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Have you managed to get your sick car home ?

mzmini

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Joined
30 Jan 2015
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In the pub over the weekend chatting to some guy about AA vs RAC and getting home after encountering a roadside issue like most of us I am sure we have done whatever was necessary to make it home ,and two motoring nightmares came to mind .
Turn the clock back mind 1970s mobile phone what was that ?
driving the nuts off my Mexico on the back way from Exeter to Moreton hampstead when oh ***** the throttle cable snapped pitch black what to do ,armed only with a lighter had a poke around under the bonnet found the cable wound it round the top strut so the throttle was flat out stuck in in first gear and started it and used the ignition key to cut the engine when I needed to slow down this method does get the heart rate up
Another great escape was on a night rally the Pheasant Plucker in Hampshire the clutch arm broke on my Cooper S this was an easy fix just stop switch off chuck it first turn the key and away you go and get the revs spot on for a change of gear without too much crunching of the box .
They do say that necessity is the mother of all invention
 
Mad me laugh

I was a Jag man way before Porsche

Was 18 and had a series 2 v12 XJ on my mums Insurance and in central London with no brakes. Hand brake was weak at best but managed carefully to drive around and have a good time before the journey back home in west london, Stress but enjoyable too.

Bought the car for £2000 had it no more than a year, spent £800 ish on the brakes/master cylinder and sold it for £2000 - yes it was super clean and polished to within an inch of its life MEMORIES MEMORIES

PS never had AA or RAC cover
 
My 1850 Dolomite was towed home by the AA to Maidstone from Theydon Bois in 1981 after a failed cylinder head gasket blew the recently rebuilt engine for the second time!

Soon after I recall being a passenger with my mate limping home from Brands Hatch using the manual choke as throttle after the pedal cable snapped. 20 miles at 10 mph !!!

In 1990 the clutch cable on my Cavalier SRi snapped and I limped it 15 miles matching revs to gear changes and managing to slow down for junctions etc without actually stopping.

The joys of motoring in the good old days. :cloud9:
 
Only once have had to use breakdown and thats when a ball joint went on my car, the hub popped off the ball joint and pulled one of the drive shafts straight out of the gearbox spewing all the gearbox oil out. That side of the car hit the ground and the wheel/hub messed all the bumper / wing up. Had to find some local breakdown guy to get me home so I could then fix the car.

I remember crashing my first car, a classic mini 2 or 3 times and each time managing to limp home in it, even though the front end was caved in. Ive had the clutch cable snap on my 5 Gt Turbo numerous times in the past and had to drive 40 miles home with no clutch - easy once you get the hang of it. Had the clutch arm snap on a 106 and had to do the same, had the clutch pedal snap on a Golf GTi and had to do the same.

Had the clutch actually fall out of my Ducati 996 once and still limped home.

Always seems to be clutch issues!

Had a spark plug blow clean out of the cylinder head once at 2am in the middle of nowhere on my 5 GT Turbo. Again, limped home with just 3 cylinders and had to fix it before going to work in the morning.

Stacked a ZXR750 an RD350 and a ZX6R in the past and still managed to ride them home in various states of damage. Did however spectacularly write the ZXR off once in a massive highside / bounce of crash barrier episode and it was far to gone to be rideable, but rather than call breakdown, I called a mate up and we dragged the remains on to a car trailer and trailered it home. I had it running again 4 weeks later!

Alternator belt snapped on the 106 once on a motorway, I just carried on and got home. Had the headlamp switch short circuit on a mini once at 10pm in pitch black, again on the motorway at about 70mph. Had to get over to the hard shoulder, hot wire the switch with a bit of old wire to get some lights working, then drive home.

When I was at uni I had the back suspension collapse on a classic mini once, luckily managed to get to my digs before it gave in completely. Got some replacement bits from a local scappy then borrowed some bricks from the building site opposite. Jacked the car up and put it on bricks before swapping the back suspension out on the side of the road using the minimal tools I had with me.

Its something about "I will get home!" and you just do it. Ive never had any sort of AA / RAC cover before until I bought my 997 turbo last year and figured for the relatively small sum I may as well splash out and get some!
 
T8 its not till you think back one night the front wheel came off another Cooper S I had ,I jumped out ran down the road got it back jacked the car up took a wheel nut off the three remaining wheels put the wheel back on and carried on .Oh to be young and silly again now I worry about a bit of bird pooh on the bodywork :sad:
 
Late 80's aged about 18/19 and long before i owned a mobile phone and a brain apparently my friend and i were travelling the M25 to see Charlton Athletic away game to Brighton & Hove Albion (or similar on the south coast) my friends batter up blue Vauxhall Viva broke down. A couple of people stopped in their Ford Escort who happened to be also travelling to the match. After 10 mins trying to get the car started we decided to jump in with them and not miss the match and worry about the car later leaving it dumped on the M25.

