Strange encounter with a stick driving at night...

[praxibetel]

So I was driving my 206 along the A120 near Harwich this evening when I heard a loud clunk and suddenly the car pulled to one side, I was getting a hell of a lot of strange grinding and wheezing noises from the car and the handbrake seemed to be engaged. I drove into a layby and the handbrake lever would barely move, the brake pedal had become extremely firm and I heard the worst noises I had ever heard a car make when trying to move, so I decided it was probably best not to drive any further!

I had a look around the car and I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, so I called the AA and after half an hour on hold they told me nobody was on duty in my area for the next 8 hours. I didn't have a clue what could've happened to my rear brakes so I called a recovery service in a nearby town to see if they could pick the car up.

While waiting for recovery I tried to take a closer look under the car and I found a piece of timber that had got rammed between the suspension arm and the wheel, while twisting itself around the handbrake cable. It took me a while to work it free but once I did the car was back to normal. I explained what had happened to the guy driving the recovery truck and he found it rather amusing I paid him anyway since he had come out at short notice quite late at night!

Just thought I'd share the most bizarre motoring experience I've had so far

[CitroJim]

I had a very similar happening many, many years ago when I had an R5... A strange noise developed in the front suspension.

I drove it 150 miles to my parents so I could strip the suspension and investigate the problem. It was a stone resting against a brake disc!

[citronut]

back in the 70ies i worked for Henley s Folkestone,

when the parts delivery girls pulled up on the forecourt we used to wait till they had gone in the workshop/stores to drop of what ever they were delivering, then we used to nip out pop the hub caps of and put pebbles in them and put them back on ,

the hub caps back then were usually chromium plated pressed tin, imagine the racket as the girlies drove off

[CitroJim]

You are so cruel Malcolm

I'm considering banning you from the forum as punishment

[Hell Razor5543]

I've heard worse. I recall when two work colleagues had a falling out. One of them decided to get back at the other in an unusual way. He deflated one tyre on the other guys' car, and then re-filled it with blue top milk (using a cheap foot pump and extra pipework) until his gauge showed the right 'air' pressure. It somewhat spoiled the handling, and, eventually, when he went to have his wheels re-balanced the fitter noticed one wheel was considerably heavier than the others, so he took the tyre off. What he found was a somewhat rancid butter.

[CitroJim]

That's even worse than what Malcolm did James

In fact it's horrible