Share your worst car day ever stories
10-31-2014, 10:01 AM
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2012 E350 sedan
Share your worst car day ever stories
Was reading HifiDude's story and, while I sympathize, it's not very high on my worst car day ever list. So let's share some tales of woe. I'll provide 2.
First, the E350m is my wife's car as I have been driving Audi TT roadsters since 2001. I bought my newest TT about 2 years ago. I had it about 2 months and parked in the street in front of a friend's house in a suburban housing development. As I was walking to his door I heard a crash. A bozo up the street was driving his pick-up backwards and plowed into my parked car, crushing the front end back to the radiator! His truck was equipped with a back-up collision warning sensor but since he could not see anything out his rear window (that was half obscured by a tool chest), he assumed it was a malfunction and kept on going. $8K in damage, thankfully no frame damage, and I had to sue him (and won) for $7K in diminished value. He was backing up because he was too lazy to do a 3 point turn to get to the nearby intersection.
My second was about 5 years ago. I was driving my raodster up a mountain in Nowhere Utah on a Friday on my way to a day of skiing. I rounded a blind curve and saw a 6" round chunk of what I hoped was ice in the middle of my lane. Unfortunately it was solid rock that I could not avoid so I stradled it, heard a "bang", and my engine oil warning light came on immediately. I pulled over with a cloud of oil smoke. There was no cell service so I walked 2 miles to the nearest occupied cabin and called AAA. An hour later, the tow truck arrived from the only repair shop in the county. After getting it on a lift, the huge hole in the oil pan was obvious. Being Firday and an hour away from any auto parts store and 4 hours away from an Audi/VW dealer, the mechanic said he could probably fix my car by Tuesday!!!
Then the mechanic remembered that someone in Nowhere worked at that VW dealership. He called him and the dealership had the pan so the guy brought it with him when he left work. I offered the mechaninc a $100 tip if he would fix the car that night. He did and I made it home. Insurance paid for the repair. It was one of my worst and luckiest days.
First, the E350m is my wife's car as I have been driving Audi TT roadsters since 2001. I bought my newest TT about 2 years ago. I had it about 2 months and parked in the street in front of a friend's house in a suburban housing development. As I was walking to his door I heard a crash. A bozo up the street was driving his pick-up backwards and plowed into my parked car, crushing the front end back to the radiator! His truck was equipped with a back-up collision warning sensor but since he could not see anything out his rear window (that was half obscured by a tool chest), he assumed it was a malfunction and kept on going. $8K in damage, thankfully no frame damage, and I had to sue him (and won) for $7K in diminished value. He was backing up because he was too lazy to do a 3 point turn to get to the nearby intersection.
My second was about 5 years ago. I was driving my raodster up a mountain in Nowhere Utah on a Friday on my way to a day of skiing. I rounded a blind curve and saw a 6" round chunk of what I hoped was ice in the middle of my lane. Unfortunately it was solid rock that I could not avoid so I stradled it, heard a "bang", and my engine oil warning light came on immediately. I pulled over with a cloud of oil smoke. There was no cell service so I walked 2 miles to the nearest occupied cabin and called AAA. An hour later, the tow truck arrived from the only repair shop in the county. After getting it on a lift, the huge hole in the oil pan was obvious. Being Firday and an hour away from any auto parts store and 4 hours away from an Audi/VW dealer, the mechanic said he could probably fix my car by Tuesday!!!
Then the mechanic remembered that someone in Nowhere worked at that VW dealership. He called him and the dealership had the pan so the guy brought it with him when he left work. I offered the mechaninc a $100 tip if he would fix the car that night. He did and I made it home. Insurance paid for the repair. It was one of my worst and luckiest days.
