In the mid-'80s I had a '77 MGB (and a '66, and another '77). Whenever I came to a stop, it would stall. Wait a minute, and it would run again. When I got home, we pulled tha car into the garage and popped the bonnet. The car ran fine. Dad put on a new fuel filter. Closed the bonnet, and the car stalled. Dad and I were puzzled. And then I noticed an exhaust gasket was cracked. Closed up, exhaust gasses would fill the engine compartment and there wasn’t enough oxygen for the engine to run. Open, there was plenty of air. I don’t remember how long the car was down or how long it took to get the part, but once the gasket was replaced everything was hunky dory. (Well, except for the other issue on the same car – on a long trip – where the electric radiator fan wouldn’t shut off and would run down the battery. Had to pull a fuse for that one when I stopped for the night.)
My first “car” (I use the term loosely, here) had tons of odd problems, including some that happened more than once.
It was a Fiat. One of the older ones - before they quit selling in the US for a number of years.
The clutch cable failed. At least that happened near where I lived; the one on my brother’s car failed when we were on a road trip, and we were lucky we were able to get it fixed that day. A year or so after the clutch cable failed, the CLUTCH also failed. My Dodge Omni’s clutch also failed when the car was less than 2 years old. I’ve since owned 4 other manual-trans cars, none of which had this problem.
The windshield wiper motor failed. Twice. When driving up I-85 in a rainstorm, that was extra-special fun. The muffler died. The radio failed. When they were reintroduced in the US a few years back, I have repeatedly told people “There are some cars I wouldn’t have again, as a gift. This one, I wouldn’t have if you PAID me to take it”.
The Omni was an improvement over the Fiat, but that Fiat had set a rather low bar. In addition to the clutch: the engine tended to make that sound a car makes when you try to turn the ignition key but the engine is already running… but it did that even when the car was NOT running. It never repeated this behavior when near a mechanic, mind you… This was the one time where an extended warranty paid off.
We replaced the Omni with a Mazda 626. Every now and then, it would go through bouts of stalling, for no apparent reason. This was fun when it happened driving down I-395, in a middle lane, during Friday evening rush hour. I think we ultimately figured out it was a problem with corrosion on the battery terminals.
My Dodge Caravan misbehaved when it was 10 years old. We pulled into a parking lot, stopped the car, and every alert sound in the thing started going off, half-heartedly, and the car would not stop. Luckily, CAA got it running again (we were near Niagara Falls, and CAA has a deal with AAA). We got home and began the quest to have the electrical system sorted (not shorted) out. A new battery. A replacement alternator. And I STILL did not trust it… leading to the purchase of a Honda CRV, which turns 16 this year and which we still own. Between the Caravan (including its constantly-failing A/C) and the Omni, I will never own another Chrysler product.
That CRV began making odd rattling noises, somewhere near or on the roof when I drove it. I finally figured out that when the car was in for service, someone had hit the sunroof button, and the sunroof was cracked slightly open. As we had the cover in place, I didn’t see this - and I never use the sunroof, so it didn’t occur to me.
The weird smell the Civic began emitting… was due to a plastic grocery bag that had gotten wrapped around some part of the exhaust system - and was melting, giving off that “melting plastic” smell.
Oh - and the Ford Pinto, that my parents bought for my two oldest brothers to share, back in the early 1970s. It was in the garage one night, and when my brothers went out in the morning, the rear window had shattered into a zillion little pea-sized pieces. I’ve never heard of that happening to any other car, but we presume it had something to do with a) poor manufacturing quality, and b) some odd change in temperature.
Almost a car problem.
During the Big Move 2 years ago when FtGKid2 was driving us from the old place to the new we stopped and got gas. As we went to start to the car to leave … nothing. Nada. Zip. Not even a click. Did some basic checks, lights good, etc. We were in the middle of nowhere on a tight schedule, etc. Oh, boy.
Turned out a cup in the holder was preventing the shifter from going completely into park. Really close but not quite. Once in park it started right up. Whew!
I spent my life as a mechanic so I enjoy threads like this. I always say no problem on a car is complicated once you understand it. My brother runs a car dealership and every now and then he will call me with a problem thy can’t fix. Everyone of them so far has been simple as pie. The first car he called me with was about 30 years ago. He said he had a car he would give me for $250.00 but it had electrical problems they couldn’t fix, the battery would discharge after it sat a few days. I had a pretty good idea what it might be before I hung up the phone. I told him charge up the battery and I will be right there. 1st thing I did was honk the horn, it didn’t honk just as I expected. I opened the hood plugged in the horn that had been unplugged and it honked all by itself. I put my hand on the relay box and it had a hot relay, the horn relay. It simply needed a new horn button. Ever since then he calls me with weird problems… Another one was a ford bronco with all kinds of seemingly unrelated electrical problems. I simply assumed the problems were all related and traced it back the dash control module. Took it apart and found at least 6 bad solder joints. Borrowed a soldering iron fixed the joints and that was it. Total time including diagnostics less than 90 min. I really enjoy weird problems because I know they are never weird. .
