Some days I have good luck...

[n4gix]

<!--StartFragment -->I went to the store for cigarettes, and just as I was pulling in the parking lot the lower ball joint on the right front sheared off...

Thankfully I only live two blocks from the garage I normally use. The ironic thing is that I had planned to drop it off today anyway for a tune-up...

...had I not decided to go for cigarettes, I would have just gotten a tune up and had the ball joint break while on the road to Oshkosh! Yikes!

Now whether I get to go depends of whether the garage can get my car fixed in time, and I still have any money left! :mix-smi:

[OBIO]

I too had car trouble today. Driving Deb to her mom's house for their weekly Hen Party...all the women folk in the family get together for lunch, cards and gabbing on and on about nothing or real importance (at least in the opinions of us men folk). Got a few miles from the house and the serpentine belt popped off. Pulled into the parking lot of the local Dollar General store...which we needed to stop at anyhow. Went in and bought the two picture frames that Deb wanted and used the store phone to call the in-laws and let them know that we were broke down AGAIN...this being the third serpentine belt that has gone kaput in a month. Father-in-law showed up, I got Deb into his truck and they followed me home...while I drove the car about 3 miles with no belt on it. Boy oh boy did that 2.5 liter 4-cylinder get HOT HOT HOT! I didn't care...would not matter to me if the engine had seized up or blown a head gasket. There are so many things wrong with the car that it is not worth putting a single dollar's worth of new parts on it.

I did discover why the belts keep popping off. The motor mount and tranny mounts are shot..and the engine is shifting enough for the pully on the A/C pump to rub against the lower radiator hose clamp...and the clamp is cutting down the belts. Do I go out and spend $200 for new mounts to fix this problem or do I hang onto the $200 and save it toward the purchase of a better and more reliable vehicle.? I'm going for option number 2. If I replace the motor and tranny mounts and fix that problem, the car will still need four new stuts, a new C/V joint or axle shaft, more exhaust system repairs, new rear brake drums and a full rebuild of the rear brakes, the tie rod ends are getting lose and the ball joints are questionable.

OBIO

[jhefner]

I was on my way to work yesterday; when suddenly there was a noise coming from the right rear wheel. Thinking "what in the world was that", I pulled over to find a double open end wrench sticking halfway out the rear tire.

I can only guess what happened is that the front tire kicked it up, so that it impaled the rear tire when it passed over. But it was certainly the weirdest flat tire I have ever seen.

-James

[brad kaste]

Tim,.....for a moment there I thought you were going into the Dollar General Store to buy a pair of woman's panty hose. Then,....using the panty hose as a 'temporary' serpentine belt as a fix until you got home. Haven't done it myself,....but I've heard it works.
p.s. I'd save for a more reliable vehicle.

n4gx,....hope you have enough dough left over for the Oshkosh show. I've done it a few times myself. Admission ticket pricey but well worth it if you're there a few days to take in the sounds, smells (exhaust of radials of course) and shows. Good luck.

[Brian_Gladden]

I was on my way to work yesterday; when suddenly there was a noise coming from the right rear wheel. Thinking "what in the world was that", I pulled over to find a double open end wrench sticking halfway out the rear tire.

I can only guess what happened is that the front tire kicked it up, so that it impaled the rear tire when it passed over. But it was certainly the weirdest flat tire I have ever seen.

-James

Hey... free wrench...

Top this one.

Back in late May I got in my company truck to go pick up my partner and head for the job site 80 miles away. I stop to gas up and the truck won't restart (fried a cell in the battery) Boss comes to jump start the truck and I pick up my partner. We drive the hour and a half to the job while my boss waits for the parts store to open to pick me up a new battery. Boss then get's called out on an emergency traffic job so she can't come to my site to deliver the battery. The truck has to run all day (10 + hours in 85 deg heat) then I drive half an hour to the Boss' job site to get the battery. After sweating (and swearing) in the heat, I get it installed and head the hour and a half home. Twenty minutes into the drive, the truck starts handling funny. Pull over and Yep... flat tire. It's now 6:30 pm. I've been up since 4 am and I'm beat. Luckily, Tim. My partner, is 20 years younger than me and he changes the tire.

