Oooops, shouldn't have done that!

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Dave Bamber
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Post by Dave Bamber »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by jkirkwood</i>

Leaving my roller load space cover on the roof bars whilst loading, then forgetting to pu tit back in the car.
Stayed on top for 4-5 miles and two 90 degree bends, before coming off and getting driven over.
Duh!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
So that's what you did with it[:0]
wrinklet1
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Post by wrinklet1 »

Hi, Here goes, work collegue once asked me if there was a quick way of topping the oil up? I said just pour it in. He said it takes ages!!! Couldn't understand, then I said show me the engine. MkIII escort, pulled the dipstick, needed about 1/2 a pint of oil, he got the oil and then started to pour it down the dipstick tube.....Duh
Another, A mate of mine got his 1st car, an Austin 1100. Looked ok apart from a rust bubble on the front offside wing. Sounded good too. Chatting like you do, we talked about the car, me leaning on the wing, then,CRACK...my hand went through the front wing. It had been filled with soil...massive hole in wing....SORRY Tom. He didn't worry, said he will get a new one fitted. He started the car, backed it onto the road and THUD....engine stopped. After checking, the gearbox was filled with sawdust....Oops.......
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reblack68
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Post by reblack68 »

My mate had an Avenger estate (same mate, different Avenger) and I made the mistake of putting my foot on its back bumper. The bumper fell off taking the entire chassis rail with it!
We tied it back up with the wiring loom for a Marina rear wiper and kept using the car for several months. Them were the days.
mark_sp
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Post by mark_sp »

Not really my fault but still upsets me:
Rented a lock up from the local coal merchant in the 80's and used it to put together a working car out of two 1958 Wolseley 1550's. Didn't do a bad job considering I did it on a whim and a very tight budget and had almost no experience of this type of thing. Anyway when the mechanical things were sorted it needed a coat of paint to be brushed on (couldn't afford to have it sprayed whole project only cost £135). Very aware that there was a lot of coal dust in the air generally I decided to wait for a wet weekend reasoning that the merchant only worked weekdays and the damp would keep the residual level of dust down. First wet weekend spent hours on the Friday and Saturday prepping and painting with no hint of dust. Second coat early Sunday morning, looked fantastic. Returned Monday morning to find the whole car looking like it had been papered with a serious grade of wet and dry. Apparently the merchant sub let a space in the yard for a one man and his dog haulage contractor who had returned Sunday afternoon and managed to hit the lockup with his 20 ? ton wagon displacing all the precariously balanced dust.
Mark
kevin
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Post by kevin »

One of my many stories concerns fitting a new petrol tank on a mini clubman estate. Everything went well until it get dark and I connected the tank sender unit the wrong way round, leaving the guage reading full when it was empty and empty when it was full!!
This came in handy the following night when I took my then current girlfriend out and claimed the car ran out of petrol!
Crafty or what!!
Kevin
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

Reminds me of another mini story - Jill bought this tatty mini saloon and over a period of time just about everything failed. Eventaully it was time to replace the rear cones and so I thought I would do the near side one first which meant moving the fuel tank to release the shock absorber top mount. No problems - tank moved, shock absorber undone, old cone out, new one ready to be fitted - all cleaned up etc.
Time for lunch - about 1 hour later I go out - the whole of the boot is full of petrol and whats worse the battery tray was full and there was a very live battery in there, still connected.
Courage failed me and I had to call the fire brigade who were very pleasant about it and absorbed some of the fuel and then very carefully disconnected the battery while holding a fire-extingisher ready.
What had happened was the tank had been resting on its outlet pipe (steel-in the bottom of the tank) and the stub pipe had cut the rubber hose leading to the next pipe.
moral of the story - if you replace the battery tray - drill a hole in the bottom!
jeremy
tomsheppard
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Post by tomsheppard »

Confession time. Shorted the alternator on a friend's newly acquired Yugo. The entire front loom went up before his eyes. I fitted another one within 24 hours. He still speaks to me.
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Should have shown him Jeremy Clarksons report on his test drive of the Yugo; he might have thanked you.[:D][:D]
Alan S [}:)]
tomsheppard
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Post by tomsheppard »

He did. He paid £350 for a four year old car and ran it for a further five years.
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Were they really as bad as people reckoned they were? Naturally, we never saw them out here but I recently saw a website where a guy owned a Trabant and reckoned that due to them being such a dog of a thing, they were becoming a collectable and rare as rockin' horse dooey due to the number abadoned, burnt or crushed.
I'd suspect the Yugo may come into the same category.
By contrast the CX C-matic was sold in numbers out here new, yet was despised as a second hand car for years having lousy resale in comparison to the manual, yet as I found when I bought one they were an absolute doll of a car to drive for many reasons. As a bonus due to their lack of popularity, there are several good examples around showing fairly low mileage but few if any manuals in comparable condition. When I decided to sell mine here a few weeks back, I advertised it on the 'net & had 2 inquiries in the first 5 minutes and had the car sold within 10. The buyer flew up & drove it home 1200 klms in 14 hours and averaged 9 litres/100 klms. or 32 MPG which isn't real bad for a 25 year old car wighing almost 1500kgs and powered by a 2.4 litre push rod, carby engine.
Getting back on topic though; I removed the electro-valve on same car due to it having a notchy gear change and refitted (as I'd been told you could) from under the car with everything insitu. Must have got the (no longer available as new & very expensive even second hand) afforesaid electrovalve a bit offskew as I refitted and must have loosened the shrunk on flange. A few weeks later as I drove through a roundabout, the car seemed to miss momentarily but kept going OK and then I noticed a rattle and people staring at me as I drove down the road. As I got closer to home the car was losing power and it just made it into the garage. I looked underneath & found the remnants of the electrovalve hanging from the two wires where it had fallen from its flange. A trip back looking for any parts I'd lost revealed an oil slick about a foot wide that ended in a red pool in my garage; 5 litres of ATF!!
Always removed side plates on c-matics when working on that area after that. Was sold another secondhand valve at "mates rates" for $120 that got me out of trouble...pheww![:p][:p]
Alan S [:I]
Homer
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Volvo V60 D4 180

Previous:
BX16RS (two of),
BX19TZI,
Xantia 2.0i saloon,
Xantia 2.0 Exclusive CT turbo Break,
Peugeot 807 2.0 HDi 110,
Renault Grand Scenic, 2.0 diesel (150bhp)
C5 X7 2.0 HDi 160 which put me off French cars possibly forever
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Post by Homer »

Most of the Yugos over here were based on old Fiat designs so would have been fine 20 years earlier.
They were sold cheap and so bought by people looking to save money. Their next money saving idea would be to not bother with servicing.
After a few years of such treatment their reliability obvously started to suffer.
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uhn113x
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1982 GSA Pallas - on road April - September.
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Post by uhn113x »

I always assumed Trabants were rubbish until I had a close look at one. Not a wire or pipe out of place under the bonnet, coils in metal jackets, waterproofed armoured HT leads, and a soundproofing jacket round the engine.
And, contrary to popular myth, the bodies are NOT papier mache!
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