Hooniverse Asks- What's the Most WTF? Car Part Failure You've Ever Experienced?

Robert Emslie

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Busted handle

You know how Jeremy Clarkson famously averred that one cannot claim to be a true auto enthusiast until they had owned an Alfa Romeo? Yeah, well he later went one to detail all of the vexing issues that arose with his, proving that he must equate enthusiast with knuckle dragging moron.

The truth be told, that was an old GTV, and all cars – even Alfas – are far better built these days. That’s what makes the instances when they suffer part failures all the more maddening, especially when it’s something you know car makers got right decades ago. Mostly that frustration has to do with added complication. Still, things like power seat motors, air conditioning controls, or something as simple as your car’s odometer – while probably more technologically advanced than previous generations – should still function with reasonable reliability.

Sometimes however, they don’t, and in fact should you own a Range Rover of a certain age range, you can be pretty much guaranteed that one or more of those features definitely do not work. You don’t have a Range Rover, do you? No, I didn’t think so. You probably however have owned a car – or may still own it – where you’ve suffered an inexplicable failure of some part or another, one that was wholly unexpected. What part was that?

Image source: Stillruns

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Robert Emslie

Robert Emslie

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119 responses to “Hooniverse Asks- What's the Most WTF? Car Part Failure You've Ever Experienced?”

  1. duurtlang_ Avatar
    duurtlang_

    I was driving a 330k km Citroën BX diesel on the highway when I overtook someone. I was driving a Citroën, not a BMW, so I used my turn signals. No response. The turn signals had stopped working. Left and right. The funny thing was that the hazard lights did work. After a few minutes I had come up with the perfect fix. A proper smash on the dash fixed the problem. Until we sold the car it never had this problem again.

    Reply
    1. BЯдΖǐL-ЯЄРΘЯΤЄЯ Avatar
      BЯдΖǐL-ЯЄРΘЯΤЄЯ

      Ha, my Opala has self fixing turn signals, most of the time they work fine but for any reason if I don´t use the car for more than a week they do not work on the first day I´ll use the car, but after that they´ll be ok again.

      Reply
    2. HSA Avatar
      HSA

      I had quite the opposite in my Civic. The hazard lights did not work although the turn signals worked. It took me some time to realize that the hazard lights were not wired through the main fuse and fusebox at all, but directly from the battery positive terminal. There was naturally a dedicated flat fuse for them right in the battery terminal. The fuse had popped out when I had jump started someone's car and disconnected the alligator clips without opening them all the way out.

      Reply
  2. pj134 Avatar
    pj134

    I was at my local post office, popped my jeep into reverse, hit the gas, heard a pop and a thud followed by not moving at all.
    <img src="https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/5688_1210185053662_7628969_n.jpg&quot; width=500>
    The pile of rust toward the right side of the picture was the remainder of a u joint. I think you can identify the rest of the failure.

    Reply
    1. P161911 Avatar
      P161911

      My old K-5 Blazer used to eat U-Joints. I think I replaced three. Once I was able to lock the front hubs, SLOWLY pull into a parking lot, pull off the rear drive shaft, then drive around with a FWD Blazer to get it fixed.

      Reply
      1. Irishzombieman Avatar
        Irishzombieman

        HA HA! Similar experience in my 69 Wagoneer. The front of the drive shaft had what my dad called a Detroit joint, sort of a long, loose fitting T-shaped u-joint. Driving down a highway once, I stomped on the gas to pass and heard a WHACK! WHAGUNK! ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz!
        Pulled off the road and found that while the Detroit Joint was fine, the bolts holding it to the transmission had all sheared. The front of the drive shaft broke off, bounced off the road hard enough that it jumped and dented to floor, then had gotten caught by the parking brake cable.
        Lucky, that. Could've done the old pole vault trick instead.

        Reply
    2. C³-Cool Cadillac Cat Avatar
      C³-Cool Cadillac Cat

      But you still had FWD, right?

      Reply
    3. ptschett Avatar
      ptschett

      My dad's '95 Dakota once had the same symptoms. The parking brake cable had been rubbing on the aluminum rear driveshaft and worn it so thin that it finally failed. He pulled out the tailshaft, rigged up a cover on the tailshaft housing to keep the oil in the transfer case (using the bottom of a soda bottle & some method of attaching it), and drove home in front-wheel-drive.

      Reply
  3. TurboBrick Avatar
    TurboBrick

    The plastic piece that holds the hood release cable for my Volvo. If this tab doesn't hold the cable bracket then the hood wont open as the entire cable assembly just moves with the lever.
    First I put a pair of vise grips on it and then I fashioned more permanents solution by jamming a hose clamp around the broken pieces. Hey, it worked great on my vacuum cleaner nozzle, why not this?

    Reply
    1. lincoln Avatar
      lincoln

      my buddy had an 850 that this happened to. His solution: a bit of fishing line tied to the hood latch release.

      Reply
    2. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      That made me remember one. Actually two, I was showing off Astrid to a guy in a HD parking lot and the pull for the hood came undone near the front. I just wrapped it a few more times, but it was kind of embarrassing when it happened. Also one really cold day Dale the S90 made it to my kid's friend's house, I shut him down, and then would not start. I opened the hood, thought it might be starter but there was a plug near the rear of the engine that looked like it had a gap bigger than it should. I wiggled it, then it fired right up. I think it may be cable for crank pos or something.

      Reply
  4. Garland Avatar
    Garland

    Nothing really comes to mind, except for my mom's '89 SPG. The ignition broke in such a way that you can pull the key out while the car is running.

    Reply
    1. krazykarguy Avatar
      krazykarguy

      The ignition lock cylinders on OG900's were pretty much considered a wear-item. Being between the seats and collecting all of the detritus that typically falls between the seats, keys would get worn out pretty quickly. A worn out key would quickly wear out the cylinder.
      Not to mention that every single valet would wrestle with it for 10 minutes to get the key out when the car wasn't in reverse. I've seen a LOT of broken and torqued keys from this exact scenario…

      Reply
    2. salguod Avatar
      salguod

      My '60 T'bird also has this 'feature'.

      Reply
  5. muthalovin Avatar
    muthalovin

    That lead image is similar to something that I had to replace this weekend: my wife was trying to open the tailgate of the truck, and snapped it off. She went flying backwards, thankfully landing on her feet.
    The Ducati had some interesting wiring problems, and occasionally, when the rear suspension compressed it would blow the master fuse, killing the bike. This happened, oh, 5 times at highway speeds. Very exciting!

    Reply
    1. JayP2112 Avatar
      JayP2112

      My Ranger tailgate failed like that. Crappy plastic. At least pot metal would have given a warning.
      Found out the metal handles from the 80's models is a direct fit.
      Yay for 30 year production runs!

      Reply
    2. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      My Laverda… I don't know what the deal is but one night I hit a bump and broke one of the two bulbs in the tail light, which shorted the filament, which blew the fuse, which took out the head light as well. At night, in the country, on a curve, at 60 MPH. Lucky a full moon and I found the white line after my pupils expanded. Yeesh.