11-01-2014, 08:06 AM
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2012 CLS63
the day I bought a Volvo........just went to s-h-I-t after that
11-01-2014, 10:00 AM
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2013 ML 550, CLK63 AMG, 2012 E350 4MATIC
As a highschool senior nearing graduation, my girlfriends parents gave me a bottle of Jim Beam as a gift. I don't even remember why the hell her parents would do this....but we weren't drinking when we had the accident.
coming over a small rise with a corner, slick roads with some leaves on it, the car slid to the right...caught and swung all the back to the left...entering the woods broadside to my door....a tree to the rear passenger door, a tree to the front quarter panel, and a small limb in through the window.
we were remarkably uninjured. We climbed out and threw a whole bottle of beam into the woods, walked to a house, used the phone to call home, no answer. so I went back and with the help of the homeowner drove the car out. I drove home and told my folks I'd wrecked the car...as long as no one was hurt we'd talk about it in the morning.
I parked the car with the passenger side facing the house, my mom looked out and said "it doesn't look bad"....my dad walked out, walked around the other side and through the window I saw him fall to the ground.
They didn't total the car! an 81 buick skylark, it took a month to fix...a year later I was flying down a dirt road I'd driven dozens of times before.I rounded a corner and discovered a fresh five yard pile of sand in the middle of the road, which I drove straight through. I emptied the airbox out! but a month later the carb cracked in half. my mechanic called it terminal, that the entire block was f*cked by the sand. On my way home from the garage, an old lady rear ended me! I had the car towed from the scene to the junkyard and got something like $3k for a car I was driving to the junkyard anyway.
coming over a small rise with a corner, slick roads with some leaves on it, the car slid to the right...caught and swung all the back to the left...entering the woods broadside to my door....a tree to the rear passenger door, a tree to the front quarter panel, and a small limb in through the window.
we were remarkably uninjured. We climbed out and threw a whole bottle of beam into the woods, walked to a house, used the phone to call home, no answer. so I went back and with the help of the homeowner drove the car out. I drove home and told my folks I'd wrecked the car...as long as no one was hurt we'd talk about it in the morning.
I parked the car with the passenger side facing the house, my mom looked out and said "it doesn't look bad"....my dad walked out, walked around the other side and through the window I saw him fall to the ground.
They didn't total the car! an 81 buick skylark, it took a month to fix...a year later I was flying down a dirt road I'd driven dozens of times before.I rounded a corner and discovered a fresh five yard pile of sand in the middle of the road, which I drove straight through. I emptied the airbox out! but a month later the carb cracked in half. my mechanic called it terminal, that the entire block was f*cked by the sand. On my way home from the garage, an old lady rear ended me! I had the car towed from the scene to the junkyard and got something like $3k for a car I was driving to the junkyard anyway.
11-01-2014, 10:41 AM
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2012 CLS63
buick skylark?
Last edited by hyperion667; 11-01-2014 at 10:46 AM.
11-01-2014, 11:04 AM
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2013 ML 550, CLK63 AMG, 2012 E350 4MATIC
buick skylark?
Makes my motor run! - YouTube
Makes my motor run! - YouTube
11-01-2014, 01:20 PM
#7
Worst day with my w212 was closing the garage door on the trunk. It made me sick. I was getting some work done on my house and the guys left a bucket in my garage. I had gone to the store and came back in and the parking sensor beeped so I thought it was good. Totally forgot about the bucket and was distracted by opening the thing I bought when I noticed my garage door reversed. I looked over at my car and realized how far back from the wall it was. It still makes me a little sick thinking about how stupid it was.
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11-01-2014, 02:20 PM
#9
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2012 E350 sedan
Black cloud over that one. Incredible
As a highschool senior nearing graduation, my girlfriends parents gave me a bottle of Jim Beam as a gift. I don't even remember why the hell her parents would do this....but we weren't drinking when we had the accident.
coming over a small rise with a corner, slick roads with some leaves on it, the car slid to the right...caught and swung all the back to the left...entering the woods broadside to my door....a tree to the rear passenger door, a tree to the front quarter panel, and a small limb in through the window.
we were remarkably uninjured. We climbed out and threw a whole bottle of beam into the woods, walked to a house, used the phone to call home, no answer. so I went back and with the help of the homeowner drove the car out. I drove home and told my folks I'd wrecked the car...as long as no one was hurt we'd talk about it in the morning.
