don't let me near your cars...

bhuff30

Founding Member
Dec 11, 2001
6,037
35
129
Olathe KS
I seem to have horrible luck with our cars. Sorry its so long, but I have a bunch of great stories. Any one else have good car related stories to tell?
My rebuilt transmission just went out. This last one was a rebuilt unit to replace the origional, but it should still be under warrenty. This will be the 3rd tranny in my car.
My engine has been rebuilt twice, so thats 3 engines in the time I have owned it. The first time, it was a turbo NA running great.... until the vacume line popped of the FPR. went lean, broke some rings. Then, I rebuilt it. Somethine went wrong... dunno what, but one of the cylinders was way big, so I rebuilt it again with .030 over with diamonds.
I am teased by my family whenever I drive the 90 aerostar. Maybe thats because I am the only person to cetch air with it. We were on a vacation and I was driving through Illinois. We came to a construction zone and I saw a sign the said "bump". Alright, I slow to well under the limit in the zone, and it turns out to be a huge 12" ramp up to a bridge. We still beleive the back wheels came off the ground when I hit it that bump.
Then, while driving home with some of my family in the aerostar, a dog wanders into traffic going 75-80mph. People slam on their brakes, so I see this and do the same. Seeing cars getting closer, I start pushing the brake with all my might (6'0, 200lbs, lots of force). I already had the weight transfer, and with the pathetic brakes that van had, I barely manage to lock the right front tire, but got I it unlocked and slowed in time. I then see the person that was behind me FLY by on the shoulder with the brakes on hard. WOW, I somehow made it through that, and continue on my way. I later tap the brakes to slow down for an onramp and to my horror, there is very little resistance in the pedal as it slides to near the floor. I had scrubbed enough speed at that point such that the corner wasn't an issue, but I decided it was time to get a tow home. I downshifted through the gears and with my a hand on the parking brake, brought the van safely to a stop in a parking lot. Upon later inspection, I blew the caliper hose right off the hardline on the right front when I was braking hard.
I have had the throttle stick in 2 different cars for 2 different reasons, both while still learning to drive. I learned to drive a stick on a taurus SHO. Something was wrong with it, and it would never want to easily go into first. I somehow managed to get the car started in 3rd gear, which is quite a feat considering it was only a 3.0 in a heavy family sedan.
I had a wheel fall off at 75mph in my car. The clowns at Goodyear didn't properly torque the wheel down, and it fell off before I even got 100miles on it. I was driving home that morning with a well deserved headack from the nights fun. I felt a wobble and decided to check things out at the next exit, but never made it. The left rear tire came flying off. I tapped the brakes, and came to a safe stop on the shoulder with my wheel in a creek 1/4mile up the road. The wheel and tire had crossed the median, went into traffic and rolled into a ditch. Luckily, the only damage was to my pride, the wheel and the rear rotor from scraping on the pavement.
Then, there was the incident with my dads car. I took his 97 GT to run an errand with. I got on it in first, then quickly found second, looked in the rear view mirror and I am horrified to see a huge cloud of white smoke following me. At that point, I got a sinking feeling that I was a dead man. I parked it immidiatly in a parking lot and opened the hood to find a coolant mess everywhere. I called him up, and he came with some water and hobbled the poor car home. We later found that the upper intake manifold was made of plastic and had coolant flowing through it. The plastic split, spraying coolant everywhere. Luckily, we discovered that ford had a recall out for this and it was replaced free of charge.
I'm only 22, but this seems like quite a list of misfortunes. Anyone else agree that I shouldn't be allowed near a car?
Any one else have good stories to tell?
 
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One time my SVO had an alternator fire. At the time i was a dumbass and not carrying i fire extinguisher. It was raining so i grabbed my sweatshirt, soaked it in a puddle and tried to wrap it around the fire. It almost extinguished it, but i almost got burned instead.

Drove home without brakes on my ranger after the rusted shock tower snapped in half and dropped the wheelwell on the tire and sheared a brake line.

yeah, i got nothing
 
I've got a story for y'all:

When hurricane Ivan came tearing through my area (the eye made landfall about 45 minutes west of here), we had to evacuate a couple days beforehand. Luckily, I had decided to caravan with a couple of fellow Airman in my shop (he has a 3-seater S10, and I had one of my buddies in my car). My car has had a very slight coolant leak for a long time, and after topping off the radiator, we took off for Texas. By the time we had hit Mississippi, the traffic was getting extremely bad (keep in mind, it was still over 80 degrees). We ended up getting stuck on a highway just south of Hattiesburg. I noticed my temp gauge jumping around from 150 degrees to up over 210. It was doing it somewhat randomly, so I just thought that it was broken. BIG MISTAKE.

After a few hours of sitting in the non-moving traffic, the gauge finally popped up to about 210-230 (can't remember), and stayed there. We decided to head south again, and hop on to some side roads and bypass traffic. My buddy in the S10 had already gotten a headstart, so I floored it to catch up. While the engine was sounding a little tired, it wasn't really acting weird. Well, after cruising @65mph in 5th gear for about 10 minutes, I noticed the car loosing power FAST. I downshift into third to catch up, and the motor starts to detonate like crazy. I freaked out, and pulled over to the side of the road. Turns out that from sitting in traffic for so long, my radiator got a huge crack along the passenger-side end tank, and had leaked EVERYTHING out. Oops. I had to abandon it on the side of the road, and then hop in the bed of my friends S10 with the other guy as well, a couple dogs, and lots of luggage. Needless to say, we drove for about 10-12 hours this way, and my body was cramping up real bad by the time we made it.

Luckily, on the way back, one of my bosses, who had gone to Texas as well, swung by where we were, and I rode with him back to Hattiesburg and picked up my car. We topped off the radiator, and it started up no problem. I drove it all the way back with no flaws. What a great engine!
 
1977 chevy c10 customdelux short box pickup my first vehicle had it for about 10 months, never beat it really i got on it a lil drove at high speeds nothing stupid at all..

driving along nice summer day about 80*(dont have a temp guage...that works), got into town, looked out my rearview and noticed smoke so i thought **** somethings wrong so i pulled over, let it cool and thought there was a small coolent problem so i checked the coolet its ok....so i go to head home and i notice white smoke billowing before it was just small ammount of smoke.

make a long story short i cracked the block in half and was supprised it started again.

thats what you get with a POS 305, and the damn thing only has 60K miles on it.

had an 86 buick century that had to be resleeved all 4 sleeves were cracked, all cause of a faulty temp senser.

had an 87 olds cuttless seria 4door as fr as iam knwo its still running after i put 500$ into it the first month i had it.

84 2.3 T hatch spun a crank barring destroyed the lower half sold the rest of the motor and what was left of the harness for 75$.

bought a 351W for it and I had some kid want to buy the car and motor as is for 500$.

so now i have a 93 2.3Na coupe that iam working on no problems yet :D