      Reply
  6. Mr.Roadrage Avatar
    Mr.Roadrage

    I had a first generation model Renault 5 with opening rear quarter windows. The glass was held to the metal hinges with some sort of adhesive which evidently had other ambitions. One windy summer's day the nearside window launched itself high into the air, coming to a rest on the grassy verge, miraculously unbroken. I added it to the miniature scrapyard I was cultivating in the boot. The other window was't so lucky. It fell off in the drive just a few days later, shattering into a millon pieces. My father made me park in the street after that.

    Reply
    1. smalleyxb122 Avatar
      smalleyxb122

      Funny. I vividly remember opening the rear window of a LeCar (Renault 5) only to have the window fly out and come crashing to the pavement, shattering into a thousand little pieces. Must’ve been a common problem.

      Reply
      1. lutecia Avatar
        lutecia

        Funny2 : Similar story happened to me in a Toyota Hiace (the front quarter window) as I was driving on an australian dirt road. Vibrations caused the issue and the whole thing felt off. Luckily no broken glass and found the bots too!
        Funny3: I actually have had a Mk1 3-door Renault 5, for nearly 10 years, with opening rear windows but never got that issue!

        Reply
  7. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    My old Ramcharger had an odd leak in the top tank of the radiator. If the radiator was full, it would hold coolant for about two weeks. If the radiator was low, coolant would penetrate a hole that would open in the top tank, and 5 minutes of idling would result in a big green puddle in the driveway.

    Reply
  8. Nick Avatar
    Nick

    Two notable failures:
    Years ago I had an 80 AMC Eagle SX4. I drove it two weeks total between driveshaft failures. That isn't the WTF failure, though. One day I was driving through my community and stopped for a stop sign. When I went to put the car into 1st, it was gone. I tried 2nd, and nothing. 3rd and 4th were there, but difficult to start in. My last resort, reverse, worked just fine. Turns out that the shifter used a fork at the bottom to change gears, and one side of this fork has just randomly broken off. I had to drive over a mile home in reverse!
    Years later, I had a modified Subaru 2.5RS (turbo, etc, etc) with a nice heavy clutch to keep the wheels going. One day the pedal just went to the floor with no disengagement. After getting that home by clutchless shifting, I pull the trans to find that the clutch fork iteself decided to crack and fail, so it wouldn't disengage the clutch at all!

    Reply
    1. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
      mr. mzs zsm msz esq

      That reminds me, I have never figured this one out. I had taken a trip to St. Louis and back with my sons in Astrid the Amazon. I was thinking to myself, "Wow you were really on good behavior this trip." This was at the second to last light, when it turned green I put it into first, nothing. It felt like it went in, I tried again, nothing again. Second worked fine. It has never happened again. She just likes to mess with me that one.

      Reply
  9. Vavon Avatar
    Vavon

    The gear-knob of one of my Peugeot 205s that just shattered in my hand whilst changing gears quikly!
    Seeing all the photos on the internets it's safe to say Peugeot used biodegradable plastics for that part!
    <img src="http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/9715/img4494s.jpg&quot; width="670/">

    Reply
    1. Irishzombieman Avatar
      Irishzombieman

      Some say he drives a 205 fast enough that it ought to be called a 410, and that when he shifts, he shifts from 1st gear straight to 5th.
      All we know is, he's called Vavon.

      Reply
    2. FrankTheCat Avatar
      FrankTheCat

      More likely they used cheap plastics that turn brittle when exposed to UV radiation. I see it a lot with dash trim, but never a gear shift knob.

      Reply
  10. erikgrad Avatar
    erikgrad

    I had a turn signal lever in a Ford Fairmont Wagon (company car) break off in my hand, I can't recall ever hearing of them snapping so easily…
    <img src="http://c1385782.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/sw5589_5249.jpg"&gt;
    I also had a 1997 Plymouth Neon that (at only 8,000 miles) had a speedometer/odometer that would occasionally get stuck at zero mph/miles recorded.
    To get it working again, I would have to open hand slap the top of the dash above the gauge cluster. I would usually just leave it for awhile unless I needed to see how fast I was going. I didn't bother getting it fixed in the short time I owned it, since I was accumulating free miles some of the time.

    Reply
    1. Mr.Roadrage Avatar
      Mr.Roadrage

      That doesn't look like good plastic!

      Reply
    2. P161911 Avatar
      P161911

      I had a turn signal stalk break off on my old K-5 Blazer. I JB welded a screwdriver in place as a replacement.

      Reply
    3. dukeisduke Avatar
      dukeisduke

      That looks like a much later ('90s) Ford "combination switch". In fact, it looks exactly like the one my '95 F-150 used. I replaced mine at about 100k when the turn signals stopped working (this after I wasted money on a new flasher). I still have the old switch in a box in the garage (I need to throw it out, since I traded in the Ford, in October). After replacing the switch, I figured out how to take the old one apart, and if the replacement ever failed, I planned to take it apart, clean it up, grease the contacts inside with bulb grease, and swap them out.

      Reply
      1. erikgrad Avatar
        erikgrad

        Yes, it is…sorry, I was too lazy to find a early eighties turn signal

        Reply
  11. JayP2112 Avatar
    JayP2112

    Going to the A4 well again- the tensioner.
    Failed on my way back from getting married in Memphis but didn't become total valve devastation until I made it back to Dallas.
    This isn't a lifespan part but the service interval is 100k miles. Mine failed at 54k (on a 50k warranty). Audi did pay for the head but I was on the hook for the labor and other parts.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      ARGH! Damn you Audi A4!!!!! /sorry flashback

      Reply
  12. DemonXanth Avatar
    DemonXanth

    We had to replace a Jeep 4.0 I-6 once.
    …what are the odds of that happening?

    Reply
    1. OA5599 Avatar
      OA5599

      Jeep replaced it in 2006, with the 3.8.

      Reply
    2. jeepjeff Avatar
      jeepjeff

      Was it a 2001? Or did it have 400,000 miles on it?

      Reply
      1. DemonXanth Avatar
        DemonXanth

        It was a 1990 with 160k. It had the shitty ass pressurized cooling system and I think a couple overheats from the canister cracking was what pushed it over the line. It still ran, just not that well.

        Reply
        1. jeepjeff Avatar
          jeepjeff

          The 4.0 does amazingly well with broken cooling systems. Which is good, because Chrysler normally pairs them with really shitty cooling systems.

          Reply
  13. Wolfie Avatar
    Wolfie

    I have an 2001 E-150 Conversion van that I keep for road trips. In 2012 the steering box failed as I was backing out of a parking space.
    When it was being replaced I was informed that it already had a replacement box.
    Had never heard of that type of failure until then.

    Reply
    1. dukeisduke Avatar
      dukeisduke

      I've seen recirculating ball gears develop pitman shaft seal leaks, but I've never seen one completely fail.

      Reply
      1. Wolfie Avatar
        Wolfie

        Twice! We checked all the suspension and steering for binding etc.

