When did you last brake down, or how often do you?

Tinks74

2011 - 06 - Peugeot 206 - Overheating & Coolant loss due to hole in radiator.
2006 - 06 - Peugeot 206 (less than 3 months old) - Faulty temperature sensor, known fault at the time.
1997/8 - 93 - Ford Escort - Killed engine due to lack of oil - and before anyone jumps in saying 'you should check your oil regularly', there was a build up of gunk just beyond the end of the dipstick which created a little well of oil so that every time the dipstick was checked it appeared to be fine, infact even after the car had ground to a halt at the roadside the dipstick still read as full. I don't trust dipsticks much anymore....

But touchwood no problems wiith the rest of my cars (fiat panda, 3 puntos and a fiesta)

bigdave196

Somewhere around 2005/2006 I think. Had a MkII Polo with a corroded battery connector that caused a complete electrical failure one night driving back to Southampton from Guildford. Managed to bodge it with some gaffer tape.

2008 had a Y-reg new beetle that had the water pump fail, managed to limp it home though.
2009 (I think), same car, managed to lock the keys in the car (or rather, the car locked itself with the keys in it) when I'd stopped at a garage for some oil. Only time I've actually had to call out the AA, who managed to get a long stick through the door and hit the unlock button on the key which was sitting in the ignition.

Other than that, no break downs thankfully

cyclonebri1

Whoa who WHOA, didn't want to start a war, but I did have a feel that modern cars are so reliable that they are better than their owners memories????????,

You guys are confirming it.

When I 1st drove cars, (after bikes), if you did a round journey of 200 miles you got a badge, :cool::cool::cool:

thefishdude

well been driving since 1995

1995-1998 rover 213s never broke down
1998-2003 vauxhall cavalier sri never broke down
2003-2009 fiat punto sporting exhaust fell of 1 mile from home in 2007
2009 to present, renault scenic desiel. have had 2 megane senics but one was rit off by a white van who dint bother to stop at a red light so not exactly a breakdown. anyway low pressure fuel pump went in 2010 cost to fix £100 quid.

Ranger8

55 plate 2.7d Jag twice, once with an ECU engine shutdown ?? requiring a roadside laptop software update and another time the 3 bolts holding on the water pump sheered requiring a lowloader back to the main dealer.
Also had a couple of issues with the DPF needing dealer computer diagnosis @ £100 a time just to be plugged in :eek:

No problems at all now a with Toyota Verso 2.0d :j

cyclonebri1

Ok, my confession time.

Only 2 terminals in nearly 45 years driving

Ist, on the actuall cross over/roundabout of the M1 Junc 26, a few weeks after it had opened to the GP.

Driving my old mans HA Vauxhall Viva. AA man stopped and fixed the wire to the coil, (knew nothing back then but from a none member, THANKS)

2nd was was more interesting,

On the way to a shoot, had about 1000 rounds of shotgun ammo in the boot.

Filled up the tank about 5 miles away from my destination.

I must have left a fuel trail all the way as when I got almost to the farm, (only 5 miles away) my car died, the fuel level read ZERO,


This was the green company.

Man came out, tried to fix the issue only to get the remaining fuel from my tank sprayed into his eyes, I had to try and advise his boss over the crappy radio that he had been "blinded"
One down,

2nd chap arrives with a 1st aider, they sorted the 1st chappy, he went off to a&e,:T

So, they try to fix my car again


2nd bloke does exactly the same but due to the fact that he wore specs, his eyes were OK but sore..

3nd chap saw sense, towed me home for no charge even tho' the terms of the policy said otherwise. :T

Edited to add;
'Twas Greenflag In recall

boyse7en

Interesting reading.

I've been driving since 1988, and have only broken down in my first car (a much-modified Mini, so some of that was down to my cack-handed spannering) and a Citroen Xm that burst a suspension pipe. The Mini used to break down reasonably regularly, but I used to manage to get it going again most times. Those were the days when you could "make do" with parts from loads of other cars if you couldn't get the right part.
The Rover 213, Ford Fiesta Mk3, two more Citroen XMs, Nissan 200SX, DAF 33 and Alfa 166 V6 have not left me stranded as yet.

The interesting thing is that my memories of being a child are that most long journeys seemed to end with us arriving on an AA Relay truck. We broke down in his Hillman Avenger, Chrysler Alpine, Nissan Bluebird, Austin Montego and Citroen BX. In fact, the only car I can't remember conking out was a 1976 Lada 1200 estate that we drove to the south of France and back.

WestonDave

Personally none yet - although the 1993 Rover 420GSi Sport that burnt out a valve on the A38 in Devon only limped on the last 5 miles due to the size of the engine in comparison to the car - getting it up the last hill was interesting - it came home via RAC relay!

Wife had a P reg Peugeot die twice on her - towed once to nearby dealer who said it was the timing belt which had snapped, put a new one on, and a few weeks later it died again. Towed to same dealer who this time realised that the air con compressor had seized and was shredding the timing belt - told them in view of their earlier incompetance they could keep it for scrap, and no they weren't getting paid again! (It wasn't going to be worth replaceing the air con compressor to solve the problem in a car worth £500 max).

I remember as a kid our first car was a D suffix Renault 10 - the one with the engine in the rear. That suffered something electrical in a massive rain shower coming back from family in Exeter one night. Got towed to the nearest garage, us dropped off at the train station to get the train home, and I kid you not, the train broke down. Must have been transmission related as we kept trying to start and going backwards! Same car overheated on the way to the Bath and West Show - Dad fixed that one road side.

I think these days most failures tend to be more superficial so you can limp on (provided you do your basic maintenance). We had a N prefix Astra that had an EGR problem - used to cough and splutter alarmingly but if you let it cool down it would finish the trip. Either that or they are stupid design faults - the basic mechanics of the engine seem much more stable.

brokenant

2007 Mitsubishi Shogun with 115k miles on the clock. Only issue was last year when the tensioner got stuck and shredded the auxiliary belts. Had a temporary fix from the AA man to get to a local garage, otherwise its had no issues other than regular service items.

cyclonebri1

mikey72 wrote: »

I had a beetle the clutch cable went on, but that didn't actually stop me as a drove without it, the gearlinkage broke as well at another time, but I drove with the plate off the tunnel and used a mole wrench for a couple of months. (it was behind me, but everything was reversed, so it made sense)

I think the only one that stopped me was when the fuel return line on a 90's fuel injected car went, at midnight, so it was leaking all over the floor.

Reminds me of the time I had the throttle cable break on a Marina TC, drove 60miles home through birminham and Derby with the accelarator operated by the choke cable, interesting sync issues:eek:;)

I too had a clutch failure issue, again a good few miles from home, luckily rural routes so crash bang wallop.

Guess we were a little more resourcefull back then, and far fewer folks relied on the fewer motoring rescue services??

I didn't put my lack of problems down to perfect levels of servicing tho' I have always known a fair bit about cars so maintained them at min cost by my own hands.

Maybe I should have asked how many miles between breakdowns, but I'm sure the end result would be similar, ie, terminal failures are fw and far between.
Possibly due to all the protective sensors and limp home systems, fuel injection rather than rough guess carburation etc????;)