I parked the car with the passenger side facing the house, my mom looked out and said "it doesn't look bad"....my dad walked out, walked around the other side and through the window I saw him fall to the ground.
They didn't total the car! an 81 buick skylark, it took a month to fix...a year later I was flying down a dirt road I'd driven dozens of times before.I rounded a corner and discovered a fresh five yard pile of sand in the middle of the road, which I drove straight through. I emptied the airbox out! but a month later the carb cracked in half. my mechanic called it terminal, that the entire block was f*cked by the sand. On my way home from the garage, an old lady rear ended me! I had the car towed from the scene to the junkyard and got something like $3k for a car I was driving to the junkyard anyway.
coming over a small rise with a corner, slick roads with some leaves on it, the car slid to the right...caught and swung all the back to the left...entering the woods broadside to my door....a tree to the rear passenger door, a tree to the front quarter panel, and a small limb in through the window.
we were remarkably uninjured. We climbed out and threw a whole bottle of beam into the woods, walked to a house, used the phone to call home, no answer. so I went back and with the help of the homeowner drove the car out. I drove home and told my folks I'd wrecked the car...as long as no one was hurt we'd talk about it in the morning.
I parked the car with the passenger side facing the house, my mom looked out and said "it doesn't look bad"....my dad walked out, walked around the other side and through the window I saw him fall to the ground.
They didn't total the car! an 81 buick skylark, it took a month to fix...a year later I was flying down a dirt road I'd driven dozens of times before.I rounded a corner and discovered a fresh five yard pile of sand in the middle of the road, which I drove straight through. I emptied the airbox out! but a month later the carb cracked in half. my mechanic called it terminal, that the entire block was f*cked by the sand. On my way home from the garage, an old lady rear ended me! I had the car towed from the scene to the junkyard and got something like $3k for a car I was driving to the junkyard anyway.
11-02-2014, 01:04 AM
#10
Worst day with my w212 was closing the garage door on the trunk. It made me sick. I was getting some work done on my house and the guys left a bucket in my garage. I had gone to the store and came back in and the parking sensor beeped so I thought it was good. Totally forgot about the bucket and was distracted by opening the thing I bought when I noticed my garage door reversed. I looked over at my car and realized how far back from the wall it was. It still makes me a little sick thinking about how stupid it was.
11-02-2014, 05:46 AM
#11
I can't. Too embarrassed to show anyone. It's really not that bad, just one of those little f ups that drives me nuts. I touched up the major scratches and it's hard for most people including me to notice. There are still some hairline scratches. I need to take it to a detailer or hit it with the clay bar. On a sunny day when the sun hits it just right, you can see it.
11-02-2014, 07:07 AM
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worst Benz story for me was merging onto a highway(I-40) and a work truck wouldn't let me merge and I ended up side swiping him: lost my side mirror and scraped up the drivers side......cost me 5K to repair and I also had to have the side mirror re-wired because I had the glowing side mirror mod on that car (E550)......
money came out of my own pocket and the accident was deemed to be my fault.....but the other party never made a claim so I guess I was fortunate for that part
money came out of my own pocket and the accident was deemed to be my fault.....but the other party never made a claim so I guess I was fortunate for that part
11-02-2014, 09:18 AM
#13
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I have been quite lucky with my 20+ years of travel for work. Only remember two incidences.
One was a flat tire on a rental car in Montreal area in Canada. No biggie as the car had a spare and 30 min later I was going again.
But the second incident was not that easy. Used to own a Crown Victoria. Nice soft "boat" for highway driving until it blew a spark plug when out of town on a trip. Late night and the car barely moved. Guess the missing plug messed up the vacuum so bad the remaining 7 cylinders could not work properly either.
Limped it about 7 miles to a hotel next to a Ford dealer and took it in next morning. $1800 estimate for replacing the head.
They gave me a loaner and I start driving but after about one mile out I thought "Why not put a whole new engine in it instead of one head?". I liked the car that had 114000 miles on it. It looked like new. The only places you could see it was used were the steering wheel and the driver's seat.