        Reply
  14. P161911 Avatar
    P161911

    My BMW E30 had a few WTF electrical issues. If you didn't turn off the windshield wipers, they would come back on after you turned off the car, took out the keys, and left. There was a mystery intermittent battery drain too. Sometimes you could leave the car for 2 hours, come back and the battery would be dead, sometimes it would hold a charge for 2 months. I finally just installed a battery shutoff switch and used it every time I got out of the car for more than 30 minutes.
    My old 1988 F-150 had starting issues. After the engine started the starter wouldn't disengage! After several attempts to diagnose and fix the problem, I finally installed a push button to start it and just used the ignition switch to turn it off (it had to be in the RUN position to start it). That truck could have never been stolen (not that anybody would have wanted to with the condition it was in.) it was a 5-speed, with the slightly hidden push button start.

    Reply
    1. FrankTheCat Avatar
      FrankTheCat

      Old BMW with weird electrical issues? Color me surprised!

      Reply
  15. quattrovalvole Avatar
    quattrovalvole

    Light switch failure in a Camry

    Reply
  16. dculberson Avatar
    dculberson

    "You don’t have a Range Rover, do you?"
    Not any more, man… not any more.

    Reply
  17. 98horn Avatar
    98horn

    i had a 1995 2-door Tahoe. The interior driver's side door handle snapped off, so I'd roll down the window and use the exterior handle. Shortly after that, the window shorted out. It would also eat alternators and a/c blowers. All this on a "tuff truck". Ha! no wonder they went bankrupt.

    Reply
  18. stickmanonymous Avatar
    stickmanonymous

    Whenever I drove my Toyota in 2009 and 2010, the car accelerated when I pressed the brake…

    Reply
    1. JayP2112 Avatar
      JayP2112

      Too soon man, too soon.

      Reply
    2. Devin Avatar
      Devin

      I have an actual Toyota accelerator WTF moment, and it has nothing to do with that.
      Somehow, a piece of ice in my Matrix managed to get lodged in the accelerator assembly. That, in turn, freaked out the engine computer, leading to the car getting stuck in limp home mode.

      Reply
  19. FrankTheCat Avatar
    FrankTheCat

    My other half had an idler pulley on her Saab 900s 2.3 explode at highway speed, and spit the belt (at 3k RPM) into the inner fender, where it ate holes through the plastic before finally coming to a rest (I'll have to get pictures of that damage when I do the front brakes.) I looked at the extensive parts and repairs history the PO gave her when she bought the car, and about a year and a half earlier, that idler pulley and the belt were replaced (with rock-bottom price Taiwanese parts.) Guess those low quality castings couldn't handle being spun up to 10k RPM.
    After finally getting the car back from the mechanic, I found a bit of the pulley embedded in the firewall.

    Reply
  20. Irishzombieman Avatar
    Irishzombieman

    I've had an amazing amount of peripheral bracketry break off my engines.
    I drove my 74 Chevy almost 30 miles at freeway speeds with no alternator or water pump after my power steering broke off the motor.
    Another time the belt kept getting loose and squealing on my Metro, despite tightening it daily for a week. Finally one day I levered the alternator out and it snapped off completely.

    Reply
  21. smalleyxb122 Avatar
    smalleyxb122

    I had a ’91 S10 that had the clutch go to the floor while on an on-ramp halfway home on a 600 mile journey. I drove the rest of the way home clutchless, and when I tore it apart, it turned out the pushrod from the slave cylinder had punched a hole right through the clutch fork.

    Reply
  22. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    For some reason, the front cylinder on Alfa Nord engines tends to have the lowest compression. I imagine it has something to do with cooling, but it's counterintuitive as I would expect the opposite – the cylinder jammed against the firewall.

    Reply
  23. HSA Avatar
    HSA

    There's nothing WTF-ish if a seat heater fails. But the way it fails: the wires in my Focus were broken inside the seat as cleanly as they've been cut with high-quality side cutters. No strands, no streched insulation, nothing – just two wires cut in two. All this inside the seat cushion. Weird.

    Reply
  24. rovingardener Avatar
    rovingardener

    The knob to raise and lower the driver's seat sheared off in my 2008 Subaru Forester. I guess I would have been better off with power seats.

    Reply
  25. HSA Avatar
    HSA

    Another one: The integrated radio of my Thesis sometimes doesn't react at all to the station scan buttons. Neither to those in the wheel, nor to those in the dashboard. The weird thing is that if I switch to CD changer, the scan buttons work as they should. After switching off the engine and restarting, they work again on the radio, too.
    (Now that I've given you an opportunity to laugh at the electrics of an Italian car, I have to remind you that whole radio/CD changer is made by Siemens. Sorry, I just had to mention that.)

    Reply
  26. mr. mzs zsm msz esq Avatar
    mr. mzs zsm msz esq

    I had a VW Golf where the best example was one of the passenger side tail light bulb sockets. If I put a bulb in there, someday soon after that nothing electrical inside except the dash lights would work anymore. Just I would turn the ignition and that was it. It would blow a fuse to what I learned was the CCM (comfort control module). It was pretty annoying to have door locks, interior lights, and particularly windows (have to show ID to get into work) not working. Anyway there was a bunch of electrical shorts, like in the door it got pinched and cracked, but I could never fix that one somewhere in that taillight assembly. So I just did not put a bulb in there anymore, there were two per side, so it was not such a big deal and it never happened again. I think what was going on was the better models would check the bulbs when you turned on the car and then show you on that display near the speedo which bulb had burned-out. I think my CCM was doing that every time i turned the car on but lacked the display what's up half. In it doing it's checking it would blow a fuse. It was completely different circuits after all that taillight and the fuse to the CCM.
    Not my car, but I had the brakes to an old Jaguar work about 2.5 times. My friend lived on a farm and his dad had all sorts of cars he had amassed over the years in the barns and fields. One summer we 'fixed' the jag. I got the luck of the short straw to drive it first time. So I got it out onto the street, it was down hill from there. The brakes had worked twice up to that point. Then the pedal fell to the ground when I tried it again. I tried to get it into lower gear but it was going pretty fast and I was getting this grrrrrrrreeeeeeee sound, so I did not want to break anything. To give you an idea of my car smarts at that point, until only a few years ago I thought it was an old Volvo I had been in. Anyway, at the end of the road was a bike path and a bigger road, I was rolling in the gravel to the side hoping to slow down, got scared, aimed and turned the ignition off. I stopped after hitting a bunch of shrubs and rose bushes along the front of a neighbors property. After my friend and his brothers got me they were pretty happy. It turned-out that they did not get along well at all with those folks before and thought it was pretty funny, nobody was around and we dragged the car back with a truck.

