Worst place your vehicle ever broke down?
Was it causing danger to other road users?
Or just plain embarrasing?
Years ago my van conked out in the outside lane of the slip road 100 yards after coming of junction 36 M1.
Traffic backing up onto M1. behind me (approaching rush hour) SCARY. Ended up with my head crammed into emergency phone box with spare finger plugged into other earhole.
Week later I bought my first mobile phone:)
Oh, yes - I did have RAC cover. Phew

Worst place I have broken down was the middle of Park Square roundabout at evening rush hour! The police had to push my car off the road, and I got many angry beeps and finger gestures from some impatient drivers!

At the top of the Altamont Pass. 1,000 ft. straight up.

http://www.westcoastroads.com/california/images501/i-580_wb_exit_057_01.jpg

For the first and only time in my life, I hitchiked. A woman stopped and gave me a ride to the next town where my sister in law lived.

We went back later and managed to get that piece of sh** started and drove it home. I hated that car and was thrilled when I finally got rid of it.

:clap: Sierra

In the UK the clutch failed on the slip road between the M1 and M62 just south of Leeds.

I had a mobile....but battery was flat! D'OH!

Had to wander up the hill to find a phone box. Only thing to say was that it wasn't raining.

Next worse place was about 100 yards short of the exit to Barnsley on the M1 - slipping fanbelt. Walked to a garage on the way in to Barnsley to ge an emergency fanbelt dooberry to get me the rest of the way home. That night it WAS raining.

Same car......was written off a year or two later when a truck whacked it.

Overheating (different car) on the M1 coming out of Leeds in the rush hour was quite something.

And you wonder why I use public transport? :D

Joe

Trying to find a short cut to Dent in the middle of winter up in the Dales.

I took a tiny one track road over the fells, and all went well, until I was almost over the top, when the car 'bellied' in some deep snow, all four wheels off the ground!

We had to run about 3 miles to a farm to get pulled out by the guy with his tractor. Embarrasment factor 6!

In queueing traffic on the A1 through the roadworks! The clutch went and I was still moving towards the vehicle in front!! I yanked it out of gear and rolled as far as I could, keeping an eye on the lorry behind, who was getting VERY close.

Luckily I was only 2 car lengths from a parking bay and the lorry driver pushed me into it with one hand :D (I drive a Zafira)

Shan't go into the rest of the tale of how I got home, but it took five hours and the fiasco at Hartwells has meant I haven't set foot in there since. You'd think the service manager would know the service cover I was entitled to :suspect: :mad:

In 2001,I was travelling from Istanbul tot Izmir in a rented car.
It was about 10p.m. and I was about 50 miles north of Izmir,passing through a village. It was very hot and I pulled up to have a drink of water and a quick p***.
When I tried to re-start the car the ignition key snapped in half.
Big problem,as I had a lot of gear in the car as I was moving house and job.Then the local drunk arrived ,"riding" a sort of mini-motorbike.I can speak a bit of Turkish and after some time got him to ring the police on his mobile as a few Turkish police are specially trained in basic English to help tourists.
After about 10 minutes 1 policeman arrived and more or less told the poor old drunk to p*** off ! He told me to leave the car till morning as the local shops were all closed and there was a hotel nearby. I had to leave a load of stuff in the car,naturally unlocked,and expected it all to have been nicked the following morning----but no !
The hotel was a good one and the receptionist spoke good English and got me a key--cutting shop. Car was untouched and I was on my way to Izmir by 10 a.m All's well that.....etc

:D City Road/Duke St, blocking the junction at the New Inn. At rush hour.

I was HUGELY popular.

My how I laughed about it later...:rant:

Cosy

Not as bad as some of the others but proably more frequent...

In rush hour at the top of St Phiilips road clutch cable went stuck on a hill.....

In rush hour car conked out in middle of Chapletown at roundabout.......

In rush hour on Parkway roundabout, but managed to get it started......

In roadworks near queens rd single file traffic and I was at the front.......

In rush hour on Law Brothers roundabout....oh what fun....

Coming off motorway near Cambridge after a weeks holiday, lost all power.....fortunately next to services....unfortunately ripped off for an alternator by the recovery bloke.

Think I am noticing a link here as I write this, probably best to avoid driving anywhere near roundabouts at rush hour!!!

Many years ago I had a job with Yorkshire Water and had to take my car into resevoirs, drive over the grass to find a specific manhole cover to be able to access a meter. One day, at a resevoir it had been raining, lots, and I drove the car to the far end of the resevoir, located my cover, did the work and then tried to drive off. My wheels spun and spun and I sank lower and lower into the grass and what was now mud.

My wheels were chucking up sludge into the air and I got lower and lower and the car was totally covered in mud! I couldn't move. I was in the corner of the resevoir very close to some 10 foot railings and edging closer and closer to them!

I wandered down the road and phoned the RAC who I was with at the time and explained. They sent out a 4x4, who linked up a tow rope to my car and started to pull.....then the 4x4 got stuck as IT sunk into the mud. The poor RAC man was then covered in mud too as he slipped in it.

Eventually the RAC man got his spanner out, took the railings apart, managed to reverse his 4x4 out of the mud, drove over the railings and towed me in the opposite direction. I was free. Filthy, but free!

I waved goodbye to the muddy RAC man as he was rebuiding the railings and drove home. The next morning I managed to crash the muddy car on the way to the garage to get it washed. It was a write off! Whooops!

