Funny or scary motoring breakdowns!

SailorSam

Funniest breakdown i can remember was one Christmas many years ago when i was on my way to a fancy dress. The Rac came to rescue me and i've got a homemade bacofoil Gary Glitter suit on.

jase1

I did have one fairly hair-raising moment due to such a silly, trivial fault as well. I was driving on the motorway in torrential rain, wipers on the fast setting, when they suddenly and without warning failed (a rubber bush on the mechanism had sheared as it turned out). I had to pull into the hard shoulder pretty much blind (thankfully we'd just passed the part of the A1 which has no HS!).

Then the RAC took four hours to turn up, during which time the rain subsided but I wasn't really prepared to attempt the remaining 100 miles of the journey with inoperative wipers.

clangnuts

I was once duped into helping a work friend move his "classic" TR7 a few streets from where it was stored. He was towing it with his big old Granada. No brakes on the TR7 (the engine was in the boot!). "that's OK, it's only a few streets away and the Granada is solid enough to take a few knocks" He said. Terrible experience. He was only travelling 5mph, but every few moments, THUD into the back of the Granada.

What was I thinking? He didn't tell me the TR7 didn't have brakes, when he asked for help!!!

tesuhoha

My second car was a Mini when I was 17 years old. I was driving to work when the brakes failed completely. Not knowing what to do and not wanting the inconvenience of having to stop I drove it all the way to work without any brakes negotiating countless roundabouts. Had a mobile mechanic come out to fix the brakes in the car park.

Don't know how I managed that.

marlot

A friend was a mechanic at a Kawasaki bike dealership, and he'd been fixing a bike which another bike shop couldn't get going. He was only tasked with getting the engine running - none of the other jobs which needed doing. He managed it, but the fun was that the bike had no clutch - he had to bump start it, then ride it 5 miles across town with no clutch!!! Lots of careful timing of traffic lights and roundabout. Bike was an 1100cc. Guy was a maniac!

TeaCake

I had a total electrical failure while driving at 70mph once, managed to get over two lanes to the hard shoulder without causing a crash and called the RAC. Old bill came along while we're were waiting and demanded we put the hazards on (this was a clear summer afternoon), I explained the problem and they still wanted them on. The lights flashed for all of 60 seconds before dying.

Paul_the_Painter

2 miles with no clutch - easy!

Was driving down to Le Mans and the clutch failed on my Porsche 924 (Audi in a sharp suit!) About 10 miles outside of High Wycombe - still I was young - so we elected to carry on.

Friend was driving ahead to try and allow a bit of extra space in front, but drove to Dover, onto the ferry, then around the periferique around Paris (to pick up the free/cheap tickets) then down to Le Mans. About 450 miles all in. Surprisingly easy once you have the "knack" of changing gear.

Also picked up a free Mazda RX-7 recently, drove home about 40 miles with no clutch, girlfriend wasn't overly impressed, but all good fun.

Trebor16

I had been down to the South of France on my Laverda Mirage and the started motor had decided to misbehave on the way down, which meant bump starting it. On one such attempt as I tried to jump on board I over balanced and it went down on the right had side, damaging the front brake lever.

I got it sorted and everything was fine until the journey home. I was on the autoroute, cruising at 90mph when a car pulled out up ahead. No problem, a bit of front brake should slow me down...................except the front brake lever had gone AWOL somewhere!!:eek: So, 200 miles to go before reaching Calais and then another 80 miles before home, all on a bike with no front brake!!