    Reply
  27. Devin Avatar
    Devin

    I think I've told the story of driving home in a Grand Am when the headlights suddenly stopped.
    So let's go with the earliest WTF part failure I experienced. When I was eight, my grandmother owned an '82 AMC Concord. I could get in and out by myself, but one day the passenger door handle was hard to open. I managed it anyway, and was quite pleased with myself. Then, since it was a shopping trip with my mom, I had to open it a few more times, and it got progressively more difficult. Finally, something snapped in the door, and the handle flapped merrily in the breeze. I was dumbfounded that as a little kid I was still somehow strong enough to break the door.

    Reply
    1. danleym Avatar
      danleym

      I had a friend break the passenger door handle on my Spirit. He thought the door was unlocked, and just yanked. After that, yep, flapping in the breeze.

      Reply
  28. dukeisduke Avatar
    dukeisduke

    The factory AM/FM/cassette in my '95 F-150 would occasionally lock up, and the power button would have no effect – if the radio was on, it wouldn't turn off, and if off, it wouldn't turn on, and none of the other buttons would work, either. This only happened about once a year or so, and the fix was stop the truck, shut off the engine, and restart it – problem solved. Eventually, the lights behind the buttons flaked out, so that three out of the six bulbs (every other one) failed simultaneously.

    Reply
  29. lilwillie Avatar
    lilwillie

    I could go on for hours but I'll just explain the one on the rack right now.
    2006 Chevy 3500 Van, standard size, non conversion. I need to explain to the owner that his antifreeze leak no one could find is not at the engine. It is at the rear of the vehicle, just above the left rear far back spring shackle. The shackle wore through the coolant line that runs to the rear heater.
    Think how that sounds to the customer. "Yes, the leak is above the rear spring, not at the engine." I can hear him saying to himself. "WTF is this guy saying, he is screwing me."
    So lots of point and see this morning. Ya…

    Reply
    1. ptschett Avatar
      ptschett

      Tried to up vote and hit the down arrow instead… danged "smart"phone

      Reply
  30. needthatcar Avatar
    needthatcar

    1979 Plymouth Arrow, back in high school. I replaced the engine and about a month later, the clutch stopped working. Oddly, it wouldn't disengage. It was a simple cable setup, so not much to go wrong… I convinced myself that it was something wrong with the spring "fingers" on th clutch itself and bought parts and started to take it apart one day. Turns out, I had forgotten to tighten the bell housing bolts and when the clutch was depressed, the engine and trans would push apart by about 3/8".
    Tightened the bolts, returned the clutch, and lived happily ever after.

    Reply
    1. dukeisduke Avatar
      dukeisduke

      Awesome.

      Reply
  31. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    <img src="http://www.rockauto.com/info/RB/75451-007.jpg"&gt;
    Many Fords use this small plastic clip to attach the door lock rod to the lock button. On '91-'96 Escorts, this same cheap plastic clip was also used to connect the interior door pull to the latch mechanism. Every time someone got out of the vehicle, it stressed this little plastic piece. On my '84 wagon, three of the four eventually broke, making it impossible to open the door from inside the vehicle.
    The WTF part is that you could simply remove the two halves of the the broken clip and drop the latch rod directly into the hole on the back of the door pull lever. I did this three times and never had another problem with any of them.

    Reply
    1. Irishzombieman Avatar
      Irishzombieman

      The moment I saw the pic I knew exactly what you were going to say.

      Reply
    2. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
      Peter Tanshanomi

      EDIT: NINETY-four Escort Wagon

      Reply
  32. nate99 Avatar
    nate99

    2001 Chevy pickups with the 4.3L V6 had the a/c refrigerant line running directly over the top of the distributor. If you drove long enough when it was hot and humid, the condensation would drip and kill the distributor.
    It happened twice before the dealer (still under warranty) either figured it out or had enough warranty pay out of The General. I figured electrical gremlins were at play. Turns out GM did not do Gulf Coast climate testing.

    Reply
  33. don fehlio Avatar
    don fehlio

    My 190E had a leak near the top of the bellhousing, meaning it only leaked trans fluid if I parked facing downhill.
    <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5hECr_kamXw/Txgyi1lqgFI/AAAAAAAAAPU/EoN7qcvle6o/s821/12+-+1"&gt;

    Reply
    1. JayP2112 Avatar
      JayP2112

      Dude- I'm pretty sure that's blinker fluid. Check the headlight housings… the one on the right is empty.

      Reply
  34. bhtooefr Avatar
    bhtooefr

    Let's see…
    My own cars:
    1985 Jetta:
    Dead odometer, but that's ridiculously common on older watercooled VWs.
    Had a door handle break off in my hand. Common failure on older watercooled VWs, the trigger is pot metal.
    1986 Golf:
    Cabin fan relays welding themselves into high
    Exhaust system repeatedly coming apart at the downpipe (and, diesel, too, so LOUD)
    1999 Golf:
    Hood release broke at the plastic piece that holds the cable
    Rear washer rusted into the wiper arm, causing it to move with the wiper arm (and, if you use it, leak)
    Door switch or solder joint failure, so it can't see the state of the driver's front door (assumes it's always locked and closed, and the central locking system won't lock it (e.g. when going above 10 mph, or when using the remote to lock it), but the interior power lock button will)
    Family's cars:
    1991 Dakota:
    Radio was intermittent
    Cabin fan control welded itself into high position
    Wipers would run themselves intermittently if a Motorola i50sx (old Nextel phone) was plugged into the cigarette lighter
    1991 Sundance:
    Brake lights worked opposite of how they were supposed to (hitting the brakes would turn them OFF)
    Transmission shifted 1-2-3-2-3 in hard acceleration

    Reply
    1. JayP2112 Avatar
      JayP2112

      Those VW/Audi/Porsche door handles are notorious for disintegrating.
      Every old VWAG I'd owned needed new ones.
      Hard to look cool climbing thru the passenger's door & over the trans tunnel in a 944.

      Reply
      1. rennsport964 Avatar
        rennsport964

        That's no mean feat, given that the seats are sunk low compared with the tunnel on the 944.

        Reply
  35. C³-Cool Cadillac Cat Avatar
    C³-Cool Cadillac Cat

    I've had some interesting ones…
    1980 Ford F-100, ultra-base model, no power nothing, no radio, no rear bumper…for a period of time, no driver's side window. Body damage on every panel, some of it beyond moderate. Mechanically, however, it was taken care of, as it was a work truck.
    While on a 40 MPH, six lane divided surface street, in a light rain, the bolt which coupled the steering column to the steering box went on walkabout, so I suddenly had -0- steering. Thankfully, locking up all four wheels had me sliding straight…mostly…but a little to the right, where there was a telephone pole.
    About to hit the curb, still going about 7 MPH, let off the brakes, jumped said curb, IMMEDIATELY got back on the brakes 100%, stopped about 4" from said telephone pole. I could not wiggle in front to reach the hood release latch, had to walk around.
    Borrowed a hammer from the service station I was in front of, beat it back into place, stuck a piece of something in there, don't remember what, and drove the remaining 5 miles home VERY slowly and carefully, with minimal steering input.
    That same truck had the rivets holding the dipstick orifice to the oil pan work loose, to the point oil would slosh out, but only on right-hand turns. Also had full transmission seizure while going about 65 MPH on I-35E in Lewisville. I managed to stay out of the left guardrail, but just barely.
    Other one, 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara JLX I purchased new in '99.
    Had the LR axle seal start leaking around 3K miles. Hmmmm.
    LR axle broke about 52K miles. Rear diff bit the dust 3K miles later.
    That vehicle then consumed rear diffs at the rate of about one every 7K miles. It got to where I could change on in about 90 minutes, with three wrenches and a floor jack. Finally sold it @ 75K miles, after four replacement rear diffs, and could not have been happier to see it leave.
    I'd actually purchased all the diffs from a dedicated Suzuki salvage yard in Oregon.

