I’ve been towed 60 miles from work a number of times. To many mishaps to punch out on an iPad. I’ll have to think about it when I get to my computer. I’d have to split them up into decades. Bet you never backed out of a parking ramp though.
1 Like
This isn.t the worst but I heard my starter fall out, drove over to my other car and used it for a few days and then replaced the snapped bolt.
All these stories. Not the worst thing, but 2 beautiful ladies I worked with. We used to go partying after the night restaurant shift was over, like 11 or so. Well they had too much to drink and got pulled over. Susan opened the door and fell flat out. Officer was you are too drunk to drive, let your friend drive. Julie opened the passenger door and fell flat out also. Julie drove the car home. Thank God they made it home safely! Way back in the 70’s where dwi only enforced if there was an accident, at least in Southern IL for beautiful ladies.
Sports car racing…right and left turns!.. a Saturn SC (mostly stock) and an 86 Camaro Iroc, (not stock at all)
About 15 years ago when I had my own shop, I had a “difficult” customer who was never wrong. You know the type.
Anyway, we had replaced the starter in her minivan, no issues there, but about 6 months later she was on a trip when the engine made a clank sound and died. It would not restart. AAA sent a tow truck, the driver looked under the van and said “Look, your starter is just hanging by the wires.” She rummaged through her paperwork, found my invoice that stated “all work warrantied for 24mo/24,000 miles” and decided that I was at fault and needed to fix this. AAA would only tow to the nearest shop. It was a Sunday, and she was halfway across the state, so she decided that she would pay the $800 tow bill back home and expected me to reimburse her for it.
Funny thing though, we pushed the van in, raised it up, and were able to show her that the starter was indeed hanging by the cable. But that was a direct result of a connecting rod exiting the engine block and breaking the starter mounts. Also there was no oil on the dipstick. As a courtesy I didn’t charge her for the inspection that day. 
3 Likes
the “haha” is the poster being polite, instead of pointing out that you are adding nothing to the discussion…
1 Like
Company truck that was 200 miles from base, and that I had just completed the engine swap in 700 miles previously, had a turbo go bad and start pumping engine oil into the engine intake.
Filled the skies with smoke so much that the fire department was called out. Not completely understanding what was happening, they cut the fuel lines, but the truck kept running.
Until the engine ran out of oil and locked up, that is.
Got it completely warrantied. 
1 Like
When I was a younger driver, I rear ended a car that stopped for a green light. Turns out that driver was the Vice President of Hyundai Motors, and she was driving a Honda…
she was in a good mood, admitted she shouldn’t have stopped for a green light, but was lost, and obviously I shouldn’t have hit her. We laughed about it, and I gave her a hard time for driving a Honda, and she replied- Hyundai doesn’t supply rental cars to companies.
Makes sense. 
1 Like
Didn’t exactly happen to my car, but an unfortunate event for sure. Many years ago cute young lady follows me home from party, unbeknownst to me. I arrive at my apartment, park, and start walking in. She honks , parks in front of apartment driveway. Her plan seemed to be to entice me into joining her in add’l evening entertainment. I’m flattered, seems good idea to me. But first I suggest she quickly move her car b/c it is blocking driveway. Flirting, she bats her eyes, says “so what?”. About 30 seconds later – bam – somebody backing out of the apartment complex hits her car, lots of yelling between her and other driver about who’s to blame, and for me, no luck at all, I spend the rest evening watching tv … lol …
1 Like
Was it a diesel? That sounds crazy haha
1 Like
Heh heh. At noon I circled the blocks couple times on lake street in Minneapolis looking for the bostitch store to get parts for my nail gun. A girl opens my passenger door and starts to get in. I said what are you doing? She said oh I thought you were looking for company. Sprayed a little disinfectant on the seat.
2 Likes
The problem is that it was a British Leyland product. Their quality in the 1960s and 1970s was horrible. A friend was telling this story about my Austin at a cocktail party and laughing about my bad luck. A Brit told him that my problem was normal. So normal that it was SOP for a BL car owner to do a top end job at 5000 miles to avoid warped heads.