So, turned around and told the dealer to get a new engine for it, $5000.
Got the car back a week later but then started thinking about the blown spark plug. Did some internet search and realized this was not just one incident. Just google "blown spark plug" and you'll see. This has happened to tens of thousands of Ford owners. If I had known this I would not have elected to swap the whole engine. Now I had a car with a new engine that could spit a spark plug at any time as had happened to some people after less than 20000 miles on a brand new car.
I could not drive with a risk of being stranded on a road as it could happen in the middle of nowhere in middle of the night. I was devoted Ford driver until this experience but have not even thought of getting another one since. I got me a Tahoe that I drove for five years. It had its issues but nothing to leave me on the road.
And for the icing on the cake, the spark plug on the CV blew three days before Christmas.
One was a flat tire on a rental car in Montreal area in Canada. No biggie as the car had a spare and 30 min later I was going again.
But the second incident was not that easy. Used to own a Crown Victoria. Nice soft "boat" for highway driving until it blew a spark plug when out of town on a trip. Late night and the car barely moved. Guess the missing plug messed up the vacuum so bad the remaining 7 cylinders could not work properly either.
Limped it about 7 miles to a hotel next to a Ford dealer and took it in next morning. $1800 estimate for replacing the head.
They gave me a loaner and I start driving but after about one mile out I thought "Why not put a whole new engine in it instead of one head?". I liked the car that had 114000 miles on it. It looked like new. The only places you could see it was used were the steering wheel and the driver's seat.
So, turned around and told the dealer to get a new engine for it, $5000.
Got the car back a week later but then started thinking about the blown spark plug. Did some internet search and realized this was not just one incident. Just google "blown spark plug" and you'll see. This has happened to tens of thousands of Ford owners. If I had known this I would not have elected to swap the whole engine. Now I had a car with a new engine that could spit a spark plug at any time as had happened to some people after less than 20000 miles on a brand new car.
I could not drive with a risk of being stranded on a road as it could happen in the middle of nowhere in middle of the night. I was devoted Ford driver until this experience but have not even thought of getting another one since. I got me a Tahoe that I drove for five years. It had its issues but nothing to leave me on the road.
And for the icing on the cake, the spark plug on the CV blew three days before Christmas.
Last edited by Arrie; 11-02-2014 at 09:21 AM.
11-02-2014, 11:35 AM
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2012 E350 sedan
That really sucks - throwing money away
I have been quite lucky with my 20+ years of travel for work. Only remember two incidences.
One was a flat tire on a rental car in Montreal area in Canada. No biggie as the car had a spare and 30 min later I was going again.
But the second incident was not that easy. Used to own a Crown Victoria. Nice soft "boat" for highway driving until it blew a spark plug when out of town on a trip. Late night and the car barely moved. Guess the missing plug messed up the vacuum so bad the remaining 7 cylinders could not work properly either.
Limped it about 7 miles to a hotel next to a Ford dealer and took it in next morning. $1800 estimate for replacing the head.
They gave me a loaner and I start driving but after about one mile out I thought "Why not put a whole new engine in it instead of one head?". I liked the car that had 114000 miles on it. It looked like new. The only places you could see it was used were the steering wheel and the driver's seat.
So, turned around and told the dealer to get a new engine for it, $5000.
Got the car back a week later but then started thinking about the blown spark plug. Did some internet search and realized this was not just one incident. Just google "blown spark plug" and you'll see. This has happened to tens of thousands of Ford owners. If I had known this I would not have elected to swap the whole engine. Now I had a car with a new engine that could spit a spark plug at any time as had happened to some people after less than 20000 miles on a brand new car.
I could not drive with a risk of being stranded on a road as it could happen in the middle of nowhere in middle of the night. I was devoted Ford driver until this experience but have not even thought of getting another one since. I got me a Tahoe that I drove for five years. It had its issues but nothing to leave me on the road.
And for the icing on the cake, the spark plug on the CV blew three days before Christmas.
One was a flat tire on a rental car in Montreal area in Canada. No biggie as the car had a spare and 30 min later I was going again.
