Scary car malfunction stories?

I have three quick stories.

1) I had a spark plug wire get caught up in the accelerator linkage of a 75 Nova SS, causing my gas pedal to jam up just before a red light. Heck, I was doing a brake stand just after I nearly rear ended someone. Darn Accel pre-fab wire kit with extra long spark plug wires! Thank goodness that I was able to kill the ignition in time.

2) Someone spiked my brake fluid in my '78 Z28 with engine oil and one day I lost my brakes while reversing out of the school's parking lot and almost hit a parked car before I knew what the heck happened. I know the e-brake was the fail safe, but it just happened so fast and it there wasn't really any damage asides from a hefty $$ brake system overhaul. The scariest part was losing the brakes, I could have left the parking lot before the brake failure and got into a whole lot of trouble.

3) Girls and stupidity caused the scariest one. My friend egged me on to doing a burn out around a corner, so I hammered the gas while slamming the car in first gear. Next thing I know is that I heard this awful noise, the car dropping, and a 50 series rear wheel shooting off in the girls direction. I actually jumped out of the car and chased the wheel in order to kick it off course before it ran over the girls. All my wheel studs snapped off and my lower quarter panel thrashed because I used a wheel spacer to even out the wide tires to exactly match the quarter panel wheel lips. Seems that GM didn't weld the leaf spring plates to exact measurements, hence a slight offset that was noticeable with wide tires on the back. My poor 78 Z28 was never the same after with the crunched up quarter panel. Everyday, I saw the aftermath and I wanted to kick my own butt.

Other than that, it's the usual winter horror stories about sliding out of control. Oh, I hydroplaned once and I just about crapped my pants. Also, I topped out a 88 5.0 and nearly lost control around a bend in the highway.

Needless to say, I drive with extreme care and control nowadays. My crazy days are truly behind me. I haven't had a sports car in years, I took away my privilege as I still don't trust myself. Mishaps do happen, fortunately I haven't even had even a flat tire for a long time. :)

--Oh, my bad... I only had one Ford story. I just realized the topic was designated under "Ford".

I was driving a Ford Landau once. (Aussie version) Some moron did some poor repairs to the chassis rail where the steering box bolts up. As a result, the mounting bolts couldn't handle the stress due to being fitted at the wrong angle and snapped while in a corner. I was lucky i had slowed down for this, as, if i was on the highway or doing speed, the car may well have been destroyed. I was able to turn the steering wheel 'round and 'round and it just spun freely, as it was no longer connected to anything!

OK, since Lincoln is owned by ford, this semi fits, so i HAD a 1994 lincoln towncar, and i made it to be a nice bada** ride, so i was doing a burnout getting ready to turn onto this road, so i turn while spinning the tires and start going down the street to impress my friends, while i'm half way across this busy road, two spark plus shoot out, and hit the under part of my hood and the car stalls, i almost got mowed down by a suburban............so i learned my lesson, don't try turning a towncar into a muscle car AHAHAHA the platnium spark plugs down hold well

I had a 1990 S10 4X4 and I was climbing a hill out in a pit one night and couldn't make it to the top. As i was slowly backing down the hill, i blew a brake line and lost all braking power. Needless to say the truck starting going down this steep hill at a high rate of speed in the reverse direction. I was able to keep it on all four wheels, but I came within inches of hitting a large boulder. The truck could have very easily flipped and rolled down the hill.

We have a 1993 Ford Fairmont sedan (Australians will know what I'm talking about!) and it had a couple of malfunctions which could have proved fatal!

1) The antilock brakes (ABS) used to cancel themselves at about 135km/h (about 85mph) which proved to be faulty front disc rotors. Replaced them and had no trouble since!

2) The headlights used to switch off without warning (leaving only tail lights and instrument panel lights on). Faulty circuit breaker (on the Aussie Falcon/Fairmont, the circuit breaker for the headlights is inside the RHF inner guard). Replaced it too and had no trouble since!

1-I know. A bicycle is not a car but I have a good bike story. I was out biking with my buddies. They were in the lead and I was trying to catch up. We came down a steep road in town,near the bottom of the hill I went to jump over the curb and down a steep grave drive. When I pulled on the handle bars to clear the curb the handle bars came out of the frame. I was doing about 30 mph and was only wearing shorts and t shirt. I was blood from head to toe and all my buddies could do was laugh.

2- I was at my cousins cottage and a large group of us were coming back from swimming. We all hopped into my buddies car. There wasn't enough room so myself and another guy jumped on the back bumper. We were travelling fairly slow down a cottage road when the bumper fell off the car. My entire back was blood. My cousin figured the best way to sterilize the wounds was to put alcohol on it. Unfortunately he didn't warn me before he poured it on-OUCH.

3-The same cousin thought his dads Jeep was invincible. We went out driving on a Saturday night in the middle of a Northern winter and he was showing me how good the 4x4 was. He was driving about 50 mph on a snowy road when he lost control around a corner. We did about 3- 360's and came to rest in a snow bank. We drove about 10 mph home that night.

4-The same cousin was driving home from his cottage doing about 80 in his 5.0 mustang convertible. He pulled out to pas a long row of cars and another car in the line pulled out as well just as we were passing him. My cousing had to jerk into the left grave median to avoid being hit and we did some more 360's . Again it was a slower ride home after that.

5-Back in the late 80's I was trying to impress a girl and I knew she liked my Trans Am so I finally told her she could drive it. I forgot to tell her the rear tires were bald from smoke shows so when we went around a curve on a wet road we did some more 360's.

6-I was in a wedding party and my then girlfriend(who is now my wife) was driving the Corvette I had borrowed from work. She wasn't used to the power and was driving very slow. The other people in the party were losing us so I told her to givver. As she was pulling out to pass she mashed the throttle and the *** end sung around and we spun around about 3 times. I carefully got out of the pasenger door(which was inches from a 30 foot drop) and kindly asked her to move over.

7-The scariest was a malfunction. I own a 1966 Cutlass that has a single reservoir master cylinder. I put headers on the car but I ran the header pipes too close to the brake line. If you have ever had a brake failure on a car older than 1967(the year dual master cylinders were put in cars so if 1 section of brakes fails you still have some hydraulic pressure) you will know how scary it is to completely lose your brakes. I have owned mnay cars over the years and worked in the auto industry for many years so I know how to drive with a soft pedal but when you put your foot to the floor and it goes down and you are not slowing down that is scary. I was coming home from the baseball game with my buddies trying to see how fast my top end was. The speedo reads 130mph and I had it buried. When I put my foot on the brake pedal it flet weird but I just figured the brake were hot so don't worry about it. The next day I was driving in the city about 10 mph coming th a stop light when my pedal went to the floor. I quick steered toward oncoming traffic and made a sharp left under a bridge and towards a drop off. I quick threw it into reverse then drive to slow dow and then into park and luckily it held.

Looking back Im lucky to be alive and I look at my family now and realize they are all that matters and I don't take stupid risks any more.

cool