If vehicle accidents upset you, please do not read this thread. This thread is meant to be amusing and in some cases relatable so it's not written to upset or frighten.
Open to posts!
Been noticing a trend recently in my life, and decided to tell the whole unfolding story xD
Let me know if you want to be Pinged with updates, my misfortune doesn't seem to end!
Feel free to post your vehicle trouble stories! (make sure to keep fear or anything else PG or lower please)
As any typical college student, I can't afford a brand new car, so the vehicle(s) I drive are usually as old as I am or more. I do think that if this little fact was different, many of these things wouldn't have happened, but I've learned a lot about cars thanks to these adventures!
To start at the beginning: A friend (lets call her Emma, that's a pretty common name :P) had a car a tad newer than mine (2014) and her transmission went out. About 2 months later her father's car's transmission also died! She laughs this off as a 'transmission curse'.
We meet up for a week, since she lives out of town, and I manage to kill the battery on my car (by leaving the headlights on I'm ashamed to say). I think my car used to have an alert for when you leave the headlights on, but it must have broken during the time of the previous owner. Might invest in getting that fixed, or sticky notes!
At the start of the school year, she moves to my town and I give her a tour in my car (2004, automatic transmission thankfully). I've had a few struggles adjusting to the vehicle as the new owner so I didn't over read into it when little things happen before then. But unfortunately for me, after we had gotten ice cream, my car just refuses to accelerate or reverse. Now I was in a parking spot slanted down to the street. Thankfully I could still brake and when I realized I couldn't accelerate, braked, half in and half out of my spot. After a confused call with my mother (who is anything but a mechanic <3) My friend has to get out of the car and literally push me back into my spot and out of the street (after I shifted into neutral of course). It was extremely amusing for the two of us, never thought it would have been that easy for her. I shut the car off, turn it back on two times, and the third try I wait ten minutes, and all is working again. (This also happened in the mini van when she was with me, but only managed to push it six inches up the incline xD) No trouble for the next month or so, other than me yet again killing my battery and needing a jump from some nice stranger in the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop. (I always carry jumper cables in my trunk)
Probably about a month and a half after the last time I killed it, I drive to church, and everything is running perfectly fine. No issues, nothing. After service I come out and pull out of the parking lot. I accelerate (speed limit 45) and my RPMs shoot up but my MPH sits at 20. I hit the emergency flashers and pull into the nearest residential street. Another panicked call to my mother reveals nothing, and I keep trying turning it off, back on, etc. Luckily my grandfather was nearby, and I park in his lot and he takes a look at it. Gas is fine, oil is fine, fluids are fine (as ironic as it sounds, I am good at managing the reoccurring needs of my car xD) he tries to take it back onto the main street (Speed limit 40) and runs into the same issue. After getting scared he was about to get hit by someone on their phone who didn't see his flashers, he pulls back into the lot and gives me a ride home. My car is towed to a mechanic that he knows, but unfortunately it takes this guy 8 whole lengthy weeks to fix it. 8 weeks. No car. It was painfully long. And all he needed to do was swap out the broken transmission for a new one. I jokingly tell my mother I could have done it in less time, and I'm barley more mechanically skilled than her. I call up my friend Emma on the phone and she tells me about the transmission curse and claims it's from letting her in my car. The curse lives on to this day with three vehicle victims. xD
But finally, the day comes and I get my car back! Anyways, I commute to my university, it's about a 15-20 minute drive there, daily. (Gas prices are so not my favorite.) Being on the road so much, it was only a matter of time before something happened. Unfortunately for me, it had to be less than a whole month when I absolutely completely totaled my car (2-3 times its worth!!!) *inward cringes, outward sobbing* (To add insult to injury, I had filled up the gas tank the night before!) Thankfully there were no injuries, and lucky for the other vehicle they were almost completely unscathed. My driving record was completley clean before this.
I had been driving a very very busy road near an even busier intersection. Everyone is bumper to bumper, but we are all going ten under the speed limit. (speed limit 45) The light turns yellow and the sportscar in front of me (who had entered the crosswalk just before it turned yellow) slams on his breaks thinking he's not going to make it. I was unfortunately too close and didn't get the chance to hit the brakes before I slam into him, shoving him out of the crosswalk and into the intersection. We get out of our cars tentatively, and I get on the phone with the non emergency police. And get this next part: As I'm standing there, in the next lane over, another vehicle does the exact same thing I had just done. Within two minutes of me doing it!!!
