10 Brilliant Breakdown Stories From CT Readers

1. Breakdown by bodge - Melons

So, I was in the middle of a track day at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, and I was coming to a high-speed corner. The car shut off. I tried to start it again to get off the course ASAP, but it did not start.

30 cars go past at 150 km/h. Finally, people realise “oh, hey, someone is stopped on track” and close the course. I got a tow into the pits from a friendly Civic and Silvia (Honda is not exactly powerful on its own) and set about finding the problem. Turns out, my dad had put a Hyundai Accent K&N air filter into my 2.5 RS Impreza - with a cloth - to hold it in place. Well, the cloth got wrapped around the MAF sensor and blocked all airflow to the engine. We removed the cloth and I drove home.

Everyone survived.

2. He's not used to the D - The Stigographer

Well… I picked up my new Volvo yesterday and it was an automatic. Not used to that. I started panicking because I couldn’t turn the engine over or take the key out. Hyperventilating started.

Melons came to the rescue… Turns out I was in D.

3. Saved by YouTube - Ryan Pallas

So this is another story from my beloved Integra DC2. I was staying late at uni one night and when it was time to leave I jumped in ‘Teggy and started it up. As I went to put my foot to the clutch it felt like I was pushing my foot through the floor. I was thinking probably master cylinder. I had a 20 minute drive home and really didn’t have money to pay for a tow, and didn’t have roadside assistance so I’d have to fix the problem then and there to get ‘Teggy home.

I asked my friend to take me to the service station where I bought some brake and clutch fluid (luckily they had the correct one). I filled the reservoir to the brim with my friend pulling the pedal so that I would have as much pressure as possible for the ride home. It felt like the clutch on a Subaru Forrester. Anyway my fix worked and I was able to drive the car, but I knew I was on a knife edge.
I avoided as much use of the clutch on the way home as I could, slowed 20 metres behind the traffic lights so I wouldn’t have to stop, kept it only up to 4th gear.
Coming up to my house three streets away I change gear and WOOSH! My foot pushes through what feels like a pile of powder snow, and a bunch of clutch fluid spews from underneath it, into the footwell. Being the stubborn and empoverished uni student I am I was certain I could bring her home. I’d seen videos on YouTube of clutchless shifting and decided to give it a go. I was in second, got the revs going till I want to change, foot off the gas, push the gearsrick into neutral, gently push the gearstick to third and POP. In it went. Easy. I got the hang of it so quickly, and thanks to my immaculate tranny and short-shifter I was able to take it through the last corners, revmatch downshifting and all!
Thanks YouTube.

4. A pizza bought with karma - Hudson S

Once saw a guy standing by his car outside a Staples store looking lost. Asked him if he needed help with anything. He said his battery was dead. Gave him a jump and got his car going. He then informed me that he owned a local pizza place and I could come in and get a free pizza for my help. It was a good day.

5. Off-roading a car to destruction - Marco Campaner

When I was little my father used to take me off-roading with him. And one day while off-roading we heard a loud noise like something heavy breaking. Seconds after, we saw our rear left wheel rolling down with the brake and a piece of the axle still connected to it. It was epic.

6. Lockpick lvl: expert - Ben Salter

Not really broken down but locked out. I pulled into a lot at a store one day and there was a Festiva sitting there running. When I came out a young couple came pulling in with a small gas can and a coat hanger. I got in my truck and watched a couple minutes as they put some gas in and struggled trying to feed the coat hanger through the window seal.

My wife asks, why don’t you help. Well I always kept a slim jim handy from my deviant college days. So I jumped out, grabbed the thin metal tool, walked over and slipped it through the seal, popped the lock and climbed back in my truck. Both looked across the top of the car stunned and as I back out, I hear this little feeble- thank you. The look on their face was priceless.

7. Stranded on a bridge - lulubells

One of the scariest moments of my life! A couple of years ago my parents and I were driving down to the south of Italy. We were in the region of Liguria when our Mercedes C-class decided to break down. It was around 10pm, Italians speeding as usual, approx. 170/180kmh. We were going in and out of tunnels on a one way bridge and a river below us. On a curve in between two tunnels, the car decided to stop.
We could see cars coming out of the tunnel behind us and dodging us. We had to quickly get out of the car, hazards lights on, warning triangle out. My mother and I stood outside the car, in front of it, whilst my dad was behind it trying to signal to everyone that the car had broken down. Suddenly all lights all go out. No sign of car life. We had nothing but our phone torches and a shoddy torch that my dad was using. We were there for about 15 minutes.. waiting to die.
Luckily a police car drove by and 5 minutes later the whole bridge is congested as they sent a massive recovery pick-up truck to help us. Ended up staying in a town called Chiavari and we had an awesome time for three days while our battery was getting changed.

8. Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Scoobies - Jared Samuelson

Right after I installed a new timing belt to my WRX I took it for a test drive. I was maybe 15 miles out. My car overheated and was blowing steam out (I forgot to burp the system). So I pulled over and these door-to-door Mormons came up to us. They were Subaru geeks too! So we spent about an hour talking about how Subarus are the best thing ever invented. Unless you forget to bleed the coolant system…

9. That Fiat Stilo life - Sigmund

Driving home a Fiat Stilo. Engine failure. Restart. Drive. Engine failure. Rinse and repeat.

10. My car's famous! - FuRoRR

For four years now I have lost track of the times I have broken down. Most interesting breakdown I had was next to my country’s (Bulgaria) parliament building. It was two years ago when I had my Escort RS2000. An E36 320i was tailgating me, and I pushed it a little too much and had a 8mm bolt in my gearbox linkage break while shifting to 3rd. Came to a stop in a six lane road.

One hour in, while waiting for a friend to tow me to our garage, police showed up; there were protests in the country then so they wanted to get me off the street. Had them push me for 6-700 metres to a bus stop where my friend showed up.

Three days later I saw myself being pushed by two cops on local TV…

Check out the original thread here!