My 2000 Explorer V8 would sometimes buck like it had a miss or something around 42 mph when accelerating. Its done this for years. Not all the time, usually after running for 45 minutes or more. Going up a hill or otherwise under load made it worse. I went on a Ford forum and the advice was, basically, it could be many different things and to just start changing stuff one thing at a time, I got a misfire code on one cylinder one time and it never repeated. One possibility was the torque converter was failing and that repair wouldn’t be worth it. My mechanic couldn’t figure it out. Once in a while it would backfire up under the hood and one time at the tailpipe. In spite of some pretty good backfires, there were no codes thrown. The bucking would happen right at the point of the upshift to OD. Turning off overdrive until well above 50 mph seemed to eliminate the problem and it got to the point where I did so without thinking about it. I rarely drove it but when I did, it was for camping or pulling a trailer or something. Circumstances that would prove to be very inconvenient if it broke down completely. Recently, I had it in the shop to replace a bad exhaust manifold. I had already purchased plugs and wires but decided it was going to be too much aggravation to replace them myself. So, that was added to the job. (I had also already replaced the coil pack for the misfire cylinder and cleaned the MAF sensor - no help ). Surprise! When I got it back, the bucking was gone. Plug? Plug wire? Some sensor that was getting bad info due to manifold leak (doubtful)? I guess I’ll never know but at this point I don’t care. It was VERY aggravating trying to sort things out.
Has this thread gotten this far with nobody bringing up the all-time best “unusual car problem” this message board has ever had mention of? The infamous 2003 Hyundai Santa Fe Leap Day error…
The most useless accessory in my car is now even more useless
No it has not. I mentioned it in post 29.
Ah, I missed it! Total classic
I’m surprised the image links still work. I haven’t logged into my Photobucket account for years.
Oh boy. Not a car, but a motorcycle. Bought it used. 1978 Yamaha 650. A cool bike. Vertical twin much like the sought after old school Triumphs.
It. Would. Not. Start. Not even a pop. I redid the carbs ignition everything.
I had fuel and spark and compression. Timing looked good enough to get SOMETHING.
In fighting this thing, I noticed that blue gasket sealer on the jug and head. Hmmmm… Someone has been into this engine deep.
This particular model has valve covers on it. I pulled one, and checked the valve position for when the points closed. This was an overhead cam engine. The valve was open when the spark fired. Previous owner had rebuilt the engine 180 degrees off. The cam and crank where off when the timing chain went back on. 180 degrees.
I switched the left coil to the right cylinder and right coil to the left cylinder. It fired right up.
But as you can imagine, it ran poorly. I believe this set up really messed up the timing advance. God knows what else.
The bike had real potential. I love those old vertical twins. But without a garage, and the time to do it, I gave it away to a friend explaining the problem.
Spark. Fuel. Compression. Something should happen. I was getting zippo. Took me a while to puzzle it out.
That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever encountered.
My 2003 Hyundai Accent had this cool blue back-lit speedo (and other gauges) that I really liked. Until it stopped working and I couldn’t see how fast I was going at night. I did tons of research on how to fix it and there wasn’t a bulb to replace; I would need to pull out and swap the whole dash. It was mostly a commuter car so really only an issue driving home from work during the winter months, and it was a stick so I usually had a close idea of how fast I was going by what gear I had it in, but I eventually rigged up a little flashlight I could turn on at night.
The other weird problem was with an old VW pickup that would sometimes refuse to shift into reverse. Not fun having to occasionally push it out of parking spots.
We were about to enter an intersection when everything started smelling like maple syrup, then the car died. Turned out that the heater core had failed.
This is why Canada has a Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve.
You gave it away, on the day I was going to come get it. I’m still pissed about that.
I sent you a PM Gatopescado.
Friend’s grandmother had her battery stolen. She goes home and tries to brush her teeth and she put ben gay on the brush. She wants to use mouthwash but picks up rubbing alcohol instead. A really bad day.
It’s not particularly unusual for a car battery to die like it did on our PT Cruiser. But the timing was odd: It happened during our trip from Virginia to Nevada to give the PT Cruiser to my sister and all return together in our new Prius.
Fortunately, we were flush with cash, and were able to replace it.
It’s easier for me to list the problems I’ve had car by car.
The 1962 Chrysler I inherited from my parents - the alternator buzzed. Very loudly. Even after we turned the engine off.
My 1980 Ford Fairmont - some weird electrical problem where the car wouldn’t start when the engine was warm.
1980 Dodge conversion van (remember van conversions?) - turning on the cruise control blew every fuse in the dashboard, no radio, no gauges or warning lights, nothing.
1992 Mercury Villager - the very expensive stainless steel exhaust system somehow rusted out. How does stainless steel rust out?
1995 Taurus - let’s see, the rear brake lines collapsed, locking the brakes to the point where the wheels actually glowed red hot, blown head gasket, the radiator and the AC both sprang leaks at the same time.
2000 Windstar - the transmission blew up at 24K miles, the fuel pump died at 60K and there were a few other problems that made me swear off Fords forever.
It could be the PMC (Power Management Computer). If it decides your battery is bad or the alternator isn’t working it starts to shut stuff off in sequence of importance. Your radio is the least important item.
You can get something like this to see what your voltage is. You might be needing a battery soon.