Add in the fact that it was a Monday and the power line crew we were working with also blew three hydraulic hoses on two of the three bucket trucks they had on site made it even more interesting.


Brian

PS: The heater core in my car started leaking this week. I've got a temporary bypass set up but it will cost around $500-700 to have a shop replace the core. I only paid $1,200 for the thing a year ago.

[jhefner]

PS: The heater core in my car started leaking this week. I've got a temporary bypass set up but it will cost around $500-700 to have a shop replace the core. I only paid $1,200 for the thing a year ago.

It may be time for a Col. Potter moment, and shoot it to put it out of it's misery.

J.K.; I always argue that an occasional repair is still cheaper than a car note; as long as you don't commute far, and can afford the occasional downtime. All of my vehicles are pushing 200,000 miles; I probably got 250,000 miles out of my first car, a 1990 Dodge Spirit, before I sold it, and the new owner drove it away. (The odometer broke at 170,000 miles, so I have no idea how many miles it had on it.) I have probably driven to the moon and back a couple of times in my lifetime.

[cheezyflier]

PS: The heater core in my car started leaking this week. I've got a temporary bypass set up but it will cost around $500-700 to have a shop replace the core. I only paid $1,200 for the thing a year ago.

the real question is, which is more economically feasible for you? another car, or a new heater core?

[Willy]

I had a tie rod end on a 71 Chevy pickup let go once while driving it. Fortunately I was only going about 20mph down a dirt road through the woods at the time and didn't hit a tree or tear anything else up. It was a bit of a hike back to the house through the woods to borrow my mom's pickup to go to town and get a new tie rod end.

[Cloud9Gal]

n4gix~ Hope your car gets fixed in time for your to travel. And of course, I also hope the repairs are not astronomical!
Hate paying for car repairs...the labor is so expensive!



Funny how we all got car trouble today. On my drive to work this morning, I noticed that both the steering wheel and brake pedal made weird noises. I'm hoping the damage will simply be to add steering wheel fluid and put in new brakes....

[Dynasaur]

Back in the early 1970's I had a right front suspension tie rod snap in half - the steering went to full right lock without warning. Fortunately I was only doing about 5 mph and about 20 yards from home in a quiet suburban lane.
If it was 5 minutes earlier I would have been doing about 40 mph and the car would probably have turned into oncoming traffic (we drive on the left here in Oz )

Must have had my Guardian Angel looking after me that day.

[n4gix]

Goodness!

Well, they got the ball joint replaced, new tire (the right front had a tear in it), fixed a slow leak in the right rear, and then called and said it's ready about 4pm. IIRC, he said $136 total.

I then asked, "Did you tune up the engine like I asked?"

...brief silence...

"Oh, is there something wrong with the engine?" the fellow asked. I said, "Yes, as a matter of fact that's why I was coming there to begin with!"

"I'll try to get it back to you tonight." Well, that didn't happen. Hopefully tomorrow it will be finished!

[Lionheart]

Some miraculous stories. Great that our cars have broken down in remote situations.

When I was a kid, I had a really old Austin Healey spridget (not the bug-eye). I came to a stop at the road, getting ready to pull out into traffic from the store, and bang, the front left falls onto the ground. I get out and look under there and the darn wishbone a-member is on the ground, the coil spring still attached.

That would have been grim to have it let loose at 40+ MPH.

The steering wheel was also notorius for coming loose as well. Happened two times in traffic.

Some of the wierdest brakedowns happened in that car. Things I didnt know could brake, broke in the Austin, lol.. Once replaced the Dynamo (generator) 3 times, as the first two were both bad.. (remanufactured).

[cheezyflier]

Once replaced the Dynamo (generator) 3 times, as the first two were both bad.. (remanufactured).

i had that happen with a gran torino. i got 3 bad alternators in a row. it was during a period of rain that lasted several days. i learned how to swap an alternator out faster than i woulda thought possible. hahahaha

[Willy]

I had a 72 Gran Torino that would eat brake master cylinders about one a month. After about a half dozen of them, I traded it off.