    Reply
  36. Hopman Avatar
    Hopman

    Okay I'll bite on this:
    I drive a 2013 International DuraStar for work. I was crusing down I-93 late one morning (on my SECOND run to Boston) when my speed starts dropping (one light skid of freight in the box). I look down at my gauges & see my oil pressure dropping like a rock. I pull off the high way and call Ryder (it's a lease truck).
    The guy comes out, fills the truck with oil, and I limp it to the shop (about 5 miles away).
    After all the hearburn, headachs, and the boss wanting to blow a gasket, the mechanics found the cause: a 50 cent O-ring had failed in the oil line.

    Reply
  37. wisc47 Avatar
    wisc47

    My Fiat had some electrical problems, due to the shitty battery. Before I got a new one, you couldn't use the headlights and radio at the same time. The electric door switches would slow down too if any other electrical part was running.

    Reply
  38. Mr Zippy Avatar
    Mr Zippy

    I wil never forget my friends mom who traded in her white 1976
    T-roof corvette for a brand new Hyundai Pony. Whilst driving the pony she had the good fortune of having to speedo needle fall off of it mount. It laid there behind the plastic window reminding her everyday what a great car she gave up. The pony didn't take long to rust out either.

    Reply
  39. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    The plastic handle/lever to put down the rear bench in my late '93 Volvo 240 broke right after I purchased it. That was not long after I had sold my '71 145 – with man hand sized aluminium levers that will outlive the zombie apocalypse. Sad, sad thing.

    Reply
  40. mallthus Avatar
    mallthus

    I've had two recently that have made me question my faith in modern multiplexed electronics.
    Failure one was on my daughter's 2007 Chevy Cobalt (with 38,000 miles). Something in the high beam circuit failed, so as to cause the highbeams to stop working if the "flash to pass" function was used. You could turn them on and they'd work, but if you flashed them, not only would they not flash, but then they wouldn't come on at all until you'd turned the car off and then back on. Replacing the light stalk assembly (one modular piece, btw) fixed the problem.
    Failure two is/was of the memory seat function on my 2007 Nissan Murano. I've not been able to solve this one and I'm too cheap to pay someone to track the fault. The problem is that I can set and save memory positions for the driver's seat without a problem, but, out of the blue, it started to lose its memory and reset itself to the default position when I turned the car off. If anyone has an idea on this, I'm all ears.

    Reply
  41. jeepjeff Avatar
    jeepjeff

    Let's see. I own a Daimler-Chrysler era Wrangler.
    On a snowy night in Truckee, CA, I stopped by the side of the road to make sure the car I was following (that was RWD, no chains and just stopped on a hill) was Ok. I turned on my emergency flashers for better visibility. They were all right, so I hopped back in, turned off the flashers and went on my way. When I went to turn left, the signal didn't turn on. Worked the next day. Hasn't given me any trouble since…
    The clock spring in the steering wheel doesn't like getting wet. This is the device that allows you to have fixed electrical connections on one side and connectors that spin with the steering wheel on the other so your buttons work. If you have your top down and it rains, this part is almost certain to break. At which point, your cruise control buttons, your horn and your airbag cease functioning. The part is also $100.
    There's almost no clearance between the crossbar on my hitch and my exhaust tip. DC put the standard hitch mounting holes in the frame, and then positioned the exhaust such that it would rattle like crazy if you actually put a hitch on the truck.
    I'm sure there's more. Some that I have run into and some that I have yet to enjoy…

    Reply
  42. JeepyJayhawk Avatar
    JeepyJayhawk

    On the Wrangler… Three radiators… A clockspring… two rear end seals… and for god knows why two brake light switches. The most painful, the transmission Thank's for a three speed that can't handle anything.

    Reply
    1. jeepjeff Avatar
      jeepjeff

      Really? The 999/32RH seems to have a pretty good reputation. (EDIT: That probably makes it a great answer to this question, since it made me go WTF? Srsly? 😉
      But three radiators? Yup. Not sure how many mine's had, but it certainly isn't on the original one.

      Reply
  43. CopterBob Avatar
    CopterBob

    Non-stopping windshield wipers on each of the four British cars I've owned over the years. Just like on my current Spitfire, I occasionally have to reach around the windscreen and force the wipers to stop at the bottom of the downstroke. Of course, maybe I'm misinterpreting it and it's actually a design feature…

    Reply
  44. salguod Avatar
    salguod

    I'm sure I've had a bunch, but here are two from my 1980 Chevy Monza.
    1 – It had a cable operated clutch, over time the cable got stiffer & stiffer. Eventually pushing the cable to the floor produced nothing because the additional force had torn a hole in the firewall where the cable connected. A poorly engineered cable that didn't keep the water out plus a poorly engineered firewall structure. Had to have the firewall welded up to fix it.
    2 – Door hinges used hinge components welded to the door and to the body with a loose hinge pin holding it together. The bushings would wear over time and the door would get loose. Best part was the upper hinge, because of the curve of the body, was assembled from the bottom. So, loose pin + gravity (a concept GM engineers must not have been familiar with) = hinge pins dropping out while you drive.

    Reply
  45. ptschett Avatar
    ptschett

    The KLR650 balancer-chain tensioning system. I badly want to see the DFMEA for it, because it's horrible. It depends on a 50-cent* spring which is held in tension. IfWhen the spring fails, the next time the owner performs the chain-adjustment procedure the chain loses tension… and the detection of the failure is that you're supposed to listen to a noisy single-cylinder motorcycle engine and notice the additional noise of a loose chain. Then the loosened chain proceeds to wear the crankshaft sprocket teeth into shark-fin shapes and ruin the crankshaft, while the bits of spring migrate around the inside of the crankcase. (Don't ask me how I know…)
    The other failure mode is that the "doohickey" fractures, also causing a sudden loss of tension and freeing even larger chunks of steel to travel around the engine's insides.
    http://www.klrworld.com/index.php?option=com_cont…
    *Probably $15.00 at a Kawasaki dealer

    Reply
  46. Synchromesh Avatar
    Synchromesh

    '93 Honda Accord – good interior quality but plastic on inner door opening lever failed on both doors. Passenger door just got a crack after a friend pulled it too hard but driver's door required a replacement after a while. Another issue was clutch hydraulics that went at one point making the car unshiftable
    '94 Miata – speedometer cable made a high pitch whining sound. Very annoying. It was a $100 part to fix. Also, brakelight switch went, the one that's pushed by the brake pedal
    '00 Integra – just kept having issues with rear calipers which would not return properly and then finally seize on one side. It was the only Achilles' foot on the car and was mostly due to poor design and New England driving conditions

    Reply
    1. FrankTheCat Avatar
      FrankTheCat

      Sticking calipers? LUBE THE SLIDES. And not with grease! Use a liberal amount of silicone paste, after making sure both the pins and slides are spotless. Wouldn't hurt to put a dab of the paste on the pad ears while you have the calipers off.

