (1986 Vauxhall Nova) was actually the most reliable - 85,000 miles in two years and needed nothing at all apart from tyres which was more to do with my exhuberent driving style when I was young.....It also needed regular bodywork repairs also attributable to my driving style unrestrained by neither experience or skill.

 

[moonloops]

One company car I had was a Corsa GSI new in the late 1990's (don't ask).

With 4000 miles on the clock, the cambelt tensioner failed whilst driving at around 5MPH in a carpark. Engine was "totally wrecked" according the dealership. It took them 4 months to fix as the pistons where supposedly a special part for those cars and the factory in Germany had closed for a summer break ??

 

[Mike Walker]

Just remembered the Citroen Xantia - another company car - which had a cam shaft timing belt go at 40k miles as I Was on my way to work. Dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree as I Sailed across a junction with no power. AA arrived and took me to Main Dealer who confirmed engine written off. IIRC cost about £2k to put right at Citroen cost.

Service book stated cam belt replacement required at 80k miles.

 

[uumode]

Audi 80

Faulty Fuel gauge
Faulty Temp gauge
Plastic water flanges would crack n leak
Faulty thermostat
Leaking Oil breather hoses
Leaking windscreen
Eventually blew the Headgasket
Faulty electric window switches
Then surprise surprise the autobox shat itself lol

Hmmm I got lucky , I had an Audi 90 of the same era
The only real problem it had was the cooling fan didn't kick in its older life.
I had it 11 years.

 

[coalville126]

I've had several new Audi company cars in the '80s. Started with a 100CC avant 1.8. Very economical & gave no trouble in 120k miles. Then a 100 quattro with the 2.2 5-cylinder - not a turbo unfortunately. Again trouble free with similar miles. My last 100, a 2.3 auto had a dodgy temperature gauge which somehow affected the starting. Didn't matter if the engine was hot or cold, but sometimes it would fire at the first turn of the key and on other occasions it'd crank for ages which was highly embarsssing. The gearbox would randomly hold onto first and refused to change up. That made town driving a challenge. This was my last Audi. My next car was a Citroen XM, a real pleasure to own, can't remember anything going wrong believe it or not.

 

[Charles Morgan]

My next car was a Citroen XM, a real pleasure to own, can't remember anything going wrong believe it or not.

My three XMs, admittedly at 20 years old, generated more faults in six months than the totality of every single car added together in my entire ownership of vehicles. Shame, as I loved the ride and the turbo diesel engine.

My C32AMG owned from new was by far my most unreliable car - on three occasions it started up normally, then either as I was trying to manoeuvre out of a parking space or in a narrow street would rev up to 4k on its own account and randomly. Given the power of the car it was lethal. Faulty ECU from new and I disposed of it as soon as it was fixed.

 

[coalville126]

All my cars mentioned in my earlier post including the XM were new company cars and reliability was paramount given the miles I had to do to meet my targets / objectives.
The XM was supremely comfortable and ate miles with ease. The only thing it lacked was the DIRAVI system even though on my first one, a series 1, the brakes bit forcefully just with the slightest flex of my ankle. I felt it was a backward step when they engineered in some travel to be like "other cars"

 

[Jonesy161]

C reg Volvo 340 (wife's car ). Driving along M6 at 70 ish, prop shaft splines decided to strip whilst overtaking in the outside lane, oh how we laughed!

 

[ringway]

New tyres on my works Marina van when around 18 years old.
For some reason, I thought I would try a wheel spin start on exiting a newly tarmaced shop forecourt.
The enormous clunk I felt and heard was the rear diff shearing.
It got worse... I had to explain to my Grandfather how/why the damage might have occurred.

 

[markjay]

New tyres on my works Marina van when around 18 years old.
For some reason, I thought I would try a wheel spin start on exiting a newly tarmaced shop forecourt.
The enormous clunk I felt and heard was the rear diff shearing.
It got worse... I had to explain to my Grandfather how/why the damage might have occurred.

That's BL for you....

I disovered that if you speed-up to 30mph in an Opel Record 1.7 Automatic (3 gears), then shift into reverse, the car will brake at a shorter distance than if you slam the brakes, and it will then continue and drive normally with no (noticeable) ill effects .

 

[ringway]

That's BL for you....

In fairness, I did give it plenty of revs and let the clutch out sharpish!


I'll be honest and say that this sort of thing is now a pet hate of mine and I'm thankful that I soon gave up on that sort of behaviour and turn out to be a pretty much old fart type of driver, even in my twenties.

 

[BTB 500]

I disovered that if you speed-up to 30mph in an Opel Record 1.7 Automatic (3 gears), then shift into reverse, the car will brake at a shorter distance than if you slam the brakes, and it will then continue and drive normally with no (noticeable) ill effects .

My grandfather managed to stick a Jag XJ courtesy car into reverse at fairly high speed (he was shifting gears manually). There was a loud bang and it had no reverse after that ...

 

[del320]

In fairness, I did give it plenty of revs and let the clutch out sharpish!


I'll be honest and say that this sort of thing is now a pet hate of mine and I'm thankful that I soon gave up on that sort of behaviour and turn out to be a pretty much old fart type of driver, even in my twenties.

I'm surprised you didn't tear off the entire axle along with the cart springs.

It has been known!

 

[ringway]

I'm surprised you didn't tear off the entire axle along with the cart springs.

It has been known!

Are you talking about a first-hand experience?

 

[del320]

Second hand - but I remember rust had a hand...