But the second incident was not that easy. Used to own a Crown Victoria. Nice soft "boat" for highway driving until it blew a spark plug when out of town on a trip. Late night and the car barely moved. Guess the missing plug messed up the vacuum so bad the remaining 7 cylinders could not work properly either.
Limped it about 7 miles to a hotel next to a Ford dealer and took it in next morning. $1800 estimate for replacing the head.
They gave me a loaner and I start driving but after about one mile out I thought "Why not put a whole new engine in it instead of one head?". I liked the car that had 114000 miles on it. It looked like new. The only places you could see it was used were the steering wheel and the driver's seat.
So, turned around and told the dealer to get a new engine for it, $5000.
Got the car back a week later but then started thinking about the blown spark plug. Did some internet search and realized this was not just one incident. Just google "blown spark plug" and you'll see. This has happened to tens of thousands of Ford owners. If I had known this I would not have elected to swap the whole engine. Now I had a car with a new engine that could spit a spark plug at any time as had happened to some people after less than 20000 miles on a brand new car.
I could not drive with a risk of being stranded on a road as it could happen in the middle of nowhere in middle of the night. I was devoted Ford driver until this experience but have not even thought of getting another one since. I got me a Tahoe that I drove for five years. It had its issues but nothing to leave me on the road.
And for the icing on the cake, the spark plug on the CV blew three days before Christmas.
Never heard of blown spark plugs before. Guess Ford invented it
11-02-2014, 10:17 PM
#15
When my Saab jumped the shark it first stranded me on the highway, with lack of main electric power.
Got towed, payed extra for the miles to my at the time workshop, only to have the guy look at the car (on the truck), trying to start it and saying he wants no part of the repair.
Payed more miles to drop it off with the Saab dealer (eek!). Which was close to where it originally broke down. By the time they looked at it power was back. I left it with them for a week and it had no problems.
Drove it home, broke down on the way, worked again after 15 mins, rolled into my garage, it never moved on its own power again.
Got towed, payed extra for the miles to my at the time workshop, only to have the guy look at the car (on the truck), trying to start it and saying he wants no part of the repair.
Payed more miles to drop it off with the Saab dealer (eek!). Which was close to where it originally broke down. By the time they looked at it power was back. I left it with them for a week and it had no problems.
Drove it home, broke down on the way, worked again after 15 mins, rolled into my garage, it never moved on its own power again.
11-02-2014, 11:08 PM
#16
MBWorld Fanatic!
I did not know about it either before it happened to me. I always thought these big V-8 engines run 250000 or so miles before they wear enough to have them replaced. What a disappointment it was when it happened and to discover the ugly truth behind it.
Ford has since changed the engine head design. The spark plugs now have way more threads than just 5 that the problem engine had.
A real eye opener with this problem was to find out that there is a company Time Cert that makes (or at least did make) a kit of tools and inserts to fix these problem engines. This kit has a tool to open the spark plug hole for the steel insert, a tapping tool to make the thread for the insert, eight steel inserts and a tool to screw the inserts in place. I don't think a company would make this kind of a fix kit if there were just a couple engines needing the fix. There were tens of thousands of them.
I bought the kit for $350 as I was seriously thinking to fix the new engine I had installed but did not have enough time to do it.
Yes, Ford invented the spark plug blowing engine.
11-03-2014, 09:38 AM
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11-03-2014, 01:45 PM
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11-03-2014, 01:55 PM
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2013 ML 550, CLK63 AMG, 2012 E350 4MATIC
I was saving my old Ford Escape Hybrid daily driver for my daughter(away at boarding school, doesnt' need a car until summer).
a sudden hybrid cooling problem (shuts the car off at speed) made the car "unsafe at any speed" and certainly not suitable for my 17yr old. Internet searches on the error code displayed a $2500-$3000 price-tag.
On Friday I gave the car to charity.
Today I received the recall notice on the hybrid cooling system
a sudden hybrid cooling problem (shuts the car off at speed) made the car "unsafe at any speed" and certainly not suitable for my 17yr old. Internet searches on the error code displayed a $2500-$3000 price-tag.