Returning home many hours later after a defeat we found the police were at Simon's house, some very concerned parents, an impounded car which they compared to the Mary Celeste having been found dumped and missing its teenager air head occupants had been towed away, costs to pay for being impounded and towing costs. A severe boll0cking off the parents, stern talking to from the police regarding wasting time, potential investigation an abduction/missing persons.

Moral of the story...if you want your car towed just ditch it by the road side and hitch a ride, just expect a whole bucket load of grief and bills to follow.
 
I had an mk 1 mini (showing my age😀) the mod at the time was to fit a remote SPQR gear change to get short shift and update. Early hours of morning on way home the linkage broke again could only get reverse! Only 3 miles from home figured what the hell so drove home in reverse and didn't get stopped !!!
About 15 years ago wife's new company Ford clutch failed, some bright buyer in Ford had revised spec of brake fluid to cheaper make. Didn't check with engineering and seals weren't compatible so had big recall on. Couldn't be bothered to wait for recovery so drove home no clutch and had it recovered at our leisure
You'll always find away😄
 
Hi rabbitstew had a suspension cone collapse on a Cooper S jacked it up and wedged a block of wood in place of it :hand:
 
mzmini

That reminds me, hired a Peugeot 205 1.9 gti with 9 miles on the clock....going round and round and round chiswick roundabout with much fun and gusto the front suspension snapped or something (i was very young and not mechanically inclined)....limped back to Marble Arch hire depot to get another car and they refused as they only had a 3 ltr Carlton left and i was too young to hire it ? ffs
 
Ursa911 we used to have an old VW fridge van with no petrol gauge one morning on the way to Smithfield Market my fool of a business partner run out of fuel in Parliament Square at 4.30am ,he walked off to get some fuel on his return with the fuel the Police said the Parliament Square was closed to the public the bomb squad were due to do a controlled explosions of an abandoned WV van :eek: :floor: :floor:
 
mzmini said:
Ursa911 we used to have an old VW fridge van with no petrol gauge one morning on the way to Smithfield Market my fool of a business partner run out of fuel in Parliament Square at 4.30am ,he walked off to get some fuel on his return with the fuel the Police said the Parliament Square was closed to the public the bomb squad were due to do a controlled explosions of an abandoned WV van :eek: :floor: :floor:


:floor: Probably not the best of locations to ditch a van.
 
The phrase that springs to mind is knob end :thumb:
 
mzmini said:
Hi rabbitstew had a suspension cone collapse on a Cooper S jacked it up and wedged a block of wood in place of it :hand:

Ha! Good idea. I had chopped mine down a bit to lower the back, so when the knuckle & joint wore through it dropped it so low the tyre was rubbing. Had the car been stock I could have got away with it.

I actually had a 1071 Cooper S engine once ready to fit in the car, ended up selling it to a local mini "specialist" who royally ripped me off and gave me just £60 for it. Fortunately I had the sense to keep the gearbox and sold that a few years later for £300.

I had loads of classic minis in my early days and scrapped no end of them as they used to be 2 a penny. However, hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wish id kept them now.
 
Back in 85 I owned an Mk2 3.0L Capri, my mate wanted to borrow it for an hour or so to see his girlfriend the night before I was due to give him a lift from Lowestoft to Heathrow airport as he was working overseas at the time. The only thing I asked him to do was buy, some oil and place it in the engine!!
We left early hours, for the 165-mile journey. Easy street or so I thought, we was tearing down the A12, when the road behind me was suddenly filled with smoke, my smoke, I turned to my mate and said 'You did buy that oil didn't you"? 'I forgot was his reply" So I had to limp the 100 miles home with smoke billowing out from the twin tail pipes, we used over 1 gallon of Duckhams oil to get back home on the knackered engine. My mate never made his flight, and lost his job, all because he wanted his hole with his bird one more time. When I stripped the engine two of the pistons had holes in the top of them, but we got back all right.
And one thing that sticks in my mind is the number of motorist coming in the opposite direction flashing there headlights at me as if I didn't realise I was leaving the road behind me like a scene from the movie Fog
:thumb:
 
Hi Rabbitstew a good 1071s will make 35k-40k, my friend 970s is valued at 40k+ he paid £175 quid for it in 1976 I just sold him a 970s engine for just under 3k
1071s lump fresh you would looking at 4k
the three sycro 22 G 190 box fresh 2k
both my Rally cars started life as 1071's but the engines have grown
perhaps you should have kept them
:floor: :floor:
 

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