If you’re driving home at 4:20am, what’s something that you wouldn’t want to happen?
How about your car making a loud banging noise and stopping working? That was on your list? Good, because that’s what happened to me.
Car is driving along (albeit making an awful racket which will be checked out on Monday when it gets serviced) and then “bang…clunk” it sounds like something has either blown up or fallen out or both. The battery warning light flickers, then the car stalls and just keeps rolling, and there’s the battery warning light as well as some other warning lights.
I slowed down and moved the car on to the nature strip…its inertia just managed to carry it up on to the nature strip. I got out and walked back down the road to see if something had actually fallen out…no sign of anything, so I returned to the car. Hmmm, strong burning smell, get out and take a quick look around…that looks like smoke, “wonderful, just what I need”. Rush back to the cabin and collect the handful of personal belongings which are there, move to a safe distance and call the fire brigade and accidentally give them the wrong street name.
Fire brigade turn up quite rapidly, obviously they worked out that the cross street which I mentioned doesn’t actually intersect with the street that I claimed to be on. They investigate and find that, whilst there isn’t a fire, something definitely burnt and caused some smoke…the spark plug wiring has had it.
They disconnect the battery, advise me to lock up the car, take down my name and I get a lift home from a friend who shall remain anonymous for now.
On the plus side, the car is about two blocks away from the mechanic that it has an appointment with on Monday. Logistically that will be interesting, but it’s better than halfway between Canberra and Deniliquin. It’s probably also a good thing that it happened when I wasn’t in a hurry to get somewhere.
I’ll deal with the “now what…” questions after I’ve had some sleep. Good night everybody.
Samuel
Comments Disabled To "Car Goes Bang!"
#1 Comment By Mr-Pappadappadopolis On January 3, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Hmmmmm…… that sounds bad Samuel. It might be advisable to get the vehicle towed to the mechanic’s place or back to your place, rather than leaving it out on the street,
Would that be a Ford, Holden, Mitsubishi or Nissan ? (In that order of reliability).
#2 Comment By Anthony Spruce On January 4, 2009 @ 4:06 am
Why does this remind me of the night I was 80k’s out of town when I was on my way back to Newcastle.
Good ol’ dependable Martin. heheh
#3 Comment By Samuel On January 4, 2009 @ 8:03 am
It reminds me of that as well Anthony. Such fun.
Mr-Pappadappadopolis, yes it sounds bad but I’ll just have to wait for a mechanic’s opinion on Monday. Sadly towing the car back home and then towing it back to that side of town on Monday morning is not an option for financial reasons.
And it’s a ford.
#4 Comment By Mr-Pappadappadopolis On January 4, 2009 @ 11:05 am
A ford ? Yes, well that explains a lot.
I should have made it clear that when I mentioned Ford, Holden, Mitsubishi and Nissan, I meant to say “in order of unreliability”, meaning that Ford is the least reliable, with Nissan being the most reliable.
#5 Comment By Glendenning On January 4, 2009 @ 1:20 pm
The most unreliable vehicle I ever drove was a Mahindra “jeep”, followed by a Lada Niva, advertised in the late 1980’s as “the Russian alternative”.
#6 Comment By Samuel On January 4, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
I’ve actually found this Ford to be quite reliable until this incident, and I didn’t have any problems with the Ford that I had before that.
I had a heap of trouble with a Nissan, mainly minor faults followed by a recurring major fault, but that can probably be put down to age as it was a good car despite the minor issues.
#7 Comment By Glendenning On January 4, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
Well, I’ll be interested to know what caused this catastrophic failure.
I’ve been driving various cars for quite a few years, and have never experienced anything like you did with this ford.
One possibility is the timimg belt broke which resulted in the destruction of the engine by pistons hitting valves, but that doesn’t explain the spark plug leads burning out.
#8 Comment By Glendenning On January 6, 2009 @ 9:27 am
Samuel. Any new info on what happened to the car ?
#9 Comment By Mr-Pappadappadopolis On January 6, 2009 @ 8:56 pm
Did you get your car fixed yet Samuel ?