      Reply
  47. marmer01 Avatar
    marmer01

    In a '93 Camry wagon with over 250,000 miles: on the same road trip the driver's side exterior door handle broke off and the passenger side window dropped precipitously straight into the door, never to return. Actually, I was able to grab enough of it to pull it back up by hand and then duct taped it in place until we got to the dealer.
    '62 Rambler: horn honk when turning right
    '99 A4: where to start? How about first rainy day, about two or three days after delivery: I'm thinking Yeah! Quattro! Turn on the wipers and the entire 1.4 gallon reservoir of almost pure alcohol empties itself on the windshield. Turns out a little connector under the hood wasn't fully seated.

    Reply
  48. I Think Not Avatar
    I Think Not

    The left turn signal on my 1980 VW Rabbit 'vert only works intermittently. I try it every time I need it, and some times it accelerates it's ticking until its a constant on, and some times it ticks just as it's supposed to.
    Cancel doesn't work on either direction, though. It makes the click you'd expect while returning to straight, but the signal stays on.
    Hazards work just fine, though. Go figure.

    Reply
    1. jeepjeff Avatar
      jeepjeff

      Is it wrong that I would not mind my blinker cancel breaking like you've described?

      Reply
  49. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    Chrysler's cheap plastic dash mounted hood and e-brake releases are a bane of ownership. In the last week, I've broken the former on my wife's van and the latter in my pickup.

    Reply
  50. racer139 Avatar
    racer139

    The worst falure on my 98 s70 was the plastic arm for the tilt/telescopic adjustment broke which would be all fine and good if I wasnt 6 foot tall and the wife not quite five. since I drive the most she has to deal with being just inches from the wheel. It scares me a little as if the airbag went off it would probably bust her up pretty good. Also shes very cheap so she dosnt see spending money on it if it isnt broke, I guess she will find out the hard way.

    Reply
  51. LTDScott Avatar
    LTDScott

    I had an '85 Lincoln Mark VII LSC about 10 years ago. I wanted to sell it and even paid for an ad in Auto Trader (before Craigslist) when the head on one of the cylinder head bolts randomly broke off while driving. That resulted in coolant puking everywhere and the car being immobile, and thwarted my plans of selling it.
    Since pulling the broken bolt out would have meant a lot of work, I decided to just sell it as a parts car on eBay. Got something like $400 for it.

    Reply
  52. longrooffan Avatar
    longrooffan

    Two weeks ago, my 85 Jeep Comanche's transmission went out while driving at 65 mph on I-95. First, second, third, fifth and reverse are gone. 4th still works so since then I start off in 4WD low, shift to 4wd high then into two wheel drive mode. Works for now but still looking for an Aisin AX5 5 speed transmission.
    Getting a new ride the first week in May so I'm just gonna keep on keeping on in this manner.
    If that tranny goes out totally, "The Charles Barrett Special" will have to be gotten road worthier and I'll be cruising around topless this month of March.
    Also, this is what my olebeaterpickemup truck looked like at 8:30 this morning in Daytona Beach, Florida.
    <img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8526/8528229127_103e61b977.jpg&quot; width="500" height="375" alt="frost 006">
    Yeah, that is a layer of frost on the windshield and hood. Did I mention the heater blower motor on that thing doesn't work either?

    Reply
  53. HSA Avatar
    HSA

    Some years ago my dad had a Peugeot 407 that suddenly got an interesting feature: The windscreen wipers swung back and forth every time the driver's door was opened. Really a WTF moment. The failure was traced down to a sensor that senses the home position of the wipers. Probably the logic was that if the driver's door is open, the car has been parked and the wipers should be at their home position. Now if the sensor does not indicate that condition to the ECU, the wipers must be moved until the position is sensed again. It looks like the PSA engineers were smart enough to limit the number of swings to one in case of sensor failure.

    Reply
  54. rennsport964 Avatar
    rennsport964

    '02 Civic Si. Both headlights simultaneously went out on my wife, fortunately not while driving. After disassembling the steering column and disconnecting the stalk plug, I discovered that the low beam wiring harness contact had burnt itself to a crisp. Further investigation revealed that Honda had undersized the wire for the current draw (which, obviously, isn't on a relay).
    This was a known issue on CR-Vs, and led to a TSB. Honda had a kit to fix this, and included a replacement stalk as well as a single wire and replacement plug. This kit, as it turns out, is *less* expensive than the stalk itself.
    My investigation led to a much broader NHTSA recall that included our car and several other Civic models. Over a year later, I am still waiting for my reimbursement from Honda.
    I should point out that the Civic Si for that generation was manufactured in Swindon. But that doesn't explain all the other variants.

    Reply
  55. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    2-series Volvo tail lamps. I hate them. They have a little warning light on the dash for when one goes, but it won't reset if you replace the bulb until you go through some frustrating series of steps involving pulling all the light bulbs out, turning the ignition on and off, closing all the windows and ventillating the fuel tank… or something, it's been a while. There's definitely a meatball and an allen key involved, IIRC.
    Worst part is the lights won't work correctly until you do all that, and that's why 2-series Volvos always have one tail light brighter than the other. Like a lopsided ass.
    Also, Triumph TR7; 'nuff said.

    Reply
    1. jeepjeff Avatar
      jeepjeff

      Also, Triumph TR7; 'nuff said.
      That's cheating. TR7 ownership should be disqualified as "unfair" for this Hooniverse Asks.

      Reply
      1. Devin Avatar
        Devin

        I found one for sale nearby, does it mean I automatically win Craigslist Crapshoot?

        Reply
    2. I_Borgward Avatar
      I_Borgward

      This! I just had a taillight go out on my 245 last night, so the pain is fresh to me.
      I finally had enough of the "bulb out" warning lights and started popping them out of the instrument panel! A nice idea, but too fussy on a 30+ year old electrical system. I'll just check the lights on my own, thanks.
      And 200 series exterior door handles! I've got a box full of broken ones. I used to have a box full of working spares, but now I'm down to repairing the least broken one. I've resurrected two so far with hardware store parts, but it's a real PITA job and hopeless if the stupid pot metal casting is cracked.

      Reply
    3. dead_elvis Avatar
      dead_elvis

      Interesting. Never in 20+ years of owning a variety of Volvo 24Xs have I run into that. A variety of other electrical gremlins, absolutely.

