Stories of wierd car problems

srivett · Mar 25, 2005

Here's one to start, it happened to my friend this winter.

Friend has problem where his car won't idle so he has it towed to dealer. It turned out a mouse had eaten through his air filter (cold air intake) and then froze. Said mousicle then got jammed in throttle body next time it was opened.

Steve

BlazerLT · Mar 25, 2005

ewwwww.......

Rhymingmechanic · Mar 25, 2005

We lost a few farm cats that way when I was growing up. I guess they liked to curl up in the fan shroud next to the radiator. One cat just barely got clipped on the head. It fell out from under the car dead stiff, but came around that evening. It would jump every time a car started afterwards.

My weirdest story: In high school, I drove a 1970 Grand Prix that had spent much of its life in the upper Midwest, so the sides of the trunk were rotted out. The car would fill up with dust on dirt roads. Some friends and I went to a nearby town one night, about 35 miles away. The engine started running too rich on the way back, and fumes got pulled in through the trunk. Everybody else was fine, but I couldn't understand the English language by the time we got home. I recognized the words, but had no idea what they meant.

ediamiam · Mar 25, 2005

A friend of mine had a cat that liked to curl up under the hood. Of course he caught the caught under there while starting the car, and the cat did escape w/ most of his lives. He got into the habit of thumping the car hood to alert the cat whenever he started the car.

Mike_dup1 · Mar 26, 2005

How about the person who starts up thier car and hears squealing and terrible noises from under the hood. Shuts it down and look to find a cat come flying out at them. Did not happen to me but to someone I know. Cat was keeping warm I guess?

olddognewtrks · Mar 27, 2005

I had not one, but two female mice crawl up into the blower motor for my A/C. Problem is, they did it ten days apart. In July. And they both came to gruesome ends when I switched on the blower. Seems it was baby time, and they were nesting. Have you ever smelled fermenting mouse gunk in July? Twice? OH MY GAWD!!!!!

To add insult to injury, I now have an interesting scar on my wrist from identical gouge injuries while deep in the dashboard innards. Stupid mice.

timzak · Mar 28, 2005

I caught a cat in my old Mustang 5.0 engine. It ended up with its back legs caught between the serpentine belt and one of the pulleys. We loosened the belt, he plopped out, and immediately started walking around us, rubbing against our legs in gratitude. I was shocked there were no broken bones. Not even a limp.

See my current post for another weird (unresolved) car problem:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=001994

MAJA · Mar 28, 2005

The weirdest story I have concerns a '88 Ford Tbird turbo coupe. I made a 200 mile trip on a hot August day, some years back. When I got to my destination, I got out and walked toward the house I was visiting, and looked down at this little dog, in front of the car and thought, "That looks just like my little dog". Well, "That IS my little dog". It seems he crawled up onto the valance panel, under the front bumper/radiator/foglamp area to take a nap. There was a flat area about a foot across on this car. He rode there, hanging on, next to the hot radiator in 110 degree heat for 200 miles. Whats even more amazing is that I had stopped in San Antonio partway on this trip to go through a McDonalds drive thru. And anyone in South Texas (or anywhere) knows how hot it is sitting in 110 degree heat, sitting in a drive thru line. He stayed put! I guess he knew to stay there as long as the engine was running, even if it was burning him up. Anyway, after I stopped and he crawled out, he appeared a little woosy and drank about a gallon of water. Was ok.

wavinwayne · Mar 28, 2005

When I was a teenager, I worked at a skating rink. The guy I worked for did not appreciate practical jokes & had warned all us employees against playing any on him. Well, we couldn't help ourselves.....One evening we gift wrapped his '88 IROC-Z in toilet paper. He had seen what we were doing, but played dumb. About three days later, I noticed a very bad smell in my car, an '83 Monte Carlo. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was. It smelled like anti-freeze that had run down onto a hot engine. But, I checked the engine & there were no coolant leaks.

Finally, something clicked in the 'ol noggin & I realized the smell was more than likely "planted" somewhere in the car. I finally isolated the smell to the rear seat area. So, I removed my rear bench seat to reveal ...............the partially opened can of sardines.

The practical joke had been returned

. This happened mid-July in Alabama, 90-95° heat. NICE SMELL.

TheTanSedan · Apr 1, 2005

From an auto sevice industry journal, the story that kept me from buying a computer-controlled vehicle until last fall:

A 1985 Cadillac Seville that kept dying (without restart until next morning), from new, off the lot. Dealer service techs stumped, regional service stumped. Detroit flew in a team of "experts". . . . found a 1.5 millivolt drop across the trans hump between two of three computers; only showed when hot, idling in Houston traffic.

As I could only afford the "mechanic" I saw in the mirror every morning, I figured to wait a good while. I was never going to put my self in a position to try to "solve" that kind of problem.

Best "practical joke": Filling a guys car with five pounds of crickets. Care to guess how many thousands that was? (We had sort of escalated past the "ha, ha, funny" stage).

2005tundra2002yz250f · Apr 1, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by TheTanSedan:
From an auto sevice industry journal, the story that kept me from buying a computer-controlled vehicle until last fall:

A 1985 Cadillac Seville that kept dying (without restart until next morning), from new, off the lot. Dealer service techs stumped, regional service stumped. Detroit flew in a team of "experts". . . . found a 1.5 millivolt drop across the trans hump between two of three computers; only showed when hot, idling in Houston traffic.

As I could only afford the "mechanic" I saw in the mirror every morning, I figured to wait a good while. I was never going to put my self in a position to try to "solve" that kind of problem.

Best "practical joke": Filling a guys car with five pounds of crickets. Care to guess how many thousands that was? (We had sort of escalated past the "ha, ha, funny" stage).

Am I the only one confused about this post?

pezzy669 · Apr 3, 2005

Well I have to say none of mine are people or animal related.

Ever since I bought my '03 Golf, 4 times in 2 years I have gone out ot my car in the morning to find my windows all the way down (I close my windows every time I leave my car). The windows are power so I am assuming it is one of the control modules freaking out. However I really cant prove anything to Volkswagen so I am stuck. Luckily it rarely happens, now if it happens when it rains I will be ****** .

Bosch may make some good stuff but based on the reliability of the electronics in german cars their electronics SUCK!

TheTanSedan · Apr 3, 2005

(What's so confusing about not wanting to trace out half the cars wiring to find a problem?)

Cadude · Apr 3, 2005

I drove an '81 Buick LeSabre untill 2000 and it was a real sweet riding car.

About 10 years ago I was building a fence. My neighbor (an older gentleman) let me borrow his really fancy level to make sure the fence top was level. Before letting me borrow it he stressed to me to take good care of it. Yea, yea. Leave me alone old man. I'm not going to damage your precious level. So, I walked home and laid it on the top of the rear bumper of my Buick.

I then started gathering my other supplies and I don't remember what I needed, but I realized I had to go to Home Depot for something. Yes, I drove to Home Depot and back with that precious level resting precariously on the rear bumper. This drive was about 7-8 miles each way with several traffic lights.

On my return I looked everywhere for the level. I even went to my neighbor and asked if he took it back while I was out. He walked back over to my house with me and he was the one that found it on the bumper. Geez, did I get a chewing out, but he let me continue to use the level.

I guess it didn't surprise me so much the level didn't fall off the bumper. What shocked me was nobody stole it while the car was parked in the Home Depot parking lot.

robbobster · Apr 4, 2005

Back in high school I had a 66 Alfa Guilia Sprint GT that would intermittently shower my feet with sparks when it rained. Never did find out the source of the sparks...too many other problems to worry about with that car!

Like when the engine died in the mountains. And a mobile mecahnic, who was deaf, said it sounded like a fuel problem. And I'm thinking, "Dude, you're deaf. Sounds like a fuel problem?" At any rate, he was right, my tank's pickup was clogged with gunk.

This one is similar to the Caddy story above (with the 1.5 millivolt voltage drop...)
A friend had a Lincoln Mark VIII. Would intermittently die, would not restart for sometimes several days, sometimes right away.

2 MONTHS at the dealership (he was given an identical loaner car), and it was discovered that a little LED indicator for the PRNDL on the center-console-gearshift gate went out. Since the indicator was duplicated in the gauge cluster, it was never really missed. But it was cited as the source for his problem.

Didn't really matter, though, because immediately afterwards it was a lemon-law buyback.

eljefino · Apr 4, 2005

quote:

Ever since I bought my '03 Golf, 4 times in 2 years I have gone out ot my car in the morning to find my windows all the way down (I close my windows every time I leave my car). The windows are power so I am assuming it is one of the control modules freaking out.

Did you ever see that VW ad on tv where the guy rolled his windows down by holding the key in a certain position in the driver's door lock? (while standing outside) The wiring or switch near the lock cylinder could be the source of your problem.

Mike_dup1 · Apr 5, 2005

Heard about this on radio this am (JB & Billy).

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Stories of wierd car problems

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