1 Like
I’ll try to be a little brief but I have had a lot of mishaps. Most of mine are published here in one form or another though.
In my youth having a 200 mile trip to and from school, I had several. My VW gave up the ghost 50 miles from home but luckily near a VW dealer who put points in on Saturday. My Pontiac lost the generator on a late night trip but grabbed a hamburger and battery charge to make it the rest of the way.
I think I towed the car 50-60 miles about five times or so. Once for timing chain, once for failure to use lock tite on bearing bolts, once for a crank sensor, and at least 3-4 times for a fuel pump problems. I ended up putting in a half shaft in the garage at work once. The wife was able to find all the tools I said I needed and delivered them to me 60 miles at work. We went to pick up a new axle and she went home and I went to work. No one around except me and the guard but think I finished up about 9:00.
I’ve had I dunno maybe five transmissions go out. Most of the time I made it home and to a local shop, but one time it was like 20 below all day and I was parked in the ramp about level 4. No forward gears, just reverse. So I backed it out of the ramp and across the street to the lot at work where I could get it towed from. It took a week for the dealer to be able to clear their lot enough to tow it due to all the cold weather problems. I had bought the car there and they said they were sorry the transmission went out at 80,000 miles. I said no that was 180,000 miles. It had spun around once.
Oh yeah my diesel had 20,000 on it and we took it to Kansas. Coming back I got a bad tank of fuel in DesMoines and plugged my filter up. So we ended up driving the 200 miles home finally getting down to about 20 mph for the last 70 miles. Same car developed a knock 150 miles away with 200K on it so had an engine put in. Took a week. Travel logistics in rural Minnesota with no buses or Uber posed some problems. $2200 and a week later was like a new car again.
I just don’t remember all the other times and don’t think I hardly ever had to walk. Most of the time it was pre-cell phone so just luck. I guess kinda why I like Acura now. Never had a tow or problem. Of course not working takes some of the risk away.
You would think Spammers would hire people who can spell and punctuate.
Do you mean to say that you don’t understand the NON-word, “womating”?
yes it was a diesel, sorry- i thought I included that
Flooding at work the parking lot at work was uphill from the lane, which was now under water, I was driving an old sixty-four’ ford standard column shift six cylinder van. The engine had high mileage on it and the engine burned oil, I was planning on rebuilding it in a month. A Dr. friend of mine told me about a new product he invented which he called “Engine New” it used special oil from the hobo cacti plant which has suspended in the oil soft metal metals which were supposed to attached them self to replace the metal warn off the bearing, cylinder walls. In fact the oil burning reduced. I had created a special ram air scoop at the bottom of the front grill to get more air to the engine intake.
After work, went to drive away and I forgot about the low scoop ram air under the front grill and when I hit the low flooded lane it sucked up the water into the engine. The engine died.
The tow truck towed it to higher ground then tried to Start it, move it to higher ground and he tried to move it while in gear free the starter the van had an old generator not an alternator so we could push it to get it started if the starter were bad. But he rear wheels would not move, not an inch. Towed it backwards to my residents, where I already had engine pulling equipment. It turned out the New “Engine New” reacted with water and was instant rust! Had to cold chisel the rod bearing free. The engine was not salvageable.
1 Like
Well you did get a new engine so the name is appropriate.
2 Likes
This isn’t my car, and it didn’t “happen” as much as it was caused…
I had a virtual meeting with a dealership mechanic:
Me: So what are you working on today?
Tech: I have a 2016 XYZ that I just replacead the underhood fuse panel and now I’m replacing the PCM and programming it with As-Built Data.
Me: Wow, what led you down that road?
Tech: The customer was doing some headlight upgrades, and when he was done he put the battery in backwards and tried to start the car. When it didn’t start he thought the battery was dead so he tried to jump start it. Got the cables hooked up properly though…
2 Likes
It wouldn’t be possible to install battery backwards in my 30 year old Corolla, connections wouldn’t reach the posts. But such a thing is possible on my 50 year old truck. No, haven’t done it … lol …