      Reply
  56. Metric Wrench Avatar
    Metric Wrench

    1988 Ford Bronco. My buddies would tell me my brake lights weren't working, so I'd check them while parked, and they were on. Checked electrical, everything ok. I started watching the side mirror while braking, and found that the lights only turned on when I pressed the brake with firm pressure. Light pressure, such as trundling along with traffic, no brake lights. WTF.
    Looked at the brake light switch, and sure enough, it was in line with the rod to the booster. Rebuilt the master cylinder. With new seals, it provided more resistance. Brake lights worked again.
    No one in the whole wide world has ever believed this fix.

    Reply
    1. Preludacris Avatar
      Preludacris

      I believe you. I see a lot of older Fords with the same problem. First noticed it on my parents' 95 Exploder.

      Reply
  57. Felis_Concolor Avatar
    Felis_Concolor

    While driving around Denver as a courier in the early 90s, the shift linkage disintegrated in my turbocharged Omni.
    In the 80s, Chrysler's FWD manual transmissions were shifted by a series of rods which ended in polymer collars surrounding a thick rubber bushing. These were popped into place over the ball joints on the various shift levers sticking out of the transmission case. They were quick to install and worked relatively well until the heat from the turbo's exhaust pipe crazed the polymer collars and a strong shift or slight obstruction shattered the linkage bits.
    Wrestling the car over to the curb, I parked it and noticed I still had 2nd and 5th gear available from the lone working linkage joint. Using just those for the rest of my shift I managed to finish the day, whereupon I returned to the house and lifted the front of the car up to fully assess the damage.
    Roughly three quarters of the shift linkage bits had disintegrated during the downtown disaster, with the thick rear portion terminating in a series of shallow crescents. The shift rod ends could be roughly matched up to a few of the remaining rubber bits still attached to the shift lever ball joints, to which I instantly saw the solution. I left the garage and walked down to the strip mall and the local Checker auto parts store – which I promptly ignored. My target was 4 spots further along the way.
    I walked into the local Payless shoe store and purchased 3 packages of shoe laces, then sauntered back home. Crawling back underneath the car, I quickly figured out which linkage piece went where, and secured each connection with 48" of braided synthetic shoe lace. The laces held the pieces in close approximation, and the initial test from underneath indicated things seemed to be sliding around well enough in the gear box. Upon lowering the Omni and taking it out for a series of increasingly quick and hard shifting sessions, I determined my low buck repair was fit for duty.
    The following day saw me visiting a nearby Chrysler parts counter to order a full set – no, make that 2 sets, please – of shift linkage rods to make a permanent repair. The parts counter people said it might take as long as 2 weeks for the parts to arrive.
    The parts arrived in 3 days.
    I didn't bother to replace my shoe lace repair for another 4 months.
    Yes, I was – and still am – that lazy, but to its credit that shoe lace shift linkage repair performed nearly as well as the full set of shift rods did once I finally got around to popping the rubber bushings back onto the shift lever ball ends. And Chrysler transmissions of the day provided a spiffy case plug; brush it clean, remove, reverse and reinstall, and you've now immobilized your transmission in its neutral position, which allows you to precisely adjust the rod lengths for top performance. Simply restore the plug to its at-rest position and you're ready to rock and roll.
    And if you're in a situation where your Turbo Chrysler loses all but 2 gears, it's hard to beat having 2nd and 5th as your only choices. 2nd gets you rolling without any drama, and it tops out around 5500 rpm and 50 mph, which is a little over 2000 rpm in 5th; no lugging of the engine needed!
    Another repair in a similar vein involved the 2.2's cable clutch, in which the cable is secured to the clutch lever via a squared off U-clip into which a ball end fits. Staring up from the ground, you see ball-clip-bushing-lever, with the cable arcing up towards the firewall in its housing.
    One evening, the cable clip popped out as I was depressing the clutch pedal, leaving me motionless in the middle of a busy intersection. Fortunately my mind was working quickly, so I simply turned off the car, popped it into gear, and started it up in gear to get out of the way of downtown traffic. I was also fortunate to have a powerful flashlight in the car, which made it much easier to spot the rusty steel clip. A quick dash into stopped traffic during a light change saw the clip back in my hands. I returned home to perform the necessary repair.
    The clip had some surface rust (welcome to Hawai'i) but otherwise wasn't structurally unsound. A few minutes with a heavy wire brush got it shiny again, and I attempted to clip the assembly back together.
    For those who need to reattach the clutch cable and clip, the only tool you need is a pair of bent nose pliers. Use these to disconnect the tension spring from the polymer block which slides inside the massive clutch pedal. The pedal will immediately drop to the floor, and you can then take the slack up and reinstall the bushing and clip without any stress. Return to the vehicle interior, pull the pedal back up to its normal position, and carefully reinstall the tensioner spring.
    I haven't peered into the dark recesses of every automobile ever made, but I'll state with confidence no one makes clutch pedals as beefy as Chrysler; a 1.5" square C-beam on a massive pivot means you're doing something wrong if you ever bend one of those.

    Reply
    1. ptschett Avatar
      ptschett

      And now you've reminded me of my college roommate who had a '85 Dodge Charger Shelby and the time when its shift linkage went out completely. Being cheapfrugal college kids we decided we could get it to a shop ourselves. I remember that we hooked the tow rope on my '96 T-bird's right-side lower H-arm to pull the Dodge, and that we had a disagreement of opinion in one intersection (he thought we were going to turn, I went straight in order to stay on a slightly-longer route where we would have a better chance of keeping right-of-way.)

      Reply
  58. BlackIce_GTS Avatar
    BlackIce_GTS

    '84 Supra, some part in the power lock system broke. The lock solenoid would flip the locks open several times a second, with sporadic pauses. Fortunately, this was accompanied by an alarming amount of sparking by a little black box under the dash, so I knew what part to yank off. However, the passenger side lock cylinder was punched in and the inside lock button was broken off, power locks were the only way to lock that door. So what I'd have to do was connect the sparky box, wait for a pause in the rapid fire lock-thunking-open, lock the door with the switch, and yank the box off again before the doors automatically unlocked.
    Some time later, I got into an accident which pushed the left fender back in behind the front of the drivers side door, so it wouldn't open at all. The only way out was through the passenger's side door and there was no way to lock that from the outside. Or go out through the hatch, which I never bothered with because (maybe you're getting the picture) the car was alarmingly crappy at this point.
    Surprisingly, my next car (with the broken AC and non-operational all-the-windows, and the one wheel that locked up randomly) is the one my friends really hated and still complain about all the time.

    Reply
    1. Felis_Concolor Avatar
      Felis_Concolor

      After reading that, I am never going to complain about the price of the CANBUS software I'm ordering, the better to determine how – or if – I can enable every window in my new automobile to be of the one-touch variety.

      Reply
  59. Slow_Joe_Crow Avatar
    Slow_Joe_Crow

    Our 95 Escort spit the rubber insert out of the crankshaft pulley twice, which makes an awful noise and kills the serpentine belt. Also on the door handle front, on A1 VWs the pot metal piece that connects the trigger to the door lock fails making it impossible to open the door from outside. Fortunately it was a quick fix, done in 15 minutes in the dealer parking lot with two screwdrivers, and VW started to sell bare door handle assemblies instead of making you buy lock cylinders and trim strips.