On Friday I gave the car to charity.
Today I received the recall notice on the hybrid cooling system
11-03-2014, 02:54 PM
#23
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I was saving my old Ford Escape Hybrid daily driver for my daughter(away at boarding school, doesnt' need a car until summer).
a sudden hybrid cooling problem (shuts the car off at speed) made the car "unsafe at any speed" and certainly not suitable for my 17yr old. Internet searches on the error code displayed a $2500-$3000 price-tag.
On Friday I gave the car to charity.
Today I received the recall notice on the hybrid cooling system
a sudden hybrid cooling problem (shuts the car off at speed) made the car "unsafe at any speed" and certainly not suitable for my 17yr old. Internet searches on the error code displayed a $2500-$3000 price-tag.
On Friday I gave the car to charity.
Today I received the recall notice on the hybrid cooling system
11-03-2014, 03:06 PM
#24
Super Member
I'm not sure how you can drive it... The lack of power + terrible engine noise was unbearable. Granted, I'm currently driving a 350HP V8 car with silencers on the exhaust, so there's a substantial difference in HP to weight and noise levels there.
Last edited by BeachBunny; 11-03-2014 at 03:15 PM.
11-03-2014, 07:22 PM
#25
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2014 E63S; AMS 100 octane ecu tune; edok tcu tune; BB intakes; dyno tuned
Worst benz day was a cool fall afternoon, got the weekend off from work, gunna meet my buddy out and have my perfectly cleaned, under 2500 mile 2014 E550 Palladium ... cruising along, not even too far out of my home town and as I try and cross an intersection, an idiot teenage girl TEXTING nails the left rear quarter panel and the rim/tire...
Car was totally driveable, but about $4000 in damage, rim scuffed, looks, terrible, sensors not working, and looked uuuuugly
The cop reprimanded this 16 year old who had JUST had another accident 2 months prior (now they were taking her license away), and all she wanted to know if she could get going yet to go pick her friend up from starbuck's so they could go out, they had plan. This cop looked at me and I looked at him and we both just shook our heads thinking -- so glad this isn't our kid... clue-less... wow, no remorse, no sense of ownership of her own damaged honda civic (dad owned it), no sense that she could have seriously harmed or killed someone with her texting. She even admitted to texting!! clueless!!!
To TOP all this off, this was in fall of 2013, I had purchased the 550 on special order, and they struggled to find the repair parts (new bumper design and new sensors) for weeks and put me in a Ford Fusion four-banger... yeaaaaah.... for 5 weeks -- the other person's insurance company, American Family, was phenomenal and paid for everything and the body shop was a benz recommended and certified shop that got it perfect... but it never felt the same afterwards...
Luckily Benz bought that car back and too the depreciation hit on that 550 due to the transmission issues I had been having with it.. so no overall loss to me
Car was totally driveable, but about $4000 in damage, rim scuffed, looks, terrible, sensors not working, and looked uuuuugly
The cop reprimanded this 16 year old who had JUST had another accident 2 months prior (now they were taking her license away), and all she wanted to know if she could get going yet to go pick her friend up from starbuck's so they could go out, they had plan. This cop looked at me and I looked at him and we both just shook our heads thinking -- so glad this isn't our kid... clue-less... wow, no remorse, no sense of ownership of her own damaged honda civic (dad owned it), no sense that she could have seriously harmed or killed someone with her texting. She even admitted to texting!! clueless!!!
To TOP all this off, this was in fall of 2013, I had purchased the 550 on special order, and they struggled to find the repair parts (new bumper design and new sensors) for weeks and put me in a Ford Fusion four-banger... yeaaaaah.... for 5 weeks -- the other person's insurance company, American Family, was phenomenal and paid for everything and the body shop was a benz recommended and certified shop that got it perfect... but it never felt the same afterwards...
Luckily Benz bought that car back and too the depreciation hit on that 550 due to the transmission issues I had been having with it.. so no overall loss to me