(I tried to see a few days later if the cameras on that intersection were accessible to the public for obvious reasons. They are, but not so luckily they are livestream only. Sad.)
My car had lost power steering so it was difficult to pull into the closest lot, but I manage. The front looks like it caved in like plastic, my headlight(s?) are shattered in pieces in the crosswalk, I'm clearly leaking radiator fluid, my frame got shoved back down the whole thing, yet somehow my airbags didn't go off, considering the state of the car that's kind of a miracle. All of my stuff got flung forward, change, backpack, stuff in the trunk, everything. Another miracle though: The sportscar I hit got out of it with a few mere scratches. Nothing else! My engine is lower, and sportscars trunks are high to keep the front low to the ground (It's a sports car thing) so I didn't hit anything important either. The guy was super nice about the whole thing, he lives around my neighborhood and also commutes, but to work. Needless to say I didn't go to class that day. My mother comes and picks me up, and my grandfather drives the car (Remember: no power steering) to my driveway where I will have to decide what to do with it.
(Also remember: the front looks destroyed, like I hit a train) My grandfather's comment when he gets it there is my favorite: "It's funny how fast people get out of the way when they see that coming!"
I browse vehicles for sale but can't really find anything that suits my needs and price range. There is a college near my city that uses broken vehicles to teach their students about cars, and will fix up the cars for price of parts only, no labor fee. I decide I want my beloved car back. That brings the price of fixing it down significantly, only totaled now, not 2-3 times the worth xD. Unfortunately I will have to wait at least 4 months. So now I've got no car, and school on Monday. My mother, ever so gracious, lets me borrow her van for school. <3 thanks mom <3
There are no problems for two months. This vehicle has an alert when you leave the headlights on xD which I recently fixed for her. But now for the most recent event. There is a snowstorm and cold front coming my way, but tomorrow is the first day of 2022 so I want to be with my friends. It's new years eve, I'm at a celebration far across town with friends, I had absolutely no problems getting there. I leave the celebration at around 1:30 AM. I get a minute away and I start hearing this thudding noise. I reason that maybe something's frozen and driving might heat it up enough to resolve the issue. A minute later and the van starts shaking and then thudding. Accelerating is not an option and if this keeps up, neither is getting home. I pull over into a grocery store parking lot and get out of the vehicle to see what's wrong. (It's negative ten degrees F by the way, and the sharp wind is making it worse) I look and behold, my tire is absolutely shredded. Gapping holes, rim exposed, the whole thing. It's literally after 1:30 AM, no sane person is awake. My mother is asleep so I call my dad (who is currently on the other side of the world, so it was only like 11:30 AM for him) and tell him the situation.
"I've never changed a tire before but if you're willing to walk me through it, I'm willing to try." My phone keeps dying from the cold, I keep having to call him back, I keep having to get in the van and warm myself up, it was really freezing cold.
Thankfully, before I get too far, a friend who had been at the same party I just was answers my call and is able to come pick me up and drive me home. I make it there just before 3 AM. The next morning my mom makes the amusing comment that "cars keep disappearing when you drive them" because the car I totaled is still gone and now the van is too. My grandfather picks me up and we go together to go change the tire. (It's four degrees then rather then the -10 it was earlier, but now there is snow on the ground). The van has the spare underneath it, you are supposed to rotate the bolt and the spare tire will lower on a cord. Well, It doesn't lower. We shake it, kick it, turn it, hit it, nothing works. So my grandfather calls his mechanic friend who comes over to help. He also can't get it down, and has to go back to his house to get a crowbar, which he uses and finally gets it down. Thankfully my rim is okay!!! But to this day, I never found my hubcap.
That was late Saturday so stores were closed, and Sundays they are closed too. Monday through Wednesday we also don't get to changing the spare (which are supposed to have a 30-45 mile limit on them). So I drive a bit past my comfort zone with the spare (probably about 60 miles) till we finally take it in and just buy two new front tires. As of today everything is now fine, and I have some great stories to tell people! Hoping to get my car back by April, and not need to borrow the van anymore.
(If you want pictures of the totaled vehicle or shredded tire, shoot me a PM!) |
