:firedevil Power Steering Fire :firedevil

My power steering line went bad on my Lude last year. It was a hot day and I was going home from class.

I get to the gas station, and my car is smoking babdly. The power steering line is directly above the header, power steering fluid leaked on the header, causing a fire, at a gas station. :banghead: At this point, i'm scared shitless.

Luckily, I have a jug of water in the trunk and I was able to dash it on the fire.

I'm sure you guys have some stories, so do tell. :)

Twice:

in the same spot:

2 different vehicles

comming around a corner(sharp 90*) and my truck stalls. the engine dies and i do a 180 in a flash. heading backwards towards a bus-stop and stopp within inches. no rhyme or reason just happened.

the first time was in a 1981 ford f100(carb/I-6/auto), the second was in my current truck a 1993 f150(5.0/fi/auto). The F150 stalled after spinning and gettig the converter messed up by going the wrong way or something. the other truck stalled and then spun because it was ancient and no power anything after the engine was out/heavy to steer.

the first time the dudes face in the rearveiw less than 2 feet from the tailgate was like :eek:(i was going backwards in the lane that i just was going the opposite direction

The second time no one was there but my truck slid perfectly by the bus-stop sign so close it shaved the front license plate off.

I stopped at a gas station one night and noticed an orange glow coming from under my car. It looked like I had light bars under my car. I opened the hood and my header looked like it was going to melt. I was close to home and was going there anyway. Turns out my AFM was bad causing me to run rich.

My FC blew an apex seal when I started the ignition. This happened right after night class as I was about to go home

Back when I was in high school, my dad and I built a new small block (355 cu in) for the camaro that I had back then. It was nothing too crazy, ~400 hp. We just got it installed and broke in and went out to the back roads for a test run. With my dad in the car I ran it up through the gears to about 80 mph - it felt very strong and we decided that was enough so I lifted (this is where the fun begins).

The return spring on the carb somehow got wedged in the throttle cable and it stuck wide open. I slammed my foot on the pedal a couple times, but it was still stuck and we were still accelerating rapidly. I didn't want to press the clutch because it would be instant death for the new engine. No problem, I'll just turn the key off. That worked in shutting the engine off, but I discovered I could no longer steer the car at ~100mph (wheel locks when key is off). So I had to turn the key back on and guess what - off we go again!

After a couple cycles of this on/off game while slamming on the brakes I finally got the key in a position where it did not lock the wheel and the ignition was off, so I could roll to a stop. Pretty nice job driving for someone who just turned 18. That was the most scared I have ever been in a car. My dad looked a little freaked out, but he is a really cool guy who crashed a few cars in his day - so he wasn't mad, just happy everything worked out ok.

When I was in high school My CJ-7 (which already had a lawn chair for a drivers seat) wouldn't go in to any gear exept reverse after school one day, so I drove it home backwards and never lived it down lol.

When I was in high school My CJ-7 (which already had a lawn chair for a drivers seat) wouldn't go in to any gear exept reverse after school one day, so I drove it home backwards and never lived it down lol.

lol, best one yet!

it was last year.. it just after a snow storm, and the roads had been plowed, but there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. for those who dont know, snow is realllly slippery when there is just a thin layer.

so i was driving my dads van to pick up my girlfriend, and it wasnt workin well at all.. stalled a few times and sputtered badly.

so anyways i was comming home, down the main road and turning onto my street, which was a left turn. i had a commin towards me, but i had enough time to make the turn.
i went to turn, got half way thorugh, and the van stalled. i had had no power steering or breaks. all i could see was the front end of the car comming towards me, and a snow bank.

first reaction was to click it into neutral and start it... i did so, whilie cramming on the wheel. but it wouldnt turn over. peace of shit. i missed the car, and the front left wheel went a little ways into the snow bank as the van started. nothing bad... just a couple tiny scartchs

thats the worst thing thats happend to me so far

We had a ford F-250 crew cab powerstroke locked up in four low coming down a black diamond ski run in the summer to inspect a tower.

Get about half way down and hear this really loud snap and then a bunch of little pops and things grind a bit, and before the brakes could even be applied the transfer case gave out and we started free wheeling down this insane incline.