Other bad place to break down.....cam belt snapped in Moss Side, Manchester. Few dodgy geezers wandering around as I waited for the breakdown truck.

M6 near knutsford. In the middle lane overtaking a car with another car about a meter behind me. The engine cracked and died. getting to the hard shoulder was very interesting. not exactly sure how I did it.

Classic rock--your storywas very funny.
I don't feel so bad about my own driving problems now !
Your story was like something from a Laurel and Hardy film-especially writing it off the next day .
One other incident from Turkey ,I remember.Driving away from Ankara down a motorway with a Turkish friend who was in charge of the map.
The motorway split up and I managed to get in the wrong lane.We hadn't gone too far down the wrong way so my Turkish pal said,"No problem. This is Turkey. Just reverse ."
Luckily ,there was practically no traffic so it was o.k. Even if there had been traffic, knowing Turlish drivers,it's unlikely that anybody would have blinked an eye-lid.

I was driving a hire car up the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus in thick fog. The road fell away steeply on the passengers side and the car just stopped completely. Nothing from the starter motor, couldn't bump start going forward as we going up, my wife couldn't get out of the car as the fog was really thick and we could only see the tops of the safety posts, posts not barrier. There wasn't much traffic on the road and nobody could stop to help so I ended up having to bump start it in reverse.

Not a good start to the holiday.

Originally posted by Andy78
M6 near knutsford. In the middle lane overtaking a car with another car about a meter behind me. The engine cracked and died. getting to the hard shoulder was very interesting. not exactly sure how I did it.

Oh Lord....

I had a similar experience - forgotten all about it until now!

Nissan Micra (new), trundling down the M62 and the timing chain snapped....in busy traffic the day before Christmas Eve, ended up having to coast in to the hard shoulder.

Scared the living daylights out of me!

Weird thing was no damage to pistons or cylinders!

Joe

Mr PT has had a couple of *fun* run-ins with punctures, recently...

The latest was this last August, he was travelling along the A57 near Worksop, and got a puncture.

Now this would not have been a *biggie*.................


except for the fact that he was transporting our daughter in law back from Skegness, because she was feeling ill and, to cap it all, had started in labour (prematurely, she was only 7.5 months on) so it caused a bit of a panic.

The worst of it was, he was in a mobile black-spot, so would have problens summoning help if she started moving -on in the labour. (Help!)

He tried flagging the RAC and AA vehicles down that pased but the rotten blighters would not stop. (he has heart trouble, so finds it difficult to lug and carry, so needed assistance)

Eventually, a doctor stopped, (fortunately), and helped my other half, and checked that my daughter in law was okay, which, thank God, she was. however, it was another month and a half before the grandson decided to arrive!!

The other incident which has been bandied around as a "joke", but which really happened to Mr PT was this:-

He was on his way to Manchester airport, to collect our neice and her kids, on their return from holiday, when he got a puncture, in, of all places, Moss-side (!!!!)

He jacked up the car, and began to take the punctured wheel off. He suddenly felt the car lurch.

He dived up, to investigate, and found a Chavv-y youth in the drivers seat, fiddling with the car radio, pulling it out.

He said "Excuse me, young man, I can't help noticing that you are trying to extract my radio. May I enquire what the purpose of this attempt is....?" (well they weren't the exact words, but this "is" a family forum...... lol)

the chav replied...
"If you're having the wheels, I'm having the radio!"

Flippin' cheek!.

I will leave you to work out for yourself the two word answer that Mr PT used, as he seized the chav's collar, and (coff !! ) escorted him out of the car, and sent him on his way.
(and yes, you are right:- the second word in the sentence was "off")

PT

We were comming back from a wedding in Scotland and pulled into Scotch Corner Services on the A1. All was well, went inside, had a drink and returned to the car - I needed fuel so pulled into the petrol station there. Filled up, got back in and wound down the window to speak to my g/f who had gone inside to pay - but when i tried to wind the window back up nothing happened! Tried in vain for several minutes but it was well and truly knackered - so no window in the middle of winter 95 miles from home :shakes:

Thought Id make the most of it and set of with coat wrapped round us all, freezing our tets off. When all of a sudden at 65 MPH the rear tyre blew out :rant: . Managed to control the car and pulled to the side of the A1 - by this stage I was getting rather aggitated (=shouting and swearing:D ). Opened the boot to get the Jack out only to find the effing thing had completley seized up. So picture the scene; Top of the A1, pi$$in down rain, -10 with no drivers window and only 3 tyres - have you ever seen a grown man cry - its not a pretty sight :P

Mat:(

You have to laugh don't you?
I was on the A1 in roadworks that had closed one carriageway. The hire van although showing a full tank of petrol ground to a halt. By the time the police managed to get a tow vehicle to me there was a twelve mile tailback, OOOOOPS
Turned out the last person to hire the van had mucked around with the wiring so he could return the van without a full tank, nasty person!!

Worse place I broke down was in wales, have you ever tried spelling some of the place names. Had to walk miles till I found a road sign then was told it would tke the rac 3 hours to get there, ended up fixing it my self.:rant:

In a remote area of the Kimberley in Western Australia. The radiator sprang a leak and we had to take it out and fix it with liquid steel. Fortunately we were in the area of the King Edward River so had an abundance of fresh water.