REALY DANGEROUS FAILURES

[Dean Bibby]

At the still foolish age of 22, I bought a used 1970 Plymouth Fury I. The following summer the right tie rod dropped off while approaching a stop sign at less than walking speed. That wheel pulled right so I simply followed it onto the shoulder of the street. If this had happened at any other speed or location with other traffic around me, well you can imagine the carnage and death that would have occurred!

Have you or someone you know had a catastrophic failure?

Share your horror stories please.

In advance I thank you.
Northerndean

Present rides- summer 2000 Honda Accord 226,000 Km.
– winter 2004 Honda CR-V 190,000 Km.
COMPOSED WITH OPENOFFICE 4.1

Topic

[Chris]

I forget it was an 85 or 86 Datsun Honeybee. Going over mountain pass in serious snow storm it slowly kept losing power and the gas gauge went down like it was leaking. Eventually I figured out when the gauge was on E- that the intake in the grill had sucked in so much snow it made the air cleaner totally wet and very little air was getting to the motor. I removed the air cleaner and of course it ran like a champ. I get paid if you use this in a movie. 🙂

EDIT
I suppose I should describe the danger. The snow was feet deep on the sides at the top of the pass and the road had not been plowed since the storm started. It was up to a foot deep in some places. This is White Pass on Hwy 12 in Washington in the 80’s. There had been no signs. When I got to the bottom of the east side and figured out the air cleaner issue I was still many miles from a gas station and the snow was now 18 inches on the flats down there. When I did make it to a gas station I was informed that the pass had been closed before I ever exited I5 but no one had bothered to put up a sign.

[Author]

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