    Reply
  60. Devin Avatar
    Devin

    Alright, I don't know the cause of this one, because it wasn't my car, and I didn't meet the owner.
    One day, a nice lady in a Pontiac G6 was driving down the road. She had her brake lights on, but wasn't slowing down. Then it was a red light, and her brake lights go off, and she stops. Green light, brake lights go on again. Near as I could tell, it was wired on opposite day, but I never figured out how.
    I was amazed, but I had to stop following her and go home.

    Reply
  61. Number_Six Avatar
    Number_Six

    I was a young lot-jockey driving a brand-new Chrysler TC by Maserati from Burlington to Mississauga, Ontario one sunny day – top down, tunes blasting, triple-digit MPH on the speedo. Hit a rather large expansion joint and went a tiny bit airborne. When the machine regained contact with pavement, the entire fusebox dropped out of the dash. The entire dash went dead and smoke filled the cabin. The car kept going, so being young and stupid I jammed all the guts back into the hole and hammered the door back on. I could hear the general manager swearing from the other side of the lot when he got in and discovered nothing on the dash worked. I understand slight trauma precipitated the failure, but it really was evidence of how poorly made those cars were.

    Reply
  62. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    Two come to mind on the current beater, both of which aren't uncommon. My CD player won't eject the current CD, but unless the battery's disconnected, it works just fine otherwise (and it'll start working again after a couple hours of power being restored). This happened on another Accent in my family too.
    The trunk open light and trunk light itself also wouldn't go off for a while unless the brake pedal was on. My wife and her father looked it up, and apparently it's also a common enough issue. She opened up an interior panel as described, and the wires pretty much fell out.

    Reply
  63. 2002camaroSS Avatar
    2002camaroSS

    This isn't really a part failure to me I guess but I had an 04 accord that I received cause the starter failed u have to take the intake off to replace the starter the parts supplier gave me 2 rebuilt starters that didn't work on the third one they gave me a good one the bad part about it was I only flagged 2.5 hours on the job when I actually spent about 3.5 taking the intake on and off

    Reply
  64. JayP2112 Avatar
    JayP2112

    The throttle position sensor on early build GTs were prone to flake. Only driving like normal would it choke and shut off. The TBW would take charge and no matter the position of the pedal it would idle. The only time I pussyfooted the car was when I was on a date.
    In Dallas I got the car back from a $20 valet. It started to choke, stall and otherwise not be part of the car. Pulled over and the locals were starting to gather. Nursed it to my date's house. The next day the kid and I were heading out on a 1000 mile trip. Googled the issue and ordered a part for pick up at Autozone. The one guy who knew his crap was suspicious of the tattered box. It had been returned a few times because someone had put a bad factory part in it for a return.
    AZ came through with locating the right part at another location.
    So the car no longer channeled Christine.

    Reply
  65. Mad_Hungarian Avatar
    Mad_Hungarian

    On a '74 Buick Electra (455 V8), the upper radiator hose runs right alongside the distributor. Yep, that's exactly where the hose decided to spring a leak, and spray coolant right onto the dizzy, killing the engine. Fortunately I was able to coast over to the curb and I was only a couple miles from home.
    That's not all. Came back the next day with a new hose and some coolant. It's the upper hose, so it goes on in a few minutes. I thought the dizzy was fully dried out by then. Umm, not quite. It misfired immediately, trying to turn the engine backward before the starter disengaged, cracking several teeth on the flywheel (ring gear, whatever it was). So now the burst upper hose has turned into a tow-away and a mid to upper three figure job (probably would be worse now, this was 20 years ago).

    Reply
  66. danleym Avatar
    danleym

    I was 18 and I had just finished restoring my Spirit two weeks prior. I was enjoying driving it to school, showing off my car, all that stuff. I offered to give a couple girls a ride home, one of whom I was trying to date so I'm really hoping to impress her with my car. So we're about a mile away from school, in a very industrial area we had to drive through, and as I drive over railroad tracks I get a very nasty thumping noise. It sounded like a flat tire, so I pull over and look- nope, tires are good. So I limp into the nearest parking lot, get out and start looking around, only to find that one of the bolts holding the front suspension together had rattled lose. I didn't have any tools, so I got to call my dad. Real impressive. It got even better, though- because my dad was at work, as a firefighter, and we just happened to be in his district, so he brings the whole fire truck. And the girls had a band concert that night, and it took so long to get fixed that one of them had to call her mom to get picked up so that they could make it to the concet on time. Yeah, so that is my most random part failure, and also a lesson on how not to impress girls.

    Reply
  67. danleym Avatar
    danleym

    Oh, and my current one is the door lock on my K5. Sometimes it just doesn't want to unlock. I haven't been bothered enough by it to actually open the door up to find the problem though, because I learned that hitting the door just below the lock with the side of my fist will let it unlock. I don't know why it works, but I feel like the Fonz every time I do it.

    Reply
  68. nutzforautos Avatar
    nutzforautos

    It wasn't me, but I was right there besides him. My friend had a really nice '72 Cougar XR7 and it looked great, sounded mean and he had the requisite Cragars on it. We were excitedly driving together in a rush to get to some summer party (note: this is not street racing even though we happened to be moving quickly side by side on a 2 lane road) when his entire right hub (wheel, tire, brake and spindle came completely off the car. When it did, physics took over and that thing out-accelerated right away from us. "WTF!" – we both screamed. I'm looking out my driver's side window and there is nothing in his right wheel well. Nothing, but a sway bar end and what appeared to be remnants of a tie rod. The car stayed on 3 wheels for a couple hundred feet until it crashed and started spraying sparks. I cut to the right, gave him some space and got in front of him and once he got the car safely stopped and he was OK, I drove off and recovered his wheel and tired about a half mile down the road and in the woods when the road cut hard left. Damnedest thing I ever saw.

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  69. Franziska Avatar
    Franziska

    An interesting discussion is definitely worth comment.
    I do believe that you should publish more on this subject matter, it might not be a taboo matter
    but typically people do not discuss such subjects. To the next!
    Kind regards!!

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  70. Lokki Avatar
    Lokki

    For me, it was when my 73 Super Beetle (which I bought in 1984) wore out its carburetor. Yes, wore it out . The butterfly valve sat in the pot-metal carburetor-body casting. When the car reached about 250,000 miles (true mileage unknown but the odometer had locked up at 190,000 four years before I bought it) the butterfly flopped loose. The mechanic had never seen anything like it and he kept it as a souvenir. I think it cost about $100 or so. There was nothing on that car that you couldn’t repair for $100 but it sure had a lot of $100 repairs. Still, for my income and needs at the time, it was a great car. It had air conditioning too. In a box in the trunk. My mechanic refused to install it, saying, “I like Volkswagesn and I’m not doing anything that cruel to one.

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