Stood on the brakes and locked the parking brake and stopped right before a cutbank for the cat-track. :eek:


Turns out that there was a plate in the transfer case with some orbital gears in it, that the factory didn't get riveted in correctly and had worked its way loose sending a bunch of little pieces rocketing around inside of there and just grenaded the whole thing. And ford wouldn't warranty it either :(

I had to drive my Mx-6 home with only 2nd gear

ABS went out on passenger side of my mx6 and spun me and I hit grass and went through a fence in my mx6 (ended up dating the daughter of the owner of the factory a few years down the road)

Got bad spark plug wires from advance auto and one caught on fire about 2 minutes after I started it

We were tuning the fd and noticed what appeared to be water from the road ... turned out to be sparks from the wiring harness burning. I had some exhaust work done a couple days before and they didn't wire the o2 sensor wires back up.

well. a long long time ago (probably when i was 8) my aunt, uncle, cousin came to NYC for vacation. ok first day we took them out to eat. it was dark, we found a spot. before my pop was finished parking (backing up into a spot in front of a cadilac or some kinda old junk). i jumped out of the van and so did my cousin (she was probably 12-13). well we we're walking to the rear of the van inbetween the van and old junk while my pop was slowly backing up. she follows me. i jump out of the incoming vans way. she didnt make it! (ROFL) so now shes being squashed by a 5200lb van tahts still in reverse. pop gets scared and accidently pushing on the gas instead of the brakes! *vrrrr* the van pushes the old junk back 4-6 inches with my cousin still between the vans bumper and the old junks front bumper. she screams. pop finally goes up and lets her free. she fell on the ground and we took her to the hospitals for xrays etc etc. that fat bitch turned out fine. but the van got a scratch on the bumper from her button. someone called 911 on our asses and the po-pos were waiting at the hospital for us. uncle and aunt didnt press charges thank god.

it was last year.. it just after a snow storm, and the roads had been plowed, but there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. for those who dont know, snow is realllly slippery when there is just a thin layer.

so i was driving my dads van to pick up my girlfriend, and it wasnt workin well at all.. stalled a few times and sputtered badly.

so anyways i was comming home, down the main road and turning onto my street, which was a left turn. i had a commin towards me, but i had enough time to make the turn.
i went to turn, got half way thorugh, and the van stalled. i had had no power steering or breaks. all i could see was the front end of the car comming towards me, and a snow bank.

first reaction was to click it into neutral and start it... i did so, whilie cramming on the wheel. but it wouldnt turn over. peace of shit. i missed the car, and the front left wheel went a little ways into the snow bank as the van started. nothing bad... just a couple tiny scartchs

thats the worst thing thats happend to me so far

Why didn't you just ride her beast ass back home?

one time i drove a honda...i got it for free...i drove it into a snowbank at 30mph and got stuck for a good half hour. it was fun

http://www.fortresshalo.com/wlan/gallery/albums/album03/poopsd_001.sized.jpg

http://www.fortresshalo.com/wlan/gallery/albums/album03/poopsd_011.sized.jpg

as you can see...i didnt get far in before the car came to a complete stop...but it was pretty tough trying to get out...im so glad i drive an rx-7 now...that honda sucked balls

lol we got the exact same accord too ( for free from a relative! 120000 something miles). we had it for a few days and gave it away, it was a total POS. original red paint btw.

I personally don't have any good stories.

However, a guy my roommate introduced me to liked to take his 88 Camry off-road.

One day he did so, and fourth gear stopped working (manual). He took it to a shop, got it up on the lift, and the mechanic said: "Well... here's your problem!" and removed a large pine branch fron the linkage.

two work trucks in two days both threw timing belts.3800 in repair costs between the two.boss still gives me crap about it.

One day my boss at a volvo shop i worked at told me to "go drive the shit out of that car, its got water in the exaust and runs like shit". i changes the plugs and did the work. Out on the roda i made that car my bitch like you wouldnt beleive and when i was on the way back i hear...BOOM-Bom-taktaktaktakticiticticticthompthomp...

the rod was hanging throughthe side of the engine and two pistons were done. My boss didnt say anything about it but later fired me for using the financial excuse. he told me prior never to question him and so i didnt. i destroyed that car without trying cause it was needing to die. he didnt find it as funny as i did.

this happened while I was up working on a ski area, and it wasn't me that did it either:


a guy was coming down the mountain in an offroad forklift, and had happened to leave it in four wheel steer mode. He hadn't washed the winshield in a few months either (it being up on the mountain, no one really worried about it). He came around a corner up on the mountain and into the sunlight, momentarily blinding him. He didn't turn the forklift sharp enough and the front wheel went off the side fo the raod... but when he corrected, because it was in four wheel steering mode, the rear wheel went off the side of the road as well.

This road is cut into the face of a double black diamond run (those skiers and boarders out there know how steep this is, and they are whay gnarlier in the summer), and down he went. It flipped five or six times on its way down, the only reason it stopped was because it blew a tire and augered the wheel into the soft face of the run.

The guy walked away